Now for the real story.
Obama announces Abound Solar growth; 3,500 jobs tied to Northern Colorado company's expansion
BY ROBERT MOORE • RobertMoore@coloradoan.com • July 3, 2010
Northern Colorado's Abound Solar will receive a $400 million federal loan guarantee that will allow the company to expand its manufacturing of thin-film solar panels and create thousands of jobs in Northern Colorado and Indiana, President Barack Obama announced this morning in his weekly broadcast address.
Abound, which was created as AVA Solar at Colorado State University, "will manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs," Obama said in his address.
"A Colorado plant is already under way, and an Indiana plant will be built in what's now an empty Chrysler factory. When fully operational, these plants will produce millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year," Obama said in the address.
The company currently employs more han 300 people and has a factory just outside Longmont, research and development in Fort Collins and its headquarters in Loveland.
CSU Professor Walajabad Sampath, a co-founder of Abound who now has a limited role in the company, said the loan was more than a year in the works and that Energy Department officials last visited their Longmont facility in mid-May, where they were very optimistic about Abound receiving the loan guarantee.
"It's a large capital infusion. We can make more (modules), reduce the cost and improve technology," Sampath said of the $400 million loan guarantees.
In Longmont, Sampath said the expansion will go toward three manufacturing unit cells. One is up and running, one is half complete and the third is yet to be completed.
Abound spokesman Mark Chen said the 1,500 permanent jobs mentioned by Obama included the 300 or so current jobs at the company. Once fully built out in Colorado in 2012 and Indiana in 2014, the company will have about 900 workers in the Hoosier State and 600 in the Centennial State, he said.
The bigger impact might come on the company's suppliers, who will also see large job growth, Chen said.
"We're already using American suppliers for a vast majority of our products," he said.
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Some of those suppliers might find it better to move nearer the plants in Colorado and Indiana, adding to the local job growth in those areas, Chen said.
He declined to discuss specifics about wages for the new Abound jobs, but Chen said "but they are above national and local averages."
The stimulus funding is a "big deal" for Abound, considering the capital markets are frozen, Sampath said.
The federal loan guarantees, which come from the 2009 stimulus bill, help companies get access to capital from a financial sector that's still reluctant to lend. The guarantees remove the risks for lenders.
"Without the loan guarantees, they would not be able to really move forward on this project," said Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Fort Collins. "It's seed money that's going to be fully paid back by Abound."
Markey said Abound submitted an application for the loan guarantees more than a year ago, and she and other members of the Colorado congressional delegation have been pushing the Department of Energy and White House to approve the proposal.
“It’s really exciting for Northern Colorado,” she said Friday, after being told of the loan guarantee by the White House but before the official announcement..
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said Abound’s investment is an example of how the nation can rebuild the country’s manufacturing base.
“It’s not about looking backward to the 20th century to figure out what we need to do; it’s about building an economy for the 21st century,” said Bennet, who was in Fort Collins for a campaign event Friday night and had also been briefed on the coming announcement. “And energy, I think, by far has the most potential in the short- and medium-term to boost our economy and drive jobs.
“And Colorado is perfectly situated to lead all 50 states on that question,” he said.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said the Abound loan guarantee was an important development for the state and nation.
“Abound Solar is making the kind of advancements in solar energy technology that will enable Colorado – and America – to lead in the clean energy economy,” Udall said in a statement today. “This loan guarantee will jumpstart an exciting new technology, create jobs and ultimately help us reduce our reliance on foreign fossil fuel.”
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Gov. Bill Ritter said the loan guarantees will further speed Abound's remarkable growth.
“Abound is already a job-creation engine in Colorado and this Recovery Act loan guarantee will translate to more jobs, cleaner energy and bolster our standing as a hub of clean energy entrepreneurialism,” Ritter said in a statement today.
The Abound project is one of two major loan guarantees Obama announced today, with the money coming from the stimulus act passed by Congress. The other is a $1.45 billion loan guarantee for Abengoa Solar Inc. -- headquarterd in Lakewood, Colo. -- to build a large solar generation plant near Gila Bend, Ariz.
The Obama administration has previously announced 11 other solar projects funded with the help of $13 billion in loan guarantees from the stimulus bill.
Abound was founded in 2007 after 15 years of development at CSU with the support of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The 804,000-square-foot Tipton, Ind., plant was built in 2008 to build transmissions in a partnership between Chrysler and a German manufacturer, but the partnership dissolved amid cost disputes and the $540 million plant never opened.
Tipton officials in May approved $13 million in incentives for Abound to locate a manufacturing plant at the abandoned Chrysler site, according to Indiana media reports.
The Indiana county near Kokomo has about 5,000 residents. The unemployment rate in the Kokomo metropolitan area is 12 percent.
The unemployment rates in the Colorado counties nearest Abound’s Longmont facility are significantly lower – 6.1 percent in Boulder, 6.6 percent in Larimer and 9 percent in Weld.
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