Solyndra 2: Another Subsidized Solar Panel Firm Goes Bankrupt
Solyndra was a boondoggle. The Department of Energy put taxpayers on the hook for half a billion dollars in loan guarantees. The company made solar panels. It went belly-up in September 2011. (How time flies!) Taxpayers will pay off its creditors.
It was all part of green energy, which is energy that produces mostly red ink, and then gets lots of green from the U.S. government.
It was not alone. Another green energy company went bankrupt in June. It has stayed off the media’s radar until now. But a local TV station found out.
LONGMONT, Colo. – A bankrupt Longmont-based company that received $68 million in stimulus money is under investigation by the Weld County district attorney’s office.7NEWS has confirmed Abound Solar is under investigation.
Abound made solar panels which it sold across the country, Europe and India. The Department of Energy approved nearly $370 million in federal stimulus money for Abound. The company received $68 million before payments were stopped in 2011.
Sources tell 7NEWS that the company’s finances are under scrutiny.
7NEWS obtained internal documents from 2012 that show orders for tens of thousands of replacement solar panels. The orders cite different reasons for the replacements including, “low performance,” “under performance” and “catastrophic failures.”
The orders are for replacements requested after the Department of Energy stopped stimulus money payments to Abound.
“These are solar panels we are now seeing reports that said they worked as long as you didn’t put them in the sun,” said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. “Now the question is did the (Department of Energy) — did they know something that the rest of should have known? Did Abound not tell the DOE something? These are questions that need to be answered.”
The Congressman says he will send letters to the Department of Energy demanding an explanation.
The Department of Energy will respond in candor. . . . when Abound’s panels work.
“We need to know, did the Department of Energy — did they close on the loan when they knew there were technical problems with the product?” said Gardner. “The fact that we have taxpayers on the hook for $70 million means that we, in Congress, have a responsibility to make sure nothing was done improperly.”
Lots of luck, Congressman!
The county gave the firm a $100,000 tax break. Now the firm has left the county with $1.8 million dollars in back taxes.
Lots of luck, Weld county.
When the government puts up billions of dollars to fund projects the free market rejects, it finds that it has funded lots of bad projects.
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Published on October 11, 2012. The original is here.