I have heard similar statements. In a nutshell it takes more energy to produce a solar cell than the amount of energy the cell will produce.
I just picked some up at a buck a watt. As an extreme lowball, assume I will get 20,000 hours at full power out of them. Assume a lowball 0.04 cents for industrial power. That's $800 worth of power per watt of panel. I am paying a buck a watt. I doubt that industry is eating $799 in power costs.