# The sad news: Second U.S. solar company files for bankruptcy



## Boris (Nov 18, 2010)

âOver the last two weeks two solar companies based in the United States have soughtbankruptcy protection. Last week Evergreen Solar, a solar panel maker, filed for bankruptcy, and this week SpectraWatt, another solar panel company, filed for bankruptcy protection. According to analysts familiar with the industry, both companies have noncompetitive production lines and there were no actions left to take that would make them competitive with competitors in Asia.
SpectraWatt Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. The company is supported by Intel Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and is a closely held maker of solar products. The solar company owes creditors $38.7 million and plans to auction its assets valued at $33.9 million. According to the company's bankruptcy filing, the solar maker was forced to file because of dropping prices in the solar industry and because of increasing competition from companies in China.
The company's Chief Restructuring Officer and Chief Executive Officer said solar manufacturers in China receive significant government and financial support and the support along with lower production costs has created a competitive advantage for Chinese firms in the industry. The company also said defective manufacturing equipment and silicon wafers from vendors forced final products to be sold at reduced prices. The poor products and reduced prices also contributed to the bankruptcy filing.
SpectraWatt is not the only U.S. solar company to enter bankruptcy. Last week, Evergreen Solar entered bankruptcy. The firm owes $485.6 million to creditors. The two companies may be in a race to auction off equipment between each other as both try to acquire the best prices possible for their solar equipment.â
Source: Bloomberg, "Intel-backed solar company files for bankruptcy as prices slide," Andrew Herndon and Michael Bathon, Aug. 24, 2011-09-01 1

From: http://www.omahabankruptcylawfirm.com/2011/08/second-us-solar-company-files-for-bankruptcy.shtml


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

Two problems. Solar is still expensive for the average person and most of these companies are create to many money not solar panels.


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## Sawmill Jim (Dec 5, 2008)

Yep they ate up their stinklus money guess the thought the well would never go dry :umno:

The only real green jobs is forming a nonprofit co promoting green jobs and raking in cash from people dumb enough to fall for it or getting grants . :happy2:


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Too bad. I bought my first Evergreen panels back in 04, then a second set in 07, specifically to support an American company. They made a quality product, much better than the knock-off Chinese panels.


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2011)

Wonder where the defective parts that were bought from vendors were made . China ?
I don't know but wouldn't be at all surprised .


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Yes the Evergreen product is/was very good.

Unfortunately the All Mighty Buck was far too often the deciding factor when the "peoples" were buying panels . . . . . . . .and the lesser priced stuff won out over Evergreen............sad...


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## Boris (Nov 18, 2010)

Related news

&#8220;Washington's green jobs killing act&#8221;
Lawmakers looking for sacrifices could wind up hurting one of the few industries that's hiring.
By Brian Dumaine, senior-editor-at-large

FORTUNE &#8211; &#8220;As Congress looks for things to cut, it's worth noting that green jobs are one of the few bright spots in otherwise dim economic news. The solar industry employed an estimated 93,000 workers in 2010, and that number is expected to reach 120,000 this year, according to the nonprofit Solar Foundation. The American Wind Energy Association reports that there are now 75,000 jobs in the wind industry. Many of the new jobs can be linked to various federal subsidies and tax credits that target renewable energy.

But now the ever-more-strapped Congress may let the subsidies and tax credits die, especially the Treasury's 1603 program that provides direct cash grants to alternative-energy projects -- and is due to expire at the end of 2011. Yes, the deficit must be addressed, but why cut federal programs that create jobs? Says Michael Eckhart, the global head of environmental finance and sustainability at Citigroup (C): "If the subsidies are killed, America is choosing not to grow a new industry and create jobs. If we don't want them, China, India, and Japan are happy to take them."

This article is from the September 5, 2011 issue of Fortune.
From: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/31/washingtons-green-jobs-killing-act/


I think without &#8220;various federal subsidies and tax credits&#8221; we will see more bankruptcies in Green industries/renewable energy.

Boris Romanov


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## Farmerwilly2 (Oct 14, 2006)

I'm guessing that if it needs to be subsidized and receive credits to survive it probably isn't a good model to start with. Every subsidy dollar and credit dollar they get is coming out of OUR tax pockets. We might like to have them made here, but if they can't do it then they can't do it. Sorry.


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## Boris (Nov 18, 2010)

I&#8217;m not sure about your statement, because according to the Bloomberg Agency: &#8220;United States-based manufacturers are under a great deal of stress because of the emergence of manufacturers in China, *who receive considerable government and financial support..."*
*"This support*, coupled with China&#8217;s inexpensive production costs, *have created a competitive advantage for Chinese manufacturers* and allowed them to become price leaders within the industry.&#8221;

From: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...any-files-for-bankruptcy-as-prices-slide.html

Boris Romanov


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Fox News has done a few piieces on another company - SOL.........(sp) something going belly up.
To the tune of 500++ million subsidized bucks...

Fox has showed half a dozen video clips of obummer pontificating about this "Green job creating company"

Also about substandard product and silicone ingots..........


I dought that it will be anyway easy to prove china's government involvement with any company that undercuts prices for the stuff they ship here.

I would love to have a big rack of Evergreen panels......................


