Solar Panel Maker Moves Work to China

Solar Panel Maker Moves Work to China

www.nytimes.com

Aided by at least $43 million in assistance from the government of Massachusetts and an innovative solar energy technology, Evergreen Solar emerged in the last three years as the third-largest maker of solar panels in the United States.

But now the company is closing its main American factory, laying off the 800 workers by the end of march and shifting production to a joint venture with a Chineses company in central China.

(visit the link for the full news article)

And here we see another shining example why the U.S. is crumbling before our very eyes.

Not only outsourcing of jobs overseas, not only of outsourcing MANUFACTURING overseas, but actually manufacturing of energy technology, which the states is already a mess over, with costs of the standard energies escalating through the roof in modern times!

But for the mega-corps, all that matters is their bottom line and profitability. Never mind selling out your fellow americans, who are already struggling to hold onto jobs and sustain living.

Pretty sad and telling though, when a FOREIGN country's gov is more willing to offer support and subsidies to these manufacturers than our own is.

And so a very tricky war of LEVERAGE and DEPENDENCY is carried out, as now the U.S. becomes dependent on China for ANOTHER important commodity-SOLAR POWER.

But yet our gov can throw TRILLIONS at our military conquests year after year without blinking an eye. Death & Destruction = A-OK, energy technology advancements = "meh".

Unbelievable and sickening at the same time.

www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Great, now they'll probably give off toxic fumes while they power your house or they'll have so much lead in them, you'll have to get a special permit to dispose of them.

Way to go unions, drive away good jobs AND destroy the environment.

Wasn't that the one that Obama did one of his infomercials at?

Great!
Expect cheap/unexpensive solar panels on the market soon.

Hey... have to look at the bright side...


Peace

reply to post by Sator


Yeah, but who is going to have a job left to buy them?

Cutting ones nose off to spite one's face.

Cheaper prices aren't going to do folks a whole lot of good when there are no jobs left to buy them at ANY price.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


This is the bit that p's me off the most..!!!

Aided by at least $43 million in assistance from the government of Massachusetts

Basically it's US tax payers funding overseas profits and loss of jobs..

Why don't the Government put clauses into contracts before giving away tax dollars??
BTW, I know the answer but still worth noting..

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


One wonders what sorts of hoops the Massachusetts government made the factory jump through.

I worked in MA in the 80's and 90's as a chemist and that state was very hostile towards manufacturing.

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by DimensionalDetective

 

This is the bit that p's me off the most..!!!

Aided by at least $43 million in assistance from the government of Massachusetts

Basically it's US tax payers funding overseas profits and loss of jobs..

Why don't the Government put clauses into contracts before giving away tax dollars??
BTW, I know the answer but still worth noting..

The bad thing is, we, the tax payers don't have much of a say as to where our tax dollars go. It's not like we get a form with a list of options to check.

Originally posted by Sator
Great!
Expect cheap/unexpensive solar panels on the market soon.

Yeah Was thinking the same thing. Been waiting to put solar onto my house... but they been too expensive.

Can't wait for them to come out.

I have seen Solar powered generators from there as well... I want one of those

BTW Buzz Aldrin, senior scientific advisor for Gravwave LLC... they sold out too... They are working on Anti Gravity tech with CHINA...

Hope yawl like Chinese food... They are the ones buying up all those foreclosures

Originally posted by EssenSieMich
Wasn't that the one that Obama did one of his infomercials at?

exactly...essen sie mich...it was also one of the campaign promises was it not, that Obama said if he were elected that he would make sure to persue "green" alternatives in the US. To use these green alternatives to create more jobs for Americans???

As I see it...just another political lie...

I figured this would be coming. There was the talk of "green jobs" saving the US economy. The US making solar panels, windmills, etc.

The question I could never get out of my head, and the one that nobody could ever answer was... "Ok but, if we can make them here - then they can likely be made cheaper in off shore. What's to keep the green jobs from being outsourced like all the other jobs??"

It looks like the answer is - nothing.

I'm about to put in a fairly long quote here. It is the from article in the OP. It is where the CEO of the company talks about why they moved to China.

In a telephone interview in August, Mr. El-Hillow said that he was desperate to avoid layoffs at the Devens factory. But he said Chinese state-owned banks and municipal governments were offering unbeatable assistance to Chinese solar panel companies.

