Bankruptcy of Colorado's Abound Solar could cost taxpayers $60 million

The bankruptcy of Abound Solar, the solar panel maker with facilities in Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins, will cost taxpayers $40 million to $60 million, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The company will close its doors next week and file for liquidation, according to a company statement. The closing will affect about 125 workers. In July 2010, Abound received a $400 million loan guarantee from the DOE to build an Indiana factory and expand its Longmont plant. The company has used about $70 million of the loan guarantee, and after bankruptcy liquidation the loss to taxpayers is estimated to be $40 million to $60 million, Damien Lavera, a DOE spokesman, said in a statement. Abound has been struggling with the falling price of solar panels. The company's technology made a solar cell out of a piece of glass by applying a thin chemical film. It was supposed to be cheaper than traditional silicon panels, but since 2009 the price of those panels has dropped from $2.79 a watt to less than $1, according to industry consultant Solarbuzz. In February, Abound cut its workforce by about 70 percent, firing about 180 full-time workers and 100 part-time employees. It also put on hold plans to build the Indiana factory. California-based Solyndra, another thin-film solar panel maker, went bankrupt in 2011, leaving taxpayers responsible for a $535 million loan guarantee. After the Solyndra failure the DOE tightened its loan guarantee process and Abound appears to have gotten caught in the middle. "The firm awaited $10 million from the DOE and $10 million from its investors but had a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem," Eric Wesoff, a GreentechMedia analyst, wrote in his blog. "The DOE was waiting for the investors and the investors were waiting for the DOE," Wesoff wrote.