WCA September 2012

From the americas

Statue of Liberty Image from BigStockPhoto.com Photographer: Marty

❖ Abound Solar said it could have been profitable if it had had large-scale manufacturing underway, but “aggressive pricing actions from Chinese solar panel companies have made it very difficult for an early stage start-up company like Abound to scale in current market conditions.” Other American manufacturers of solar panels brought a trade case against Chinese manufacturers, claiming the Chinese government had improperly subsidised them, and won substantial tariffs on the Chinese firms. Even so, analysts interviewed by Matthew L Wald of the New York Times agreed that a global oversupply of manufacturing capacity was making life very difficult for solar panel makers. “The less cost-competitive vendors are exiting the market,” Amir Rozwadowski, an analyst at Barclays, told Mr Wald. “In the near term it’s going to be painful for vendors that aren’t cost-competitive.” (“A Second US-Supported Maker of Solar Panels Will Close,” 28 th June). Policies that force foreign-born innovators to leave the United States are said to injure the nation’s economy If President Obama suffered a recent setback as a proponent of clean energy (“Manufacturer of Solar Panels,” above), he won a major victory on another front: immigration. On 29 th June, the US Supreme Court struck down three of the four main provisions in Arizona’s tough SB 1070 immigration law. The Court left in place a fourth provision, requiring local police officers during routine stops to check the status of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. But, even here, the Court’s narrow reading left such searches open to legal challenge on grounds that they violate a prohibition of racial profiling, as well as other laws. To the extent that the nation’s highest court is pointing the way toward a more immigrant-friendly United States, it is not only obliging the White House; it is acting, as well, in the best interests of the national economy. A study released 26 th June shows that immigrants played a role in more than three out of four patents generated at the top American research universities. Nearly all the patents were in science, technology, engineering and maths – the so-called STEM fields that are a crucial driver of job growth. Some of the patents that were reviewed for the report have in fact led to business ventures. Conducted by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a non-profit group co-founded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, the report points out that, while many of the world’s top foreign-born innovators are trained at US universities, after graduation they face “daunting or insurmountable immigration hurdles that force them to leave and bring their talents elsewhere.” Immigration

Citing overwhelming Chinese competition, another government-supported US manufacturer of solar panels closes up shop Abound Solar Inc, a company that borrowed $70 million against its $400 million Energy Department guarantee to complete a factory in Colorado, announced 28 th June that it would suspend operations. Abound said its thin-film panels were not competitive with Chinese products, the same reason cited by the Fremont, California-based solar equipment manufacturer Solyndra, which closed its doors last year. Solyndra drew down nearly all of its $535 million loan guarantee before it failed. Abound said in a statement that it would let go all 125 employees and file for bankruptcy within the week. The Loveland, Colorado-based company, formerly known as AVA Solar, put together its early funding under a grant programme begun during the George W Bush administration, and the project had attracted enthusiastic support from lawmakers of both major political parties. Its plans, now abandoned, included a manufacturing facility at a closed automotive plant in Tipton County, Indiana. Abound Solar produced panels that made electricity directly from sunlight, using a cadmium telluride chemistry which promised a cost advantage over silicon cells. But that benefit eroded as silicon cells plunged in price. The struggling company announced in February that it was closing down its factory to conserve resources while it tried to start production of a more advanced product. Whether or not the attempt would have succeeded, given time, is now a moot point, but there is no question that this second conspicuous collapse of a government-sup- ported solar company quickly became a political football. Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had already used the failure of Solyndra – a manufacturer of innovative cylindrical solar systems for commercial rooftops – to impugn President Barack Obama’s support for clean energy companies. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and chairman of a sub-committee of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, similarly seized the opportunity presented by Abound Solar’s failure. “Our government,” he said, “is not good at picking winners and losers in the marketplace but has certainly proved it is good at wasting taxpayer dollars.” ❖ For its part, the Energy Department on 28 th June released letters it received in 2009 from members of Congress representing residents of Colorado and Indiana urging the grant of the loan guarantee. Four Indiana Republicans were among the signers, as were Indiana’s Democratic senator and several Colorado Democrats. If success has many fathers, so – the Obama administration was clearly asserting – does failure.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2012