Bloomberg reported that Abound Solar Inc., a Loveland, Colorado-based U.S. solar manufacturer that was awarded a $400 million U.S. loan guarantee, will suspend operations and file for bankruptcy because its panels were too expensive to compete.
 
According to the report, Abound borrowed about $70 million against the guarantee. Abound stopped production in February to focus on reducing costs after a global oversupply and increasing competition from China drove down the price of solar panels by half last year.

This latest failure of a solar manufacturer follows that of Solyndra LLC, which closed operations in August 2011 after receiving a $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Energy Department program.

The company stated, “Aggressive pricing actions from Chinese solar-panel companies have made it very difficult for an early stage startup company like Abound to scale in current market conditions,” according to the Bloomberg report.