Evergreen Solar to close new plant at Devens

[Mark Maker]

Source: Boston Globe

By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff

Evergreen Solar Inc., which received $58 million in state aid to open a factory in 2008 at the former military base in Devens, announced today it would shut the plant and let go 800 workers by the end of this quarter.

The solar-panel plant is a cornerstone of Governor Deval Patrick's efforts to make Massachusetts a hub for the emerging clean-energy industry.
But Evergreen has been struggling in face of weak prices and competition from cheaper operations in China, where the government has offered solar companies generous subsidies to locate there.

Evergreen itself has a partnership with a company based in China and previously announced plans to shift some work to the overseas location.


Massachusetts officials noted the state may have the opportunity to recover some of the funds Evergreen received.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2011/01/evergreen_solar_30.html

---

800 less green jobs to save the economy. $58 million down the tube, and Evergreen itself sent some production to China on the states dime?

[Arctic Dave]

1. I don't see how Evergreen thought they would be any different then

other companies that had the same thing happen to them.

[madrchsod]

2. get used to it....

we really have our heads in the sand about china and what they are doing...

[valerief]

3. We can't convert without subsidies like Germany did. nt

[molly77]

12. 100 arrests for carbon credit fraud in Europe emanating from

Deutshe Bank.Germany has not closed down one coal or gas fired power plant with all the money they poured into wind farms. More to the story than meets the eye. Matt Taibbi says cap and trade is the next bubble. Only there will be no middle man. The money goes straight to Wall Street.

[AlbertCat]

4. Da bomb!

this statement sums up the future of the US:

But Evergreen has been struggling in face of weak prices and competition from cheaper operations in China,

[KansDem]

5. So, are we getting solar energy from China?

:shrug:

[quakerboy]

20. Solar panels,

I believe.

[FreakinDJ]

26. No one said any thing when China decided to flood the market

with silicon wafers and IC chips

Of course Bush was president then and his brother Neil was over in China collecting hefty fees "consulting"

Photo Voltaic Solar Cells are made virtually the same way as growing a Silicon Wafer which is the beginning process of the IC chip

[timo]

6. an EXACT accounting

of the money would be interesting, but I bet it never sees the light of day!!!

[avaistheone1]

7. How much are we spending in Afghanistan and Iraq a day?

[bluedigger]

8. $58 million is nothing.

It's about the jobs and the viability of future green manufacturing in the U.S. This is supposed to be a cornerstone of the Democratic economic strategy to make the U.S. competitive going forward. If we are going to let the Chinese beat us in the first stage, we better come up with a another plan.

[CRH]

14. Right, and this administration has made little progress, ...

in promoting the subsidizing of the industry here in this country. We complain that China subsidizes their solar industry so why can't we do the same.

Oil is subsidized to the tune of billions if you count the military that keeps sea lanes and land bridges open, the geo political chessboard constantly manipulated by foreign policy, the CIA and the State Department, and the different tax incentives always tossed in for exploration and developing new sources.

The amount given to R&D and market support for alternatives is miniscule by comparison. Individual sources of alternative energy production and distribution coupled with conservation strategies could go a long way toward relieving a large portion of the fossil fuel energy demand. Localized generation in every new structure built with orientation toward reduced consumption too.

What better way to spend tax revenues, than investing in a future that provides jobs in research, development, sales, distribution, and installation?

What better way to spend tax revenues than demonstrating energy saved is energy earned, and teaching the economics of conservation?

You may say I'm a dreamer ...

[Lorien]

16. +1. Well said. nt

[Ian David]

9. We should seize the plant by eminent domain and let the workers run it. n/t

[DeSwiss]

18. +1000

:thumbsup:

Capitalism is cancer. It always kills its host in the end.......


K&R

[naaman fletcher]

19. And then?

When they sell the panels for less than it costs to make them, who pays the difference?

[freshwest]

24. I see that argument, but aren't the taxpayers out for decades with property taxes for this?

And as usual, this is due to endless wars on borrowed money from China and magical thinking from the RW.

