ANOTHER Solar company files bankruptcy!!!

[naturegirl]

My post #2 and link was from the Company's web site............

 

[The T]

My post #2 and link was from the Company's web site............

So I saw. Thanks...Interesting...

 

[bripat9643]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

No doubt conservatives were against the horseless carriage.

You're citing a corporate promotional site.

Yeah, that's credible.

 

[bripat9643]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

No doubt conservatives were against the horseless carriage.

Hard to understand why they take so much joy in any failure of something with such huge potential benefit.

I'm always delighted when government boondoggles implode because it means that perhaps the public will finally wake up and stop politicians from throwing taxpayer money down the drain.

 

[g5000]

As some of you know, I do my own trading. One of the few losses I have written off over the years was my investment in our domestic solar industry. So I can speak with some authority as to why they are ALL suffering, across the board.

The reason is very simple, and it is for the same reason that our steel mills tanked in the 70s.

China and Europe are subsidizing the bejeesus out of their own domestic solar companies. And that is driving down the market cost of solar wafers, and driving up the demand for solar energy products. While our manufacturing process of solar wafers is second to none (and therefore why I invested in US solar companies), several years ago China began throwing massive brute force at their technological inferiority. They use manpower instead of machines, and they heavily subsidize it. And that is why we are currently getting the pants beaten off us.

And that is also why the US government began subsidizing our domestic solar industry. But it simply did not subsidize it on the scale which Europe and China are.

I am not saying we should subsidize it more. Absolutely not. I am a big believer in the Chicago school of economics.

I am just stating the facts.

 

[Flopper]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

No doubt conservatives were against the horseless carriage.

Hard to understand why they take so much joy in any failure of something with such huge potential benefit.

Not hard to understand at all - Exxon, BP, Shell, Chevron,....

 

[g5000]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

Here you can see they freely admit they were subsized by their government.

The feed-in-tariff system, also employed in Ontario, provides subsidies for business and home owners who install solar power systems.

And now you can see that foreign solar companies are starting to suffer, too, as the subsidies are lowered: http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...on-german-tariff-reports-china-overnight.html

LDK Solar Co. led a drop in Chinese solar stocks in New York after a French materials supplier said the companies are reducing orders and Citigroup Inc. signaled Germany may cut industry subsidies by at least 20 percent.

LDK, a solar-panel maker based in China’s south-central Jiangxi province, sank the most in four months, while solar- module manufacturer Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. slid the most since Jan. 19. The Bloomberg China-US 55 Index of the most- traded Chinese shares in the U.S. fell 0.2 percent to 106.54 yesterday in New York, retreating from a five-month high.

Chinese solar companies are cutting back on orders and asking to delay bill payments, Thomas Baumgertner, chief financial officer of Paris-based graphite supplier Mersen, said in an interview yesterday. Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, will probably reduce so-called feed-in tariffs, the rate paid to owners of solar installations in the country, by at least 20 percent from April, Citigroup analysts led by Timothy Arcuri wrote in a report e-mailed yesterday.

“Germany’s tariff cut may come earlier than expected and be deeper than expected, which damps investor optimism that has helped bolster solar stocks,” Arcuri said by phone yesterday. “Chinese solar companies may not see real earnings as the solar pricing pressure remains.”

So you see, as the solar subsidies subside even in one country, the market demand for solar enery declines with it, and all solar companies worldwide suffer losses as a result.

There are many industries which are propped up by government subsidies, not just solar. And not just by Obama. We have been subsidizing the agricultural industry for 80+ years.

 

[g5000]

Another big problem for solar energy is that too many companies are publicly traded.

I don't mean solar companies, I mean companies in general.

Publicly traded companies are more and more focused on the short term. There has been this horribly destructive development of tunnel vision which can only see as far as next quarter's earnings release.

So if you are going drop major up front coinage on a system which will take ten years to pay for itself and won't realize any savings until after that...fuggedaboudit!

Dropping coinage on research and development is sexy and for the survival of the company. Gotta maintian the innovation edge.

But electric bills? Not sexy.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

No doubt conservatives were against the horseless carriage.

Hard to understand why they take so much joy in any failure of something with such huge potential benefit.

