Global Warming Notes From All Over -- Not a Bakken Story

First, more global warming in Yellowstone coats the park with another blanket of snow.

In Boston Globe today: Evergreen Solar Inc. may close; running out of cash.

Evergreen Solar Inc., which has closed its factory in Devens, Massachusetts, warned yesterday that it is low on funds and in danger of going out of business.

The company has struggled for several years, trying to compete with manufacturers in China. It has also been hampered by the larger issues of falling demand — and falling prices — in the industry.

Yesterday, Evergreen said there was a “continued rapid deterioration’’ in both demand for solar products and in selling prices.

I have driven by the Devens plant while visiting/living in Boston the past two years. I was never aware that the company was in trouble, but that was my inattention. The press has been reporting problems for the company for years.

From October, 2009:

Even before he won office, Governor Deval Patrick was counting on Evergreen Solar Inc. to energize the state’s economy.

Patrick visited the Marlborough company on the campaign trail, urging it to build a solar panel factory here, instead of in competing states such as New York and Oregon. Once in office, Patrick sealed the deal by offering Evergreen more than $76 million in grants, land, loans, tax incentives, and other aid. It was one of the largest investments the state has ever made in the success of a private company.

Patrick now casts Evergreen as “a symbol of the future,’’ a leader in the state’s burgeoning clean energy industry with the potential to create thousands of jobs. The company, with nearly 700 employees in the state, has more than doubled its local payroll since 2007.

But now state officials are quietly fretting about Evergreen’s future.

Battered by the ailing economy, stiff global competition, and plunging prices for solar panels, Evergreen says it may be forced to downsize its new manufacturing plant, at the old Fort Devens Army base northwest of Boston. The company says it expects to burn through most of its $83 million in cash by year-end, and last month it persuaded the state to lend it another $5 million. Its stock, which peaked at nearly $19 per share in late 2007, closed at $1.83 yesterday.

“There are a lot of investors who believe they are not viable in their current form,’’ said Christopher Blansett, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst who thinks the company will survive because of its technological edge but may have to cut jobs in Massachusetts to do so. “The stock is trading like it’s going to go into bankruptcy.’’

And more recently, January 12, 2011, earlier this year:

Battered by the ailing economy, stiff global competition, and plunging prices for solar panels, Evergreen says it may be forced to downsize its new manufacturing plant, at the old Fort Devens Army base northwest of Boston. The company says it expects to burn through most of its $83 million in cash by year-end, and last month it persuaded the state to lend it another $5 million. Its stock, which peaked at nearly $19 per share in late 2007, closed at $1.83 yesterday.

“There are a lot of investors who believe they are not viable in their current form,’’ said Christopher Blansett, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst who thinks the company will survive because of its technological edge but may have to cut jobs in Massachusetts to do so. “The stock is trading like it’s going to go into bankruptcy.’’

Maybe we could increase taxes on big oil and transfer some of the proceeds to Evergreen.