Abound Solar already has provided its share of irony in its brief time as a taxpayer-funded green-energy player.  It went bankrupt last year after spending $70 million of a $400 million loan guarantee from the Obama administration, sparking a Colorado state investigation into investor fraud.  Now this “green tech” firm has been cited by Colorado as a polluter, and has ordered the receiver to get rid of chemicals and the “unsellable” solar panels Abound managed to produce:

Colorado health and environment officials have ordered Loveland-based Abound Solar, the bankrupt solar-panel maker, to clean up hazardous waste at four Front Range locations.

The Abound facilities are storing thousands of “unsellable” solar panels and thousands of gallons of toxic liquids, according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports.

“The Department views these 2,000 pallets of solar panels as a characteristic hazardous waste for cadmium,” a report on a Denver warehouse said.

The Denver Post helpfully explains that cadmium is a known carcinogen and toxic for humans. The clean-cost will be at least $2.2 million, which will come out before taxpayers get any of their money back.

That’s if we get any back at all.  Before Abound went out of business, it had to replace millions of dollars’ worth in defective panels, and according to the report from Colorado, their production quality didn’t improve as a result.  Inspectors found 500 pallets of defective panels in one warehouse, and at another, roughly 1,800 that they considered unsellable.  That means that instead of making some money on a clearance sale that might reimburse investors and taxpayers, it’s going to cost even more to unwind the operations that the Obama administration subsidized.

And this is what is meant by green energy. Irony abounds, no?