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Abound Solar to Suspend Operations, Will Seek Bankruptcy
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.
“Aggressive pricing actions from Chinese solar-panel companies have made it very difficult for an early stage startup company like Abound to scale in current market conditions,” the company said in the statement.
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.
Anonymous
June 29th, 2012
Solar energy not ready for prime time. 0bama stimulus money strikes out again.
Gvii
June 29th, 2012
Can’t wait to see what O donor is tied up in this one. You just know there’s one in there somewhere.
iota ofa cracker
June 29th, 2012
Dumb and Dumber. It’s all China’s fault. The dog ate my homework.
OBAMA, STOP WASTING OUR F…ING MONEY!
Tim
June 29th, 2012
Corruption, plain and simple.
Check your copy of the Constitution – I bet you won’t find the phrase “venture capital” anywhere in it.
Stirrin the B.S.
June 29th, 2012
@Tim – Bingo!! Except Oblowme doesn’t read the constitution – he reads the Communist Manifesto.
There are two more companies waiting in the wings to steal our money.
“….Besides Abound and Solyndra, two other solar manufacturers received loan guarantees. 1366 Technologies Inc. won approval to borrow as much as $150 million to produce polysilicon for solar panels and SoloPower Inc. was awarded a $197 million guarantee to make rolls of flexible solar panels using a copper-indium- gallium-selenide composite.
Neither 1366 nor SoloPower have drawn funding under the Energy Department program, LaVera said….”
They haven’t drawn funds yet – they will wait until bankruptcy is imminent and THEN draw their funds. And I suspect hefty bonuses will be paid just outside of the 90 day preferential payment period before filing.
Dr. Tar
June 29th, 2012
What next, a company called Abandon Solar also get’s a Dept of Energy loan and goes under 2 months later?
Billy Fuster
June 29th, 2012
Move along–nothing to see here.
Sparky
June 29th, 2012
It has to be a political donation scam.
China announced in 2010 it was dumping 50 Billion into solar panel production plants and said by 2013 they will be able to sell panels for 1-1.50 a watt.
I blame energy secretary Chu or Chew. When these companies submitted their fiscal plan they also had to submit a cost plan. Panels were $4-5.00 a watt a few years ago, so why would anyone want to buy a more expensive panel when the prices were already down to $3-3.50 a watt and dropping 2 years ago?
No one read the papers when China announced it?
Buck Ofama
June 29th, 2012
I’m just wondering how many state-of-the-art fire fighting planes could have been bought with that money. I’m sure the people of Colorado are too!