Weld County suspected storm clouds over Abound
Update: The personal property tax incentive was not extended to Vestas either for the 2012 budget. In the 2011 budget Vestas received $96,252 in tax incentives. Commissioner Sean Conway said the vote to discontinue the incentives going forward for both Abound and Vestas was 5-0 in December 2011. The same measure was defeated for the […]
Abound Solar: still no jobs in Tipton, Indiana
How long will Abound Solar string along the good folks of Tipton, Indiana? In July 2010, President Obama announced a $400 million taxpayer-guaranteed loan to Colorado-based Abound Solar, the majority of which was intended to help the thin-filmed solar panel company expand to Tipton, Indiana. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation also provided $12 million in […]
More problems Abound
Lux Research, a self-described “independent research and advisory firm providing strategic advice and ongoing intelligence on emerging technologies” including solar, predicted that 2012 will not be kind to Colorado’s Abound Solar. Lux’s Matt Feinstein wrote in PV Magazine: Abound. One of the more prominent CdTe start-ups, Abound has been plagued recently by several departures from its […]
More bad news Abound
With prices tanking along with sales, First Solar, the world’s largest manufacturer of thin-filmed solar panels, “slashed its profit and sales forecast today and said it will fire about 100 employees, most of them at a Santa Clara, California, research center, the Tempe, Arizona-based company said today in a filing,” Bloomberg reports. In addition, First Solar […]
Thin-filmed solar a foolish investment
Taxpayers may have been forced to invest in solar panels, but private investors with a choice aren’t quite so foolish. From today’s Motley Fool column titled “Here are some American eco-investments to avoid” including thin-filmed solar: I’m dogging (oo-er! — Ed) one of my own investments here, First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR.US), but outside of that […]
Is Colorado "addicted" to economic activity?
Part two of a series responding to a Denver Post guest column titled “Is Colorado addicted to oil?” from Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action. Gary Wockner’s editorial is long on conjecture and short on facts. It’s little more than 20 questions, which could be answered if Wockner bothered to do a modicum of research. […]
Pat Stryker and the West Wing
White House visitor logs reveal that a “Pat Stryker” had a meeting in the West Wing in October 2009 according to the Sunlight Foundation. So far Sunlight has been unable to confirm if the meeting was with the Pat Stryker, Abound Solar investor, billionaire heiress, and Obama bundler. Although, it’s hard to believe that another […]
Problems Abound?
Update: Eric Wesoff of GreenTechSolar corrected something we quoted him on regarding Abound Solar’s $400 million DOE loan guarantee. “Abound has drawn down much of its $400 million DOE loan guarantee only $70 million of its $400 million loan guarantee in order to fund its factory buildout.” Eric Wesoff of GreenTechSolar is curious about what is going […]
Too much supply means dark days for solar panel manufacturers
Another solar panel manufacturer is laying off employees because current global supply of solar panels far exceeds demand. Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) is temporarily suspending production of “Uni-Solar,” a thin filmed solar laminate, and furloughing 140 workers according to a report in the Detroit News. The two Uni-Solar production plants are located in a “tax-free […]
Solar Power: economically and environmentally unsound
This column appeared originally in Townhall Finance. Solar energy is neither economically nor environmentally sound By Amy Oliver Cooke and Michael Sandoval We live in the state that is ground zero for absurd energy policy, also known as the New Energy Economy. In a recent Denver Post house editorial, Colorado’s self-described “newspaper of record” was […]
Abound Solar's connections to $400 million
This column appeared originally on Townhall Finance. Crony capitalism Abound: anatomy of a taxpayer-guaranteed loan By Amy Oliver Cooke By now it’s obvious that the Solyndra scandal never should have happened. It’s not even a case of Monday morning quarterbacking. A number of people involved could see the disaster coming. There is a larger principle […]