Factory labor is cheap in China, where monthly wages average less than $300. That compares to a statewide average of more than $5,400 a month for Massachusetts factory workers. But labor is a tiny share of the cost of running a high-tech solar panel factory, Mr. El-Hillow said. China’s real advantage lies in the ability of solar panel companies to form partnerships with local governments and then obtain loans at very low interest rates from state-owned banks.

Evergreen, with help from its partners — the Wuhan municipal government and the Hubei provincial government — borrowed two-thirds of the cost of its Wuhan factory from two Chinese banks, at an interest rate that under certain conditions could go as low as 4.8 percent, Mr. El-Hillow said in August. Best of all, no principal payments or interest payments will be due until the end of the loan in 2015.

By contrast, a $21 million grant from Massachusetts covered 5 percent of the cost of the Devens factory, and the company had to borrow the rest from banks, Mr. El-Hillow said.

Banks in the United States were reluctant to provide the rest of the money even at double-digit interest rates, partly because of the financial crisis. “Therein lies the hidden advantage of being in China,” Mr. El-Hillow said.

Labor cost (at least for them ) wasn't the deciding factor. It was all the help and cheap and easy credit the Chinese government and state owned banks provided.

Just another case of government running companies out of the US.

Companies can not open manufacturing in the US without paying the price of all the government red tape and restriction.

This has been a problem in Calif for the last 30 years.

Getting sued for rain runoff.
Getting sued for a bathroom mirror to high.
Getting sued for ECT ECT ECT

This about covers it

Ha Ha Ha America

Originally posted by Holly N.R.A.

Originally posted by EssenSieMich
Wasn't that the one that Obama did one of his infomercials at?

exactly...essen sie mich...it was also one of the campaign promises was it not, that Obama said if he were elected that he would make sure to persue "green" alternatives in the US. To use these green alternatives to create more jobs for Americans???

As I see it...just another political lie...

Them rich Chinese landowners gonna need someone to cut the grass when they move over Green jobs for all!

On a serious note though it seems to me fairly indicative of the USA today that there is no cohesive plan or direction beyond warmongering and the pursuit of oil supply control. For if the O man or anyone else does have a plan not one of them is strong enough to follow it through. There is too much butting of heads and deliberate political conflict restricting progress and strangling your economy. Whether you agree with a particular Presidents ideology, at least a strong one gets sh*t done.

Just hope you got enough juice in the tank to get to the next election. God I just thought Jeb Bush could be next in - gulp!


Good luck indeed.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


Yes because we should all work for 35 cents a day, yeah and fork over money we don't have to support companies that should have had THIER OWN CAPITAL TO START THEIR BUSINESS!!!! (Sarcasm)
And Yes we should become communist and live in a cesspool nation much like china!(Sarcasm)
Disgusting some of the stupid replies I have seen like this is okay or it is caused by americans or unions or government, That is ALL BS it is caused by one thing, and one thing only GREED!!!! The company is greedy and now we are going to have chinese drywall solar panels (in that they will probably be crap and cause us sickness and death)
Also I will refuse to go green 1000% now!!! Until the sh*** is made here I won't buy it!!!!

Originally posted by ldyserenity
That is ALL BS it is caused by one thing, and one thing only GREED!!!!

reply to post by backinblack


You are missing the point, even with those massive incentives the costs are still to high in the US to compete.

As long as the Chinese are free to steal intellectual property, treat their citizens like slaves, and ignore all environmental concerns, with zero consequences the US has ZERO legitimate chance to compete with them on an even playing field.

We will continue to lose manufacturing jobs, until one of two things happen. 1. Americans are willing to pay more for American made products, actually they must demand them. 2. Our wages drop to the same levels as the Chinese.

Unfortunately knowing the greed of the average American, I think number two is the more likely outcome.

A similar thing happens here in Australia, we help educate some great scientist in the solar field then fail to support them in the manufacturing so they go of to China. The whole renewable industry has been getting a real hard time from the oil sector, it will be a good day when these oil slicks finally get their reality check.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective
He knows.

Check his background.

Came from Earnst & Young.
Catapulted to Stardom.

Check my Threads, The Prophecies one, guess about page 45, where I notice the "Jewish" connection with EVERYthing.
He has interests in Israel...

Then you will know why he is Moving in March.

Great spot. OP

Star & Flag.
They say watch out when they start to leave.