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## emdeengee (Apr 20, 2010)

Very sad. Very bad. But not at all surprising since there is no public support for alternate energy. People have been successfully brainwashed by the oil, coal and natural gas companies to think that we don't need alternate energy. Just follow the money to find out the truth. There is a lot of smirking and mocking about alternate energy companies being in it only for the money. Well dah. What people ignore is that the money trail goes in two directions. The established energy companies sure don't want to see any change in the status quo and as long as we are dependent on them only they make out like the bandits they are. I laugh myself silly at the current US oil and gas ads that constantly claim that "North America" is rich in oil and gas so no one has to worry. The reality is that Canada and Mexico are rich but that is still FOREIGN oil. 

China is making millions and employing millions in solar and other alternate energy production. The rest of the world is going to be left in the dust. They are smart enough to accept the scientific proof of where the world is heading as far as energy supply and climate change are concerned. Are even reforesting China - 25% new forests by 2020. The difference is that China plans 100 years ahead whereas the Western world only plans the years between the elections.

We are following Al Gore. He is a smart man and has become filthy rich. We have made some investments in alternate energy over the past couple of years and these investments are doing so well it is quite amazing and rewarding- in more ways than one.


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## Boris (Nov 18, 2010)

Jim-mi said:


> Fox News has done a few piieces on another company - SOL.........(sp) something going belly up.
> To the tune of 500++ million subsidized bucks...


*New details just posted (see below):*

&#8220;With the scandalous bankruptcy of Solyndra (a shady California solar power company that received $535 million in stimulus funds and is now under investigation by the FBI) hanging overhead, President Obama wisely whitewashed any mention of "green jobs" out of his latest address to Congress.

But buried in the details of his latest government jobs bill released this week -- Spawn of the Spendulus, Porky's II, Night of the Keynesian Dead -- are yet more big green boondoggles that will reward cronies, waste taxpayer dollars and make no dent in the jobless rate.

After pouring half a billion bucks into Solyndra, the company filed for Chapter 11 last month and laid off 1,110 employees. Obama administration officials met with Solyndra execs at least 20 times; the green cheerleader-in-chief personally visited and promoted the company in 2009 before his administration fast-tracked approval for the loans.

Solyndra is now the third solar company to go belly-up this year. Yet the Energy Department is doubling down on failure. As the FBI and House GOP investigators launch a probe into Enron-style accounting problems with Solyndra's books, DOE is doling out more than $850 million in new loan guarantees for another California solar firm sponsored by NextEra Energy, along with nearly $200 million more for separate solar manufacturing facilities on the West Coast.

Obama claims new "investments" in environmentally friendly school construction projects will put thousands of Americans back to work immediately. (Never mind that Big Labor-backed rules and executive orders will raise the cost of the projects, slow their implementation and freeze out the vast majority of non-union contractors.) Among the new green pork initiatives: $25 billion for green roofs, green cleaning, installation of renewable energy generation and heating systems, and "modernization, renovation, or repair activities related to energy efficiency and renewable energy."

But how are existing green construction spending programs working in practice?

A brand-new report from Texas Watchdog, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative group, sheds inconvenient light on Obama's $5 billion stimulus-funded Weatherization Assistance Program. In Texas alone, the $327 million program has spent more than $226,000 on each of the 1,041 jobs the program is claimed to have created or saved.

Intended to "green" low-income homes, at least three of the original participating organizations have been shut down due to chronic mismanagement, fraud allegations and shoddy workmanship. Baylor University economist Earl Grinols summed up: "First, it is not an appropriate government function to provide weatherization of private homes. Second, even viewed as a stimulus measure, it is not very effective as a stimulus based on cost-per-job, and third, it appears not to be well-managed."

Nearly 31 months after Porkulus One was signed, the Texas housing agency still hasn't spent $91.6 million in allocated weatherization/green construction funds. Millions cannot be accounted for by auditors and inspectors.

Now, multiply that by 49 other states. A review of the weatherization boondoggle last year revealed state-trained workers were flubbing insulation jobs in Indiana, according to the Associated Press. In "Alaska, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, the program (had) yet to produce a single job or retrofit one home. And in California, a state with nearly 37 million residents, the program at last count had created 84 jobs."

The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney, a vigilant chronicler of green subsidies, notes that time and again, it's Obama insiders and Democratic operatives pocketing all the green while the unemployment hovers at double-digits. To wit: "Al Gore acolyte Cathy Zoi was Obama's assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy while her husband was an executive at a company that received direct subsidies from the Obama administration and profited from the Cash-for-Caulkers bill Zoi's division implemented." Treasury Department Chief of Staff Mark Patterson lobbied for Goldman Sachs on ethanol subsidies while holding down his job in the administration. And last year, another Obama pet project -- Illinois-based FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant -- received a $1 billion stimulus earmark despite having been previously defunded over doubts about the feasibility and efficiency of the project.

An Obama green job trainee with seven certificates, Carlos Arandia, spoke for all non-crony Americans when he asked last fall: "What is the point of giving somebody the tools to do something but to have nowhere to use them?" Perhaps the White House can find a way to weatherize all the Grand Canyon-sized taxpayer sinkholes that "green job" spending has created.&#8221;
by Michelle Malkin
09/14/2011

From: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46176


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