Bankrupt solar panel firm took stimulus money, left a toxic mess, says report

[zimmer]

The Abound Solar plant, which got $400 million in federal loan guarantees in 2010, when the Obama administration sought to use stimulus funds to promote green energy, filed for bankruptcy two years later. Now its Longmont, Colo., facility sits unoccupied, its 37,000 square feet littered with hazardous waste, broken glass and contaminated water.

The Northern Colorado Business Report estimates

it will cost up to $3.7 million to clean and repair the building so it can again be leased.

While the loan guarantees exposed taxpayers to hundreds of millions of dollars, the federal government lost a total of $70 million backing the failed company. Unsold inventory which should have been used to offset those losses, including 2,000 solar panels, mysteriously disappeared, according to the National Legal and Policy Center.

"If a coal, oil or gas company pulled something like that the EPA would send out SWAT teams and the U.S. Marshals to track down the offenders, bankrupt or not," the center said in a report of its own.


President Obama touted Abound in a July 3, 2010 announcement of a $2 billion “investment” in green energy projects.


"The second company is Abound Solar Manufacturing, which will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs," Obama said. "

Bankrupt solar panel firm took stimulus money, left a toxic mess, says report | Fox News

The only green energy went from the taxpayer's pocket to the Friends of Obama and back to Obama's Campaign.

Friends of Obama... 2000 jobs and 1500 permanent jobs... ROTFLOL... in hazmat suits.

Change You Can Believe In.

 

[CalGun]

Ah come on its only $400,000,000 who cares? Don't you know Bush did it?

 

[DaveFagan]

The Obama administration has been a real dud in finding worthwhile renewable energy projects. If I didn't know better, I'd say Dick Cheney was picking the investments. Still, anything is better than subsidizing NUKES. We are still doing that.

 

[apdst]

The Obama administration has been a real dud in finding worthwhile renewable energy projects. If I didn't know better, I'd say Dick Cheney was picking the investments. Still, anything is better than subsidizing NUKES. We are still doing that.

To be fair, the technology isn't there, yet. If it was, the non-subsidized oil companies would have produced the product and marketted.

 

[zimmer]

The Obama administration has been a real dud in finding worthwhile renewable energy projects. If I didn't know better, I'd say Dick Cheney was picking the investments. Still, anything is better than subsidizing NUKES. We are still doing that.

The Obama administration is far beyond a dud... period. It's a collection of cartoonish Scuds loaded with ObamaCrap that are exploding all over the nation.

Cheney actually ran things and did a good job; in the private and public sector. He actually had successes in life.

Obama?

Obama has never run anything successfully. Failed as community organizer, failed with his terrorist buddy Ayers with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and we can put a fork in his failed presidency.

 

[American]

The Obama administration has been a real dud in finding worthwhile renewable energy projects. If I didn't know better, I'd say Dick Cheney was picking the investments. Still, anything is better than subsidizing NUKES. We are still doing that.

Even wasting money on deadend businesses. :roll:

 

[RabidAlpaca]

Ah come on its only $400,000,000 who cares? Don't you know Bush did it?

Only 400 million? That's like all of the taxes you and 800 people will pay for your entire lives. It's "no big deal" that the government is taking your money and handing it to people much, much richer than you?

 

[DaveFagan]

To be fair, the technology isn't there, yet. If it was, the non-subsidized oil companies would have produced the product and marketted.

The technology is there. The current distribution of energy monopoly is the group exerting power to prevent implementation.

 

[DaveFagan]

The Obama administration is far beyond a dud... period. It's a collection of cartoonish Scuds loaded with ObamaCrap that are exploding all over the nation.

Cheney actually ran things and did a good job; in the private and public sector. He actually had successes in life.

Obama?

Obama has never run anything successfully. Failed as community organizer, failed with his terrorist buddy Ayers with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and we can put a fork in his failed presidency.

You seem a trifle biased. He did get re-elected against a helpless and hopeless greed monger, so by comparison he seems to be a real gem. I don't support him because he assisted in the death of Qaddafi, the Best leader in Africa. Your crap is just partisan nonsense.

