By Lena Babaeva Coradini

The New York Times has an interesting piece on the evolving solar energy industry.  Focusing on Puertollano, Spain, the article describes how the city went from solar boom to bust in a few short years due to inefficient, poorly designed solar plants and unsustainable governmet subsidies:

In September the government abruptly changed course, cutting payments and capping solar construction. Puertollano’s brief boom turned bust. Factories and stores shut, thousands of workers lost jobs, foreign companies and banks abandoned contracts that had already been negotiated.

All is not lost in Puertollano, however:

Even with the reduced incentives and local economic downturn, the solar industry gave Puertollano something of a face-lift and, potentially, a new economic future. Research institutes there are developing cutting-edge technologies. Unemployment, though now up around 10 percent, has not returned to the 20 percent figure. The city is home to a number of solar businesses: a new 50-megawatt thermal-solar plant owned by the Spanish energy giant Iberdrola created hundreds of jobs.