Energy Department protects trade secrets of bankrupt solar company

The Daily Caller ^ | October 10, 2012 | Michael Bastasch

[Uncle Chip]

Abound Solar filed for bankruptcy in June 2012, but the Department of Energy is still protecting their trade secrets, reports the Colorado Watchdog.

The Colorado Watchdog filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Energy in early August — about six weeks after Abound’s bankruptcy — asking for all testing data on solar modules produced by the company.

The response Colorado Watchdog got was a bunch of test pages with all the relevant data redacted.

“Abound Solar has substantial commercial interest in protecting the release of the redacted confidential module test data within the responsive records, since the public release of this confidential information could be used by competitors to gain an undue advantage over Abound Solar,” the DOE reply letter said.

“Competitors would be able to use this technical information to undercut Abound Solar in future DOE competitive grant application opportunities,” the letter continued.

But the company no longer exists, as it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June, after years of producing faulty panels that were prone to catching fire eroded their customer base.

[Nervous Tick]

>> the public release of this confidential information could be used by competitors to gain an undue advantage over Abound Solar

Gaining an undue advantage over one’s bankrupt competitor by building a product that actually WORKS.

I tell ya, some eeevil corporations will stoop to ANYTHING to win! Have they no shame?