Shock: Solyndra Caught Destroying Millions of Dollars Worth of Parts

Solyndra is officially the scandal that keeps on giving.

After receiving a generous federal loan guarantee and then filing for bankruptcy, the Fremont solar company still owes American taxpayers half a billion dollars.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it would appear the Solyndra scandal has taken a turn for the worse.

A San Francisco-based CBS affiliate has just released shocking video of Solyndra employees destroying millions of dollars worth of parts.

“At Solyndra’s sprawling complex in Fremont, workers in white jumpsuits were unwrapping brand new glass tubes used in solar panels last week,”  CBS San Francisco reports. “They are the latest, most cutting-edge solar technology, and they are being thrown into dumpsters.”

See the CBS San Francisco news brief:

Solyndra paid at least $2 million for the specialized glass, according to the CBS report. In fact, the solar energy company still owes the German manufacturer of the tubes close to another $8 million.

Why would a company that owes a fortune to creditors indiscriminately destroy millions of dollars worth of assets?

“Solyndra is not commenting,” reports CBS San Francisco. “But court documents reveal the company received permission from the bankruptcy trustee to abandon the high grade glass, the court agreeing that it was of ‘inconsequential value’ because the cost of storing them exceeds their value.’”

An employee for Heritage Global Partners, the company in charge of selling Solyndra’s assets, told CBS 5 they conducted an “exhaustive search for buyers but no one wanted them.”

Apparently, the “exhaustive research” wasn’t all that exhaustive. For instance, the glass tubes were never included on the list of Solyndra assets put up for sale at two auctions last year.

Furthermore, investors have come forward and said that they would have gladly bought the glass tubes from Solyndra.

“We certainly would have bid on them, yes,” David Lucky told CBS 5. Lucky specializes in buying and reselling manufacturing equipment and components.

In fact, when Solyndra shut down last year, Lucky purchased hundreds of their fully assembled solar panels sold them on eBay.

“Our company has bought a lot of stuff over the years. Truck loads and warehouses full of inventory that companies were just ready to send to the dump, because they don’t want to take the time to find markets for it,” he said.

 President Obama tours the Solyndra factory (Source: Paul Chinn/Pool via Getty) Images

So much for that "exhaustive research."

One final point: CBS 5 apparently called the German company that made the glass tubes to see if it would have wanted the parts back. Considering the fact that Solyndra still owes it millions of dollars, the European company might have been interested in recouping some of its losses.

The German manufacturers were just as surprised as CBS when they learned Solyndra had decided to destroy the parts.

(H/T Weasel Zippers)