By Kyle Alspach

A final thought or two for the week on Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLRD) and the Devens doomsday announcement. Or rather, some questions: How hard did Evergreen really try to keep jobs here in Massachusetts? And how long were they planning this?

I haven’t found definitive answers, but I do know what the company’s CEO was saying as recently as November.

“Devens continues to improve its cost structure,” CEO Michael El-Hillow said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 2, adding “we’re generating cash in the United States.”

He then made this statement: “We’re trying to keep jobs here, so we’re not going to push things over there (to China) as long as we continue to generate cash in the United States.”

That was not even three months ago. I’m not sure what has changed for the company since then, forcing Evergreen to decide to close the Devens factory by the end of March and cut 800 of the company’s 925 workers in Massachusetts.

I’d hoped to ask El-Hillow, but Evergreen said he wasn’t available. I did get to talk with investor relations VP Michael McCarthy and company spokesman Chris Lawson yesterday for nearly an hour. However, they wouldn’t say how long ago Evergreen made the decision to pull out of Devens.

They also didn’t offer any hints on what makes circumstances now so different from those in November, when Evergreen was already in the thick of its stiff competition with Chinese solar manufacturers.

Among those most stunned by Tuesday’s announcement were the people on the ground — the workers at the Devens factory, who had been encouraged to feel confident about their jobs by statements like the one I just cited from El-Hillow. One employee told me she thought her job was secure because she worked in solar wafer fabrication, which the company had never hinted would be sent to China.

Another worker, who I connected with on Facebook, lamented that he has no idea how he’ll pay his bills once he joins the already large pool of job seekers in Massachusetts.

Yet corporate decisions like this one — while devastating for low-on-the-totem-pole working people and local economies — are often well-received by shareholders, impatient to see some profits. And Evergreen is unquestionably looking to please its shareholders these days.

Along with the obvious goal of keeping the share price afloat (the stock was in de-listing danger until a recent reverse split), Evergreen also needs shareholder approval on Jan. 31 for a major recapitalization plan. The plan would cut the company’s debt and interest costs, but it would also be very dilutive for shareholders.

McCarthy and Lawson, however, said there are plenty of reasons why shareholders might want to approve this plan regardless of any other factors — namely the lack of other good alternatives for cutting company debt.

Clearly, a lot is coming up in coming months for the struggling Evergreen, which could succeed or fail based on what happens in that time.

But after this week, at least one other thing is clear: Massachusetts will have little at stake in the outcome either way.