"Another Solyndra" - Abound Solar received a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee, now in "Free Fall".

 

Free fall!

"Another Solyndra" - Abound Solar received a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee, now in "Free Fall".(BB).Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that was awarded a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee, will suspend operations and file for bankruptcy because its panels were too expensive to compete. Abound borrowed about $70 million against the guarantee, the Loveland, Colorado-based company said today in a statement. It plans to file for bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Delaware, next week. The failure will follow that of Solyndra LLC, which shut down in August after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the same U.S. Energy Department program. Abound stopped production in February to focus on reducing costs after a global oversupply and increasing competition from China drove down the price of solar panels by half last year.U.S. taxpayers may lose $40 million to $60 million on the loan after Abound’s assets are sold and the bankruptcy proceeding closes, Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman, said in a statement today. “When the floor fell out on the price of solar panels, Abound’s product was no longer cost competitive,” LaVera said. Hmmmm......Another "Obamination".Read the full story here.

Stimulus-Backed Company 'Abound Solar' Lays Off 70 Percent of Workforce

Another one bites the dust - Stimulus-Backed Company 'Abound Solar' Lays Off 70 Percent of Workforce.(Heritage).
President Obama used a weekly address in July 2010 to tout his stimulus package’s support for the solar industry. One of the companies he mentioned specifically, Abound Solar, just announced that it will lay off 70 percent of its workforce.
Abound would “creat[e] more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs,” Obama claimed, and would be integral to the administration’s quest to “create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America.”

But a year and a half later, the company’s staff numbers only 120. It announced Tuesday that it would lay off 180 full time and 100 part time employees, halt solar panel production, and delay the construction of a manufacturing plant in Indiana
Abound received a $400 million loan guarantee under the Energy Department’s Section 1705 renewable energy loan program, which also gave a $535 million guarantee to now-bankrupt Solyndra. Abound has drawn $70 million of its loan guarantee, and won’t be able to draw any more until it resumes production.
Steve Abely, the company’s chief financial officer, rejected comparisons between Abound and Solyndra. “Solyndra cells were never cost competitive,” he insisted. “We are competitive.”Hmmmm........These guys were competitive also, perhaps we should bring them back?Read the full story here.