In 2009 the federal government guaranteed $535 million in loans to Solyndra, a California maker of solar panels. In September 2011 the company filed for bankruptcy. The investigations that followed found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing or political corruption.
The failure became a political issue for years. The Energy Department’s loan program was put “on ice.” In 2021 it was still sitting on $44 billion in loans and guarantees that Congress had authorized but no one had used.