DOE Loan Guarantee Program Success!

Speaking of the stimulus plan and DOE grants/loan guarantees, Earth2Tech points us to this interesting development.  Apparently the CIGS thin film solar company, Solyndra, has garnered the first DOE loan guarantee (a whopping $535m!) for its new manufacturing plant.  The Company says the loan will help finance over 70% of the costs for the 500MW facility.  According to the CEO, this has been in the works since fall 2008, when Solyndra was one of 8 finalists, and is a substitute for the $350m of equity they were trying to raise, around that same time (perhaps valuations were shrinking back then more than I previously thought?)

I've heard that Solyndra has quite the backlog ($1bn+), but to date, they haven't delivered much on those contracts from what I can tell.  This money, along with the $600m that they've raised previously, should jump start those production efforts.

The Company claims a number of advantages to their products, including ease of installation, reduced problems with wind, increased panel density, etc.  I wonder what their power output / cost would look like compared to a 1-axis SunPower tracking system with a comparable footprint...