The shocking scale of spending Solyndra lavished on the factory it started building alongside Interstate 880 in Fremont, California, has been revealed.
When it was completed at an estimated cost of $733 million, including proceeds from the company's $535 million U.S. loan guarantee, it covered 300,000 sq ft, the equivalent of five football fields.
It had robots that whistled Disney tunes, spa-like showers with liquid-crystal displays of the water temperature, and glass-walled conference rooms.
John Pierce, 54, a San Jose resident who worked as a facilities manager at Solyndra, said: 'The new building is like the Taj Mahal.'
Designed to make far more solar panels than Solyndra got orders for, the site is now empty and U.S. taxpayers may be stuck with it.
Solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection on September 6, leaving in its wake investigations by Congress and the FBI.
