A portion of President Obama’s $2 billion in federal loan guarantees announced this weekend means Abound Solar in Longmont will be adding as many as 300 private-sector jobs between now and the end of the year. The manufacturer of thin-film PV panels says it will nearly double its employee base in the state, and triple production lines, thanks to the $400 million from the feds. 

By Ann Rascalli

Abound Solar spokesman Mark Chen said it’s not yet clear exactly how the new jobs will break down between Abound Solar’s Longmont production facility, its headquarters in Loveland and its research lab in Fort Collins. He added, however, that Longmont would likely be the biggest beneficiary since the bulk of production is done at the company’s location there.

The loan guarantee is part of nearly $2 billion in stimulus funds approved by the Department of Energy to Abound and Arizona-based Abengoa Solar Inc., Obama said in his Saturday address.

The funds will help create an estimated 1,500 permanent jobs in Colorado and Indiana, and eventually result in the production of “millions of state-of-the-art solar panels each year,” the president of Abound Solar said. He also pointed out that 2,000 construction jobs would be generated because of the expansion.

The company plans another manufacturing operation at an empty Chrysler plant in Tipton, Ind.

According to spokesperson Chen, Abound Solar,  is expected to hire engineers, equipment technicians and production operators. Salaries for the workers would be roughly 40 percent higher than the local average salary, he said.

Of course, politicians had to get into the news cycle about the funding. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who was in Boulder for a campaign rally Saturday, was elated at the news. The Democrat said the grant application for the loan guarantee “was a tremendous piece of work.”

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, a Fort Collins Democrat who represents Longmont, said she and other members of Colorado’s congressional delegation have been urging the Department of Energy to approve the application from Abound.

“Without the loan guarantees, they would not be able to really move forward on this project,” Markey said.

Developed jointly by Colorado State University, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the National Science Foundation, Abound’s  proprietary manufacturing technology produces photovoltaic panels using an innovative process in which thin films of Cadmium-Telluride are deposited onto the glass panels.  The selling point with the technology is that it reduces overall product cost, and this marks the debut of commercial deployment.

Federal loan guarantees help companies gain access to capital from a financial sector that’s still reluctant to lend. They remove the risks for lenders. They are not, however, without their critics. People like Denver-based venture capital expert, David Gold, who we have quoted in Colorado Energy News before, says they artificially prop up markets and involve the government choosing winners and losers — not what our form of government should be doing, he argues.

We doubt that viewpoint is going to find much traction in places like Longmont and Loveland anytime soon.

The Arizona-company, Abengoa Solar, is expected to get a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to build a large solar generation plant near Gila Bend, Ariz. The Obama administration previously announced 11 other solar projects funded with the help of $13 billion in loan guarantees from the stimulus bill.

Said the President: “I’ve seen the payoff from these investments. I’ve seen once-shuttered factories humming with new workers who are building solar panels and wind turbines.”

“This project is yet another example what the Recovery Act has done in communities across the country in creating the new, clean energy jobs of the future,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a news release. “By supporting new cutting-edge solar manufacturing technologies, we are advancing a diverse renewable energy portfolio while helping to position the U.S. at the forefront of the global green economy.”