 

[apdst]

The technology is there. The current distribution of energy monopoly is the group exerting power to prevent implementation.

That's a myth. Do you actually believe the energy companies aren't going to corner the market if a viable product existed? Think about it.

 

[DaveFagan]

That's a myth. Do you actually believe the energy companies aren't going to corner the market if a viable product existed? Think about it.

You are the one that is not thinking. If every home has solar panels and a windmill and makes their own energy, who gets cut out of the loop. This Nation is about Corporatism and they are going to fight as long as they can to prevent that. Divert renewables monies into large windmills and that electricity is distributed by existing energy Corporations. Divert renewables into Solar PV that is distributed by existing energy Corporations. Subsidize "NUKES" and describe it as clean energy because it is distributed by existing energy Corporations. That is what is happening. That is reality. The technology is here and real and works but an entrenched Corporate network works diligently to prevent implementation for their own survival. Screw them. We've been subsidizing the wrong energies since GE was a pup.

 

[apdst]

You are the one that is not thinking. If every home has solar panels and a windmill and makes their own energy, who gets cut out of the loop. This Nation is about Corporatism and they are going to fight as long as they can to prevent that. Divert renewables monies into large windmills and that electricity is distributed by existing energy Corporations. Divert renewables into Solar PV that is distributed by existing energy Corporations. Subsidize "NUKES" and describe it as clean energy because it is distributed by existing energy Corporations. That is what is happening. That is reality. The technology is here and real and works but an entrenched Corporate network works diligently to prevent implementation for their own survival. Screw them. We've been subsidizing the wrong energies since GE was a pup.

If solar energy was so great, Chevron would buipd solar farms all over the country and sell the electricity.

 

[DaveFagan]

If solar energy was so great, Chevron would buipd solar farms all over the country and sell the electricity.

You're describing the problem, not the solution. The efficiency is far greater on individual homes with minimal storage. PV farms is exactly what I am telling you is wrong. They are just an attempt to protect the Corporate distribution network. Just like a heroin dealer preventing competition in his neighborhood.

 

[longview]

It would be easy and (even desirable) to lay things like this at Obama's feet,
but not true. The prices on photovoltaic panels has dropped so fast it would not
have been reasonable to predict.
The Solar PV Ecosystem, A Brief History and a Look Ahead
When these projects were planned, they built factories with a planned cost of goods sold.
Lease
Labor
Equipment
raw materials
energy
infrastructure
sales
shipping
ect...
All of these factors and others were included in a model for a price point of about $800
for a 200 watt panel.
Pallet pricing on 250 Watt panels is around $215 each.
Astronergy CHSM 6610P 255-watt solar panel
If your factory is designed around making $800 panels, you will lose money on each unit made.
The question is not if you will go out of business, but when.

 

[apdst]

You're describing the problem, not the solution. The efficiency is far greater on individual homes with minimal storage. PV farms is exactly what I am telling you is wrong. They are just an attempt to protect the Corporate distribution network. Just like a heroin dealer preventing competition in his neighborhood.

Even home based units have to be buiot, instaled, maintained and repaired.

Do you have one?

 

[DaveFagan]

Even home based units have to be buiot, instaled, maintained and repaired.

Do you have one?

No! Seven.

 

[sawyerloggingon]

My house is 100% solar. Boy do I feel like a jerk now.:lol:

 

[apdst]

My house is 100% solar. Boy do I feel like a jerk now.:lol:

Why?.....

 

[CalGun]

I was being sarcastic, and merely illustrating how the left looks at this. The typical responses are Bush did it, conservatives do it, they get richer, and its only 400 million.

People don't care - that is a sad fact - but a fact never the less. People just flat out don't care. $400 million could have installed solar systems on 16,000 homes across America, thus produced a good 1000 jobs for the year doing it, and helped reduce the cost of electricity for all - but no it was wasted on a big time ofailure donor - and no one cares.