China is fully justified in forcing some payment on the debt before it's due; they can't trust those who started the wars and neither can we.

I know that Obama signed some contracts for American made solar but then saw an article where it turned out to be a joint partnership in production.

But this is bad, bad, bad. And the media ran circuses talking about anything other than this huge theft.

[Psephos]

25. "China is fully justified in forcing some payment on the debt before it's due"

Ain't going to happen. The debt is in the form of bonds. There is no legal mechanism for "forcing" a bond repayment on any terms other than those stipulated at the time of its issuance.

A further thought: you seem more interested in China's best interests than ours. I hope people with similar thoughts are in a very small minority, or soon enough, we'll all be in thrall to the Chinese empire. It has several thousands of years more experience at empire building than the US, and its leaders firmly believe it's time to take back the mantle.

[Joe Bacon]

29. Somebody is forgetting some history.

If you read "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy", you'd remember Teddy Roosevelt's corollary to the Monroe Doctrine where American forces would go into Latin American countries to collect foreign debt. And you'd remember how Mc Kinley authorized the same actions to keep a "sphere of influence" in China.

You can sure bet that the Chinese remember how they were exploited by Americans and they can't wait for payback time!

[conspirator]

27. Who is paying it now? Probably the state or federal government

So you are ok with government subsidies for rich people but not for employee run factories?

[txlibdem]

30. +1 Well said!.... ...... ....n/t

[Ian David]

28. Who says that's what would happen? n/t

[AngryAmish]

34. 4. Profit!

[onethatcares]

10. wtf? It's cheaper to outsource the manufacturing and ship the

product back to the states than it is to actually build things here?

How the hell does that work? I'm at a loss trying to figure out what makes things like that happen. Is it because the Chinese worker makes 3.00 a day compared to what one needs to live here? Are the raw materials that much cheaper to import there or are they available in greater quantities?

[jmowreader]

11. Labor is a part of it, but not the only part

First thing: does anyone here know the Chinese government's tax treatment for manufacturers, specifically property taxes? If American states charge companies property tax and the Chinese government doesn't, that alone would do it. Also materials are less expensive there, environmental regulations are far more lax...if China had our OSHA it wouldn't be the manufacturing mecca that it is.

[quaker bill]

13. In the ballpark, but still a miss

China keeps its currency devalued. The point of this is to keep labor and all other costs very low. They also own most of the worlds rare earth metals production and manipulate the market. They actually need huge numbers of jobs in factories, so they intentionally keep their labor cheaper than our automation.

[jmowreader]

23. True dat

[boppers]

38. The Chinese worker doesn't have TV, cellphones, 2 cars, a house, designer yogurt, and a diet plan.

This is manufacturing, which means unskilled labor on assembly lines. When you have billions of peasants willing to do that kind of work for food and a roof over their heads, Americans just can't compete.

[NickB79]

41. Chinese companies can dump industrial waste where they want

And don't care if hundreds of villagers get poisoned and die. Solar cell manufacturing can put out some pretty toxic waste chemicals.

[jtuck004]

15. CEO got abut $480K in addition to salary in 2010

"The chief executive of Evergreen Solar Inc. received a nearly half-million dollar bonus for 2009, a year in which the company struggled with mounting losses and announced plans to shift work from its new, state-subsidized factory in Devens to China.

A look at the top 10 in the growing green tech field. The Marlborough company said chief executive Richard Feldt earned a bonus of $479,991 — 96 percent of his target amount — for meeting a number of goals, most of which were not related to the company’s financial performance."

here..

I wonder if one of their goals was successfully firing everyone and moving their jobs overeas? I also wonder who else profited from this.

I looked at their 8-k's and whatever elese I could find, makes me think it would be worth exploring how those 800 workers could put enough together to run their own factory here. Seems that where it is viable that could at least save some vestige of a job and technology.

