Update 7/24/12 0612 PST, there has been no confirmation of this filing, I can’t imagine if it had been done it would take this long to post. My apologies for jumping the gun on this one.. reliable reports in the past, doesn’t mean they’ll get current and future stuff right I guess.
Update 02/2013
http://epicgreenfail.blogspot.com/2012/11/solar-energy-plant-amonix-declares.html
Reliable sources said that troubled Amonix did file for bankruptcy, I think this happened on Thursday, July 19th or prior, but I have not seen it in the news yet.
Amonoliths
Here’s a snippet I found posted on a solar site I read. The Author signs as Sam, and it’s obvious to me he has a very good understanding of AE history and the players, here’s the snippet:
“The commercial viability of technologies coming out of VC startups cannot be evaluated independent of the (often corrosive) impact of the VCs themselves. The specific goal of VCs is to go IPO and exit, not to build a stable company. These two goals do not necessarily overlap. In the case of Amonix, there is plenty of evidence from previous blogs of the usual high-flying executive nonsense (lack of expertise, lack of focus on quality, over-spend, over-promise/under-deliver, etc.) that wrecks startup after startup. A quick look at the Amonix Wikipedia entry shows that the executives in charge of Amonix were from Sunworks Solar, a failed KP-backed developer. Not a good omen.”
The question of the day? Does anyone in the DOE have this level of understanding? Are they overwhelmed by the command to shovel out Federal Reserve Notes at the rate expected by this Administration, and finding they have no time to evaluate whether the company has a viable product?
Do keep watching those Amonix 7700s in the field, the story will only get worse, and as the equipment continues to degrade at an alarming rate, we might ask.. just how did everyone involved remain so silent as junk was shoveled out the door of Flextronics?
Is there a reason to record the key players names on the Amonix tombstone, or should we allow them to slip away in silence, and join other boondoggles? Perhaps, we can round them up, and export them to countries we are less fond of.. allow them to squander the resources of our enemies? A new secret weapon?
- New-Head-Office?
There are rumors that the company has been cutting expenses everywhere, and this includes downsizing corporate offices. One person reported that Amonix is now run out of a quaint little garden shed behind a guest house in Burbank, CA, I was unable to confirm that, but share the picture sent to me.
Amonix is a larger story than Solyndra in several ways, as documented here on the pages of Utterpower and elsewhere, the DOE (NREL) appears to have partnered with Amonix on key components, it’s been somewhat of a joint venture according to some of the claims I see on the Amonix site, and the NREL site. We find pages on the DOE (NREL) website where it is mentioned that one of the people working for the NREL did leave to join Amonix.
The story yet to be told, it what this partnership produced? What’s in that field at Alamosa, Hatch, and don’t forget what Spain bought, just how is that plant working, are the power plants viable? Will they provide their owners any return on investment? will humanity gain a thing from it?
DOE!
Imagine.. every one of us knows at least one person who believes being skeptical is a bad thing, and that we need to trust Government to do the right thing.. I have no problem with them as long as they don’t vote.
And, perhaps a new word for the Utterpower Lexicon? Is DOE becoming a word equivalent to Duh?
GB