Log in / Register All Boston UH only

Evergreen Solar

Globe finally notices something fishy with Evergreen Solar

Front page material, even.

It's something I noticed in April of 2008, and wrote again about in March of 2009.

Interesting that new details are coming out, like the fact that a third of their workforce are temporary. I wonder how many of them are "independent contractors"...

The Globe also completely fails to mention that after securing money from the state and letting Patrick brag about the new jobs it was bringing in, Evergreen Solar built a $55M plant in Michigan which they claim will have 100 employees. Evergreen Solar received 2 million dollars from Michigan in tax credits last year.

Boston "maker", indeed

The Globe captions the photo: "Lithion-ion battery maker Boston-Power Inc" in discussing Boston job creation. Funny, then, that the batteries have giant "Made in china" stamps on them. A123 Systems, the other company state leaders love to brag about, also makes its batteries in China.

The story also mentions the posterchild for government handouts, Evergreen Solar- who has repeatedly promised job creation in a dial-a-number fashion. In April of 2007, "300 to 350 jobs, more than doubling its current workforce"(which implies the current workforce was less than 300-350.) In April of 2008 after $23 million in handouts and $17.5 million in low-interest loans: "1000 jobs total", "tripling their workforce", which means it was still at 300 employees. Now, they're saying that they want to hire "90-100" people (right now, there's only one open job listing), and that when it "reaches full capacity", it will employ 800 people- which means that presumably, there are at most 700 people currently working there. Where did the other 200 jobs go? Probably to Michigan; while Deval was patting them on the back for creating jobs here and giving them giant wads of cash, the company was finishing up securing million of dollars in tax breaks for a plant in Michigan. The Great American Jobs Scam rolls on.