Only 400 million? That's like all of the taxes you and 800 people will pay for your entire lives. It's "no big deal" that the government is taking your money and handing it to people much, much richer than you?

 

[CalGun]

I have one home that is 100% solar and another that is 80%. I got no tax break on the 100% one because I did it myself and didn't have the income to enjoy the tax break. On the 80% one the company enjoyed the tax break and I have fixed power rates - its all good - no need to feel like a jerk just because ofailures buddies got phat and we didn't.

My house is 100% solar. Boy do I feel like a jerk now.:lol:

 

[sawyerloggingon]

I have one home that is 100% solar and another that is 80%. I got no tax break on the 100% one because I did it myself and didn't have the income to enjoy the tax break. On the 80% one the company enjoyed the tax break and I have fixed power rates - its all good - no need to feel like a jerk just because ofailures buddies got phat and we didn't.

I don't really feel like a jerk, I did solar because I want to live cheap not save the world but it is a shame the technology is so polluting.

 

[zimmer]

The technology is there. The current distribution of energy monopoly is the group exerting power to prevent implementation.

ROTFLOL... talk about absurd.

In Europe they're way ahead of the game. they've stolen taxpayer money for this idiocy, and have wind turbines (that nobody would build except for the subsidies).

They have thrown money at Bio Gas stations for farms; and the farmers scooped up the cash and built, built, built until the subsidies ran out; now places like Germany are largely monocultures of corn to feed these idiotic stations. Really environmentally sensitive... ROTFLOL... farmers used to rotate corn into their firlds every 3 to 4 years. Now they plant it every year, and to manage these field they pump in nitrates and in the autumn give it a nice shot of atrazine!

And as one critic noted, they're building hydro stations in every little piss trough. Like that's the solution. Doh.

Let the market figure it out. They'll do it without taxpayer money... if there is money to be made in it.

And in Europe... electricity prices are skyrocketing!

Idiots.

 

[zimmer]

You seem a trifle biased. He did get re-elected against a helpless and hopeless greed monger, so by comparison he seems to be a real gem. I don't support him because he assisted in the death of Qaddafi, the Best leader in Africa. Your crap is just partisan nonsense.

Really... let's see... Obama has created how much debt? He has generated how many jobs? His foreign policy has made a lot of allies?

Romney a greed monger? ROTFLOL... you really have been poisoned by class warfare rhetoric.

Romney has done more good for people than Obama could dream of doing. Obama should have at least tried to run something in the private sector before running the world's largest economy. The Olympics perhaps. Or, like McGovern... at least something small like a bed & breakfast so he would learn, like McGovern, the huge problems and burdens government creates.

 

[Gipper]

Qaddafi, the Best leader in Africa.

Your crap is just partisan nonsense.

Um...what?

 

[DaveFagan]

ROTFLOL... talk about absurd.

In Europe they're way ahead of the game. they've stolen taxpayer money for this idiocy, and have wind turbines (that nobody would build except for the subsidies).

They have thrown money at Bio Gas stations for farms; and the farmers scooped up the cash and built, built, built until the subsidies ran out; now places like Germany are largely monocultures of corn to feed these idiotic stations. Really environmentally sensitive... ROTFLOL... farmers used to rotate corn into their firlds every 3 to 4 years. Now they plant it every year, and to manage these field they pump in nitrates and in the autumn give it a nice shot of atrazine!

And as one critic noted, they're building hydro stations in every little piss trough. Like that's the solution. Doh.

Let the market figure it out. They'll do it without taxpayer money... if there is money to be made in it.

And in Europe... electricity prices are skyrocketing!

Idiots.

I'll be darned. You mean Europe is concerned about Global Warming and you are not. True about biofuel that it is a waste of money and not truly renewable, just a big subsidized kiss for the Corporate Chemical groups. Nothing is free, especially fighting global warming, or you can stick your head in a hole and pretend it's not happening. All the Corporate that profits handsomely from the causes of global warming will be your cheerleaders and mental peers. I think the Flat Earth society may be able to save you some seats.