He heard evidence from Allison Fox, of Manx National Heritage, who examined the ingot.
Then people started making the ingot in the purity and quantities that solar required.
Silicon ingot, from which you can slice off the wafers to make solar cells, has become much cheaper.
And that is the situation the silicon ingot business was in as Solyndra started up and went into production.
FORBES: The Solyndra Report and the Real Benefits and Problems With Their Technology
There's no marginal utility in warehoused gold although I guess you can make an ingot into a door stop.
He literally broke the molds for his reliable ingot casting line and replaced them with more efficient, if less dependable, continuous casters.
Plenty of central banks issue them as a sideline (although a simple ingot, if you can afford one, is better value).
However, the price of that ingot of silicon has also been falling.
FORBES: Noahpinion's Two Errors About Free Trade: Yes, Unilateral Free Trade Is The Answer
Ms Fox said the ingot would have originally been used as currency.
After all, an ingot of silicon is made by taking beach sand and a bit of energy: add a bit of care and attention and there you are.
FORBES: Noahpinion's Two Errors About Free Trade: Yes, Unilateral Free Trade Is The Answer
We get more wafers out of our great big ingot of silicon and thus, if silicon stays static in price then the price of each wafer should be falling.
FORBES: Noahpinion's Two Errors About Free Trade: Yes, Unilateral Free Trade Is The Answer
An inquest ruled that the 20g ingot, found by John Crowe in October 2009 in a field in Andreas, is the property of the Queen, the Lord of Mann.
Last week GT Solar ( SOLR), a global provider of polysilicon production technology, crystalline ingot growth systems and related photovoltaic manufacturing services for the solar industry, announced that it had acquired privately-held Crystal Systems.
Although the bronze brooch part would not be of the same value, because it was found alongside the ingot it means they are both likely to be historically valuable - so it was declared treasure trove too.
BBC: NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | State is taking 'Viking treasure'
If silicon had remained high priced it might even have worked: but as they were ramping up production into a world where the raw silicon ingot had just fallen to 10% of its previous price they were doomed.
FORBES: Noahpinion's Two Errors About Free Trade: Yes, Unilateral Free Trade Is The Answer
At the risk of being too simplistic to make silicon wafers, which is what you use to make computer chips and solar cells, you take a great big ingot of very pure silicon metal and then slice it very thinly.
FORBES: Noahpinion's Two Errors About Free Trade: Yes, Unilateral Free Trade Is The Answer
应用推荐