Evergreen Solar ought to be enjoying the solar boom going on right now. Yet last week's results are not going down too well.

With their string ribbon low silicon technology, they should be well-positioned to emerge as a front-runner supplier, given the current capacity constraints in high-grade silicon supply. And yet the curiosity is that high silicon prices have not driven demand to seek low or non-silicon solar sources like Evergreen's or thin-film / amorphous pv, made supposedly cheaper through a continuous manufacturing run.

So I would like to controversially suggest that the real vilain in this story - why solar prices aren't falling - is government; internationally, solar pv support by government has exceeded the benefits in investing in low or zero silicon-based alternatives that have all the potential to bring down solar prices.

A classic unintended consequence of government interference if ever there was one.