Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison just resigned, as the controversy stubbornly refuses to go away. Seems worth revisiting the loans once again, since I've spent a little time looking more deeply at the program over the past few days.

Supporters of these programs claim that they're a necessary part of winning the green future because these are investments that are too risky, or too big, for private capital to take on.

Of course, if the government is going to be a VC, supporters say, they have to expect a high failure rate . There's a lot of talk about the manufacturing " Valley of Death ", where startup manufacturing firms may have difficulty getting capital to commercialize their prototypes. According to proponents of this theory, there's plenty of money for early stage ventures, and plenty of bank loans for established firms, but no money for mass commercialization of new manufacturing ideas. (Hence the "valley"). This valley, they say, is especially wide for energy firms, because the capital costs for starting up are so high.





I've been somewhat skeptical of those claims--why are people pouring money into manufacturing startups if they're inevitably doomed to die at the commercialization stage? But say it's true. I thought it was worth looking at who got the money from these programs, and for what. How well is the government doing in its role of VC/valley of death sherpa?





So I went to the DOE's website and manually copied the data on the loan programs. I didn't scrutinize all of the projects--I've already spent more time on this than is probably justified. But I looked at the biggest ones. I put all the number into pretty graphs. And then I thought I'd share those graphs with you, because hell, I have them.





What I'm trying to say is, I just made my first infographic.





I know what you're thinking: "But Megan, infographics are so July 2011!" Yes, it's true: I only adopt trends when they are hoary with age. And I know what else you're thinking: "But Megan, you have the design sensibility of a blind person!" Also pitifully true. In my defense, however, I confined myself to pie charts.





Hell, I can't really defend it. I was in the grip of forces beyond my control. Anyway, here's the breakdown of where the money went: