Merry Christmas from Jerry Brown! More “Green” and Tech Jobs Leave California

by Jane Jamison | December 23, 2010 5:23 pm

Obviously “encouraged” by all of the incoming governor’s dire warnings about tax increases and budget cuts, more “green jobs” are running for:  the border.

Here ‘s the headline in the San Jose Mercury News.

“Nordic Windpower leaving California”[1]: 

(OH, the irony, it’s a company based in Berserkley, the “mecca” for the enviro-mental faithful.)

Nordic Windpower, a Berkeley-based wind turbine manufacturer that is currently spread among three locations, announced Tuesday that it is leaving California and moving to Kansas City.

The small company, which makes large two-bladed wind turbines, has 50 employees. Ten work in Berkeley; the others work at an assembly facility in Idaho and a technology office in the United Kingdom.

Nordic has been eager to bring the three facilities under one roof, and considered 14 cities. Kansas City, in Missouri near the Kansas state line, lies at the heart of the nation’s premier “wind corridor,” which stretches from the Canadian border and Great Plains south through Texas.

“Our product is fairly large — a wind turbine weighs 110 tons,” CEO Tom Carbone said in an interview Tuesday. “So moving that equipment is a big part of the cost of any project. It will be great to be closer to our customers and great to have everybody in one place.”

Carbone said many states in the Midwest — between Colorado to the west and Arkansas to the east — surpass California in planned wind power installations. Kansas City has deftly marketed itself as the largest major city within the wind corridor.

“We’re close to where most of the wind turbines are in the United States, and we have a lot of engineers here,” said Bob Marcusse, president and CEO of KC Advanced Energy, a regional economic development group that works to attract clean-energy companies to Kansas City.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon offered Nordic $5.6 million in incentives, including sales tax exemptions for equipment and machinery purchased, to persuade company executives to make the move.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon offered Nordic $5.6 million in incentives, including sales tax exemptions for equipment and machinery purchased, to persuade company executives to make the move.

Investors in Nordic Windpower include Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and Goldman Sachs. The Department of Energy also awarded the company a $16 million federal loan guarantee.

Incoming Governor Moonbeam in California has been so busy getting his reality checked in the dismal California economy and threatening to raise taxes, it’s doubtful he or his staff even noticed yet another company leaving.[2]

This little wind turbine company leaving : follows:  the huge punch to the gut to workers in the San Francisco Bay area last week when Yahoo laid off 650-700 employees just before Christmas.[3]: :  The company’s staff is being cut 4% but Twitter traffic from the ranks is indicating some jobs are moving to India.

Another : especially inconvenient truth for elected California Democrats and Barack Obama, has been what the state’s supposedly “premier” solar panel manufacturing plant has just done.

Exactly ONE DAY after the November election, on November 3rd, Solyndra Solar in Fremont, California announced it was in deep trouble.:  Barack Obama had just been out for a teleprompter photo:  op a few: months before, heralding Solyndra as the face of the new “green economy” ::  That may be true, but did anyone notice the “face” is frowning?

The closing will result in 40 Solyndra employees being laid off. Another 150 subcontractors will not have their current work contracts renewed, according to the report.

But the news follows the opening of Solyndra’s state-of-the-art Fab 2 plant near its original Fremont plant just weeks ago, which was built in part with a $535 million federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

[…]

Solyndra makes thin-film flexible solar cells from CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, and selenide), not traditional photovoltaic cells made with silicon. Thin-film solar cells are typically less efficient than silicon solar cells, but because they have also been traditionally cheaper to install they maintained a competitive edge in the solar marketplace.

But a changing thin-film solar market, as well as a significant drop in the cost of traditional silicon solar cells, has changed that dynamic.

Solyndra has raised a total of $970 million in financing, and received another $573 million in the form of a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, money that was appropriated in the Energy Act of 2005. The Department of Energy and the White House has held Solyndra up as a prime example of U.S. green-tech manufacturing innovation[4], investment, and job creation. President Obama made his “We’ve got to go back to making things” speech in May from the Fab 2 plant during a visit.