I don't think it's joy...it's more like pointing out that our tax money is being spent on losing ventures. Money we are borrowing that we have to pay back......plus interest.

And, it represents one more example of the ineptitude of this pretender.

 

[Cuyo]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

No doubt conservatives were against the horseless carriage.

Hard to understand why they take so much joy in any failure of something with such huge potential benefit.

Not hard to understand at all - Exxon, BP, Shell, Chevron,....

They do have quite successful PR campaigns, don't they?

 

[theliq]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

No doubt conservatives were against the horseless carriage.

Yeah and Australia TOO theliq

 

[Flopper]

...and if they did, how much did they kick into the Obama bagmen to get the stimulus money?

The company has received millions of dollars in state tax breaks but did not receive a Dept. of Energy-backed loan.
Bankruptcy paperwork shows Energy Conversion Devices lists the City of Greenville as a debtor, owing the city $209,866.49 for a "refund of grant proceeds."
The company has been hurt by the elimination of European subsidies that helped boost demand for its products overseas. Increased competition from less-expensive products resulted in declining sales over the past several years.

SOURCE

Read post #2 Bro, they got $13 mil of stimulus $$ in 2010...

Most federal as well as state and county government help for the solar industry, has been in the form of grants and tax rebates to consumers converting to solar power. Unfortunately almost half the money ends up in China because that's where most of the equipment is manufactured. Jobs are created in the US building and installing facilities but very little in manufacturing.

The problems that solar manufactures face in the US is not caused by government support, but the lack of it. China produces half of the world's solar panels. The US produces less than 5%. Huge loans from the Chinese Development Bank are helping Chinese solar companies push American solar firms out of the market. IMHO, the US has lost the opportunity to be a major player in solar manufacturing. US support for solar manufacturing has been too little and too late.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Unisolar - Greenville Michigan - files bankruptcy!

UniSolar, parent file for bankruptcy

"GREENVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) - At its peak five years ago, 424 people worked at the Uni-Solar plant in Greenville. Now, the solar-panel maker and its parent company, Energy Conversion Devices, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Uni-Solar is for sale."

UniSolar, parent file for bankruptcy | WOOD TV8

Does anyone know if they received stimulus money too????

Normal shake-out, rookie.....normal shake-out.

"They have been hurt by the elimination of European subsidies that helped boost demand for its products overseas. Increased competition from less-expensive products resulted in declining sales over the past several years.

“We hit a big recession and we’re still feeling the effects of that,” said Michael Schostak, director of business development and communications.

“When construction stopped during the recession, it had a big impact on our business.”

The price of solar panels has plunged in the past two years, causing manufacturers big losses or bankruptcy. Analysts are expecting the trend to continue as prices continue to fall."​

Uni-Solar 'Committed' to Greenville​

 

[Mr. Shaman]

So many people in that town have suffered so much! Many lost jobs when Electrolux closed...some of them went to this solar company, now most likely out of work again! I can't help but think these things are going to ruin Obama.... wow, i hope so!

Yeah.....the Future is coal & oil.....I guarantee it!!!

Go all IN on coal & oil.

 

[JWBooth]

These alternative energy outfits only seem able to survive by taxpayer subsidy.

 

[Claudette]

If solar power were an affordable and viable source of energy everyone one of us living here in Florida would be using it.

Its not and we aren't.

 

[PoliticalChic]

These alternative energy outfits only seem able to survive by taxpayer subsidy.

Nuclear energy the same.

 

[JWBooth]

These alternative energy outfits only seem able to survive by taxpayer subsidy.

Nuclear energy the same.

Point taken

 

[grunt11b]

It's an election year, they where only given the money to hold onto until this year "Not to develope anything", they will put the money into Obamas election coffers and then file bankruptcy, but they will also get a kick back for participating in Obamas election scheme. The most fucked up thing is, noone is investigating this shit.

 

[Oldstyle]

Germany: A shining Example of Solar Success

No doubt conservatives were against the horseless carriage.

Hmmm...correct me if I'm wrong on this Junky but I don't recall the US government bankrolling Henry Ford. Gee, how DID we ever develop the automobile without government stimulus money?