Pain of Reinvention, Tough News For Alt. Energy

Tough news today for alternative energy manufacturing in Michigan, and especially bad news for Greenville, Michigan the community that lost its Electrolux campus during the last decade.

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Jun 18, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. ("ECD"), a leader in materials science and renewable energy technologies, and its wholly-owned subsidiary United Solar Ovonic LLC ("USO"), will sell by public auction, to be authorized by the United States Bankruptcy Court, substantially all of its assets relating to its solar business. The auction will commence on June 26, 2012. Assets for sale will include machinery, equipment, intellectual property, furniture, real estate and inventory.

The auction sale process has been designed to facilitate the sale of assets in various bulk and piecemeal configurations, and to maximize the opportunity to sell the integrated assets in bulk to permit future manufacturing of USO's proprietary Uni-Solar(C) brand thin-film solar laminates.

The live webcast auction sale will commence on Tuesday June 26, 2012 at 9:00 AM ET at USO's Greenville, Michigan facility, where 150 people lost their jobs, for the bulk lots. That will be followed by an online auction sale for the piecemeal lots. The thousands of individual lots to be sold online will have staggered closing times commencing on June 27th. Only qualified and registered bidders may participate in the bidding.
Heritage Global Partners, Hilco Industrial, Maynard's and Van Acker Associates will be conducting the sale. Sale details, lot configurations and terms and conditions of sale can be found on the following web sites: http://www.hgpauction.com/?auctionid=193  ,

 http://www.hilcoind.com/sales/index.asp and

 www.maynards.com

ECD and USO voluntarily filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on February 14, 2012. Additional information regarding the bankruptcy proceedings is available at www.energyconversiondevices.com/restructuring.php.

Of course this does not mean the end of the reinvention of energy or the reinvention of manufacturing. Far from it. To paraphrase Henry Ford, when you fail you just get a chance to do it again, smarter.

Think about how many car companies failed before transportation was reinvented.