WASHINGTON — Abound Solar, a solar panel maker that received a $400 million loan guarantee from the federal government, announced Thursday that it will file for bankruptcy amid plummeting prices and intense competition from Chinese manufacturers in the solar equipment market.
The failure of Abound, which had tapped about $68 million of the loan guarantee before the Energy Department cut off its credit last September, comes after the collapse last year of Solyndra, another high-tech solar panel maker that had received federal funds.
Republicans, including Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, have seized on Solyndra’s failure as evidence that the Obama administration is wasting taxpayer money by supporting clean-energy companies.
Abound Solar, of Loveland, Colo., with manufacturing in Tipton, Ind., produced panels that made electricity directly from sunlight using a chemistry called cadmium telluride, which was intended to have a cost advantage over the more common silicon cells.