Thank you

[avaistheone1]

37. Shameful.

He got almost a total of $2 million in compensation in a single year.

[jtuck004]

39. I did a bit more reading - one of his goals was

in fact to move this to China.

I wonder what they could have paid him to work hard and figure out a way to keep the jobs here...

[alfredo]

17. Devens was my old Army base. USASA Training Center

[PSPS]

21. "the (Chinese) government has offered solar companies generous subsidies to locate there."

The solar-panel plant is a cornerstone of Governor Deval Patrick's efforts to make Massachusetts a hub for the emerging clean-energy industry. But Evergreen has been struggling in face of weak prices and competition from cheaper operations in China, where the government has offered solar companies generous subsidies to locate there.

Besides being a violation of WTO, these subsidies should have triggered an immediate import tariff on Chinese solar panels to compensate for the subsidy. But that's silly in today's environment, what with the US Government having been "captured" in its entirety by global corporations.

[JCMach1]

22. Or are they being douchy because their free ride was going to end?

Companies pull this corporate welfare scam all the time!

The are still a CORPORATION regardless of the fact they are making green stuff.

[Brickbat]

31. New manufacturing industries are going to get us nowhere unless we make sure the jobs stay here.

Until that happens, I don't generally get excited about the green energy hype that's going to save our manufacturing base AND make the world shinier. This story is why.

[mbperrin]

32. Here's a success story.

http://www.acciona-na.com/About-Us/Our-Projects/U-S-/West-Branch-Wind-Turbine-Generator-Assembly-Plant.aspx

Partnership
We believe that our customers’ success is our success. Every client and every project is important to us and is treated with the same high level of attention. ACCIONA Windpower has made a significant investment in North America by establishing our manufacture headquarters in West Branch, Iowa. In doing so, we’ve built a centralized, domestic team of experts focused on serving our partners in the U.S. and Canada.
Our versatility in services and support extends beyond manufacturing wind turbines to logistics management; wind turbine erection and commissioning; warranty and post-sales support; condition-based monitoring; and 24/7 remote operations.

We are well-positioned to meet the growing demands for wind energy in North America. Our plant in Iowa has an annual production capacity of 450 units (675 MW) – and including our two plants in Spain our total global annual production capacity is 2,025 MW.

Economic development
ACCIONA Windpower is proud to be part of the community in West Branch, Iowa. The manufacturing sector is one that has continually prospered in the Midwest U.S., and ACCIONA plans to carry on that tradition. The availability of a skilled workforce and access to wind-industry education and training programs has enabled ACCIONA to build a talented pool of employees at our plant, more than 150-employees strong. A favorable business climate and state support for the wind industry drove ACCIONA’s site selection to Iowa. The region also has optimal proximity to the wind resources, with ideal access to inbound and outbound logistics for transportation options.

Why this project is sustainable
ACCIONA Windpower’s West Branch manufacturing plant was constructed with sustainability at the forefront of our plans. By using a pre-engineered building with poured concrete floors, we were able to retrofit an abandoned plant to meet our unique specifications. We reclaimed 98 percent of the material from the old plant, minimizing waste and unnecessary consumption of new material. Taking it one step further, the roof of our plant is dotted with skylights that fill the factory floor with ambient light, reducing electricity use and improving working conditions.

[Brickbat]

33. I could be wrong, but I'm sure the "about us" and other press releases announcing the partnership

and economic development benefits of the project in the OP sounded about the same.

[cap]

35. same thing happened in PA with Wind Power

a wind company started operations in Fairless, PA and then shifted them over to China.

We better get stuff straightened out such that governmental assistance which supports new technologies stays put here in US.

[Change Happens]

36. I own shares of this company, the stock is down again today...

It has been a total nightmare to be in this stock...

[xchrom]

40. without taxation and redoing our trade pacts

green tech like any other industry can be shifted off shore -- has been shifted off shore in other instances.

we can talk about green tech doing a lot for our country -- but we have to have other things in placce for that to happen.