NEW YORK -- Solar industry executives are pushing back hard on the Solyndra story this week, telling reporters in a number of venues that the media frenzy surrounding the bankrupt company has missed key facts about their emerging energy sector.

In interviews here at the Clinton Global Initiative and during a press conference today, executives said Solyndra Inc. went south largely because the cost of silicon-based solar panels dropped off a cliff over the last few years, placing the Fremont, Calif.-based startup at a disadvantage because of its reliance on a unique, experimental design.

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Solyndra's technology differs from flat panels made of crystalline silicon, employing thin film and a cylindrical shape made of copper indium gallium diselenide. That means when the price of silicon fell and when solar panels approached $1 per watt, Solyndra had no way to compete, these executives said.

"Solar is booming, but you wouldn't necessarily know that if you've been watching the news in the last couple weeks," said Arno Harris, CEO of San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy. "Solyndra failed because of the amazing success of conventional silicon-based solar."

Harris added that he was just in Washington, D.C., and came away feeling that "way too much misinformation" about solar had started to envelop the Solyndra story. He said solar costs have dropped by 30 percent from last year and 60 percent from 2008, with the industry as a whole now employing more than 100,000 people.

"Solar now employs more Americans than coal mining or iron and steel manufacturing," Harris said.

Andrew Beebe, chief commercial officer for Suntech Power Holdings Co., a Chinese manufacturer, had a similar take from the CGI conference, where he spent the week trolling for new business and meeting with partners in developing countries. He said companies are bound to fail as the sector sorts itself out.

"Solar has become a very competitive landscape, and that's exactly what we want," he said. "Whether one or two companies succeed or fail is sort of part of the process of innovation."

Beebe also indicated that more companies could fail in the months ahead, or consolidate, because of the current imbalance between supply and demand that has driven down prices. "In the next six months, we're going to see winners and losers emerge," he said. "It's a challenging environment."

As for the future of thin film, Dan Shugar, CEO of Solaria Corp., pointed out that First Solar has been successful in designing thin-film solar that is well suited for large-scale power plants, as opposed to Solyndra's focus on residential and commercial rooftops. He acknowledged that 80 percent of the world's solar is silicon-based, but he believes there is still room for a wide range of products.

"No solar panel is the be-all, end-all in this market," Shugar said.

Looking ahead, Harris said he and others in his business are going to continue trying to "set the record straight" on Solyndra, which he views as an isolated case that belies the sector's relatively rapid growth.

"There's an awful lot of talk about solar, much of it wrong," he said. "Solar is on the cusp of really making it in the mainstream."