Abound Solar: Solyndra 2.0

Abound Solar Inc., a U.S. solar manufacturer that was awarded a $400 million loan guarantee in 2010, said yesterday it will suspend operations and file for bankruptcy next week.

www.businessweek.com...

Well, well, well, what do we have here. Something worse than Solyndra for Mr. Obama to re-consider? Yup Abound Solar has taken $400 Million of our money and flushed it down the drain!!!!

Some payoff Obama.

iwhat i am wondering is how does one manufacture solar? i havent heard of this company until now. all that money vanishes like that? please.

reply to post by jjf3rd77

Yup Abound Solar has taken $400 Million of our money and flushed it down the drain!!!!

Once again...I'll have to correct you.

Do you even read your own articles...or just the headlines???


At the end of the day, it's a loss of $40-$60 million...not $400 million.

The company, based in Loveland, Colorado, borrowed about $70 million against its guarantee. 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.

And why did they go bankrupt...it's not because they are a bad company...but because they need more help to compete with China.

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,”

You try so hard. :shk:

reply to post by OutKast Searcher


How do you think the Government paid the $400 million? Our taxes. I don't care how much of that loan they lost.... They still took the government loan in the first place!!!!! Part of Obama's Green energy job creation...yeah, how's that going for him

Blame China...That's the easy way out.

“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,”

So why didn't Obama research this further instead of blindly handing out benjamins to these companies if there was so much stark competition from China? Or is he just finding out about China's booming green energy sector now???

Originally posted by jjf3rd77
has taken $400 Million of our money and flushed it down the drain!!!!

I'm not a fan of the Federal Government guaranteeing loans for private companies, but I dont think you understand how the economy works. It is not 'dumped down the drain'. That money went to pay wages of employees, which in turn spend that money in the economy, which has a direct and positive effect on the economy.

This is very, VERY simple econ 101 stuff here.

ETA:, and, as noted above, it's not even 400 million. It's about 10 of that figure.

Now, you want to know what is money 'dumped down the drain'? Money we give to international military contractors like Halliburton. That money literally leaves our economy.

Originally posted by jjf3rd77
reply to post by OutKast Searcher

 

How do you think the Government paid the $400 million? Our taxes. I don't care how much of that loan they lost.... They still took the government loan in the first place!!!!! Part of Obama's Green energy job creation...yeah, how's that going for him

So, in other words, you are just looking for a reason to be critical, even if its not factual.

So why didn't Obama research this further instead of blindly handing out benjamins to these companies if there was so much stark competition from China? Or is he just finding out about China's booming green energy sector now???

So you think the US government shoudnt help businesses compete with foreign markets? You think we should just fold under China? Why do you hate America?

Outcast is correct, taxpayer losses are only about $70M for Abound. It's not easy to find what the real taxpayer loss is though, or how investment was recovered when it's a loan guarantee.

A google search of the DOE site and of solar investments helped create this (semicolon separated) partial list:

Program;Health;Technology;Loan ;Taxpayer Loss
1366 Technologies, Inc.;Unknown;Solar Manufacturing;$150,000,000.00 ;
A123 Solar;Failed;Solar;;
Abengoa Solar, Inc. (Mojave Solar);Unknown;Solar Generation;$1,200,000,000.00 ;
Abengoa Solar, Inc. (Solana);Unknown;Solar Generation;$1,446,000,000.00 ;
Abound Solar;Failed;Solar Manufacturing;$400,000,000.00 ;$70,000.00
Azure Dynamics;Failed;Solar;;
Cogentrix of Alamosa, LLC.;Unknown;Solar Generation;$90,600,000.00 ;
Ecotality;Failed;Solar;;
Ener1;Failed;Solar;;
Energy Conversion Devices;Failed;Solar;;
Evergreen Solar Inc;Failed;Solar;$5,300,000.00 ;
Exelon (Antelope Valley Solar Ranch);Unknown;Solar Generation;$646,000,000.00 ;
LSP Energy;Failed;Solar;? ;n/a
Mesquite Solar 1, LLC (Sempra Mesquite);Unknown;Solar Generation;$337,000,000.00 ;
Mountain Plaza Inc;Failed;Solar;$424,000.00 ;
NextEra Energy Resources, LLC (Desert Sunlight);Unknown;Solar Generation;$1,460,000,000.00 ;
NextEra Energy Resources, LLC (Genesis Solar);Unknown;Solar Generation;$852,000,000.00 ;
NRG Energy, Inc. (BrightSource);Failed;Solar Generation;$1,600,000,000.00 ;
NRG Solar (California Valley Solar Ranch);Unknown;Solar Generation;$1,237,000,000.00 ;
NRG Solar, LLC (Agua Caliente);Unknown;Solar Generation;$967,000,000.00 ;
Prologis (Project Amp);Unknown;Solar Generation;$14,000,000,000.00 ;
Solar Inc.;Failed;Solar;$400,000.00 ;$400,000.00
Solar Trust of America;Failed;Solar;$2,100,000,000.00 ;n/a
SolarReserve, LLC (Crescent Dunes);Unknown;Solar Generation;$737,000,000.00 ;
SoloPower;Unknown;Solar Manufacturing;$197,000,000.00 ;
Solyndra Inc.;Failed;Solar Manufacturing;$535,000,000.00 ;$535,000,000.00
SpectraWatt;Failed;Solar;$500,000.00 ;
SunPower;Failed;Solar;;
Unisolar;Failed;Solar;;
Willard & Kelsey;Failed;Solar;$6,000,000.00 ;$6,000,000.00
Total Guarantee or investment $27,967,224,000.00
Total Taxpayer loss $7,005,000.00

If you want you can copy/paste into a spreadsheet and add a few values.

This thing was pretty much a scam from the get go. I had several friends employed there, and they said the waste was sick, along with the attitudes of the executives. Their attitude was "It doesn't matter, we'll get more money."

This was nothing more than a scam to take money from the tax payers, and give it to Pat Stryker. Political payola of sorts. It's pretty disgusting. It's the Democrat's version of Halliburton.