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.
Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-06-28/abound-solar-to-close-as-early-as-today-greentech-media-says
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