Silicon Valley in the Internet age has not made for great presidential photo ops. The Valley's computer-chip factories were off-shored decades ago and (Google accepted) the software giants that supplanted hardware companies just didn't have the same pizzazz -- T-shirted geeks writing code can't compete with guys and gals in bunny suits tending big futuristic machines.

The rise of green tech has changed all that. The Valley is back in the business of building stuff -- solar panels, electric cars, fuel cells, and various energy efficient widgets and gadgets.

And so when President Obama's helicopter landed Wednesday morning at Solyndra, a solar module maker, a television-ready tableau awaited -- a huge American flag hung in an unfinished factory, shiny high-tech thin-film solar panels were on display and workers in hard hats mingled with an audience of some 200 engineers, scientists, venture capitalists, and California's patron saint of green tech PR events, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

President Obama examines a solar panel with Solyndra executives.Photo and caption: The White House

"We've got to go back to making things. We've got to go back to exports. We've got to go back to innovation," said Obama on Wednesday in Fremont as Solyndra employees snapped photos with their iPhones. 

Green-tech can turn around the loss of manufacturing in industrialised countries.