Concurrent with Solyndra’s funding and ramp-up to production, several thin-film solar manufacturers in China have also been ramping up manufacturing in large part because of the Chinese government’s well-documented push to invest in green tech.

Chinese thin-film solar manufacturer Suntech, for example, has announced several tech partnerships it says have improved the efficiency of its thin-film solar cells, as well as increased production volume resulting in significantly lower costs for its products.

In April PricewaterhouseCoopers, Solyndra’s auditor, said the company was in debt at a rate that was unsustainable and needed to make significant adjustments if it was to be profitable long-term. In July the company canceled its planned IPO and announced that Solyndra founding CEO Chris Gronet would be stepping down to be replaced by Brian Harrison.”

You can read the entire story here on CNET.:  [5]

: It’s the same song, verse 1,299,349: do-gooder enviro-nuts that have access to our tax dollars throw billions at projects that have no hope of ever being profitable, or even viable.:  Add in the ever-maneuvering Chinese with the slave-wages dynamic and do you hear that sucking sound?

At least:  158: companies have left California in 2010, according to Joe Vranich the Business Relocator[6]: 

Cross-posted at UNCOVERAGE.net: [22]

Endnotes:
  1. “Nordic Windpower leaving California”: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_16913416?source=rss&nclick_check=1&fb_ref=fbrecbox
  2. Incoming Governor Moonbeam in California has been so busy getting his reality checked in the dismal California economy and threatening to raise taxes, it’s doubtful he or his staff even noticed yet another company leaving.: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2010/12/22/dems-prepping-state-for-tax-hikes/
  3. when Yahoo laid off 650-700 employees just before Christmas.: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/14/yahoo-confirms-layoffs/
  4. the White House has held Solyndra up as a prime example of U.S. green-tech manufacturing innovation: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/26/we-ve-got-go-back-making-things
  5. You can read the entire story here on CNET.:  : http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20021624-54.html
  6. At least:  158: companies have left California in 2010, according to Joe Vranich the Business Relocator: http://thebusinessrelocationcoach.blogspot.com/2010/10/california-companies-moving-away-or.html
  7. Calif. ranks 48th in ‘business friendliness’: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/12/10/calif-ranks-48th-in-business-friendliness/50750/
  8. Californians not paying $1.1 billion tax: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/12/09/50796/50796/
  9. 4 O.C. firms among biggest tax delinquents: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/11/30/4-o-c-firms-among-biggest-tax-delinquents/50152/
  10. IRS warns tax preparers: sign up!: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/11/11/irs-warns-tax-preparers-sign-up/49226/
  11. Calif. tax climate 2nd worst in U.S.: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/10/29/calif-tax-climate-2nd-worst-in-u-s/48262/
  12. Texas tries to lasso Calif. businesses: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/12/14/texas-trying-to-lasso-calif-businesses/51006/
  13. Owner: ‘I’m keeping my biz in California’: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/12/13/owner-im-keeping-my-biz-in-california/50982/
  14. 35 more firms on ‘leaving California’ list: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/12/06/35-more-firms-on-leaving-california-list/50584/
  15. Calif. vs. Texas in manufacturing jobs: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/12/03/calif-vs-texas-in-manufacturing-jobs/50386/
  16. More leave Calif. than move in: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/11/10/more-leave-calif-than-move-in/49116/
  17. Will this company stay in O.C. or go?: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/11/09/will-this-company-stay-in-o-c-or-go/49068/
  18. O.C. costume shop to close: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/11/04/o-c-costume-shop-to-close/48646/
  19. O.C. sign firm adds plant, 135 jobs in South Carolina: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/10/29/o-c-sign-firm-adds-plant-135-jobs-in-south-carolina/48324/
  20. Report: L.A., state rules are killing business: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/10/26/report-l-a-state-rules-killing-business/48066/
  21. 14 companies added to ‘leaving California’ list: http://jan.ocregister.com/2010/10/13/14-companies-added-to-leaving-california-list/47020/
  22. Cross-posted at UNCOVERAGE.net: : http://www.uncoverage.net/2010/12/merry-christmas-from-jerry-brown-more-“green”-and-tech-jobs-leave-california/

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