Broadwind Energy Inc. (BWEN)  said Wednesday that it started a public offering of 15 million shares of its common stock.    The company, which provides products and services to the wind energy industry, will sell 10 million of the shares, while Tontine Capital Partners LP and some of its affiliated funds will offer the remaining 5 million.      Broadwind plans to use about $16 million of the proceeds to repay debt to Bank of America. It will spend the rest on capital or repaying other outstanding debt.     Shares of Broadwind Energy fell 70 cents, or 9 percent, to $7.11 in afternoon trading yesterday but rebounded today over $7.40.  Over the past year, the stock has traded in a range of $2.60 to $12.49.        The last one year of operating results has not been kind to BWEN with net loss of 5 million dollars in the last 2 earning reports.  Per the CEO,   the economic slowdown in 2008 is still hampering their business:

“Since late 2008, we have been significantly impacted by a slowdown in our industry caused by reduced capital availability to fund new wind farm developments,” said Broadwind CEO J. Cameron Drecoll. “We have reacted accordingly, focusing on managing our expenses, improving our operations and preserving our liquidity. We are seeing early signs that capital is again flowing into wind energy project developments, and are well-positioned to take advantage of a recovery in 2010 and beyond.”

Unfortunately,  we are skidding to invest in BWEN until they can produce measurable improvement in fiscal metrics.   If operating costs can be pulled under control and the business does recover,  we need to see evidence in the upcoming Q4 earnings report.  Until then, we are on the sidelines.