We designed a cylindrical solar panel that could capture sunlight from all angles without tracking the sun. The physics were beautiful. The economics were a disaster.
The Department of Energy gave us a $535 million loan guarantee. President Obama visited our factory. We were the poster child for green energy. Then we went bankrupt and became the poster child for government waste.
Chinese manufacturers dropped the price of flat solar panels by 75% in two years. We couldn't compete on price with our cylindrical design. The technology worked. The market chose cheaper.
We had a $6 billion pipeline of customer orders. On paper, we were thriving. In reality, every panel we sold cost more to make than we charged for it. Revenue was accelerating our death, not preventing it.
I was fired as CEO two years before the bankruptcy. The board replaced me with someone who was supposed to fix the cost structure. Nobody could fix a cost structure when your competitor's costs are falling 30% a year.
The FBI raided our offices. Congressional hearings. Criminal investigations. For a solar panel company. We didn't commit fraud — we just bet on the wrong technology at the wrong time. But try explaining that to a congressman on camera.