Editor's note: Executives from Suntech, Q Cells, Canadian Solar, Yingli Green Energy and Trina Solar, among others, will discuss the future of PV manufacturing at Greentech Media's Solar Industry Summit 2011 on March 14 and 15. GTM Research's Shyam Mehta gives some of his thoughts on U.S. manufacturing below.
Massachusetts-based module manufacturer Evergreen Solar announced it would be closing its 160-MW integrated wafer-cell-module complex in Devens, Massachusetts by the end of this March and shifting all its manufacturing operations to China. That decision, which will lead to more than 800 of its 925 employees being laid off, was met with a lot of humming and hawing by industry insiders.
After all, hadn’t Evergreen already made initial steps in that direction by contracting cell and module production to China way back in 2009? Hadn’t its technology advantage of industry-leading silicon utilization almost evaporated with the onset of a sub-$100/kg polysilicon environment? And didn’t this company struggle to turn a profit even at the best of times? In the minds of most industry observers (especially those that were part of the investment community),
Evergreen’s latest struggles (of which there have been quite a few) were acts of a tragedy that was playing out in all-too-slow motion, since the ending was known well in advance: this would be insolvency, followed by a possible licensing of its string ribbon IP to a well-capitalized Chinese firm or an equipment producer like Applied Materials. (Personally, I don’t agree that the writing is on the tombstone for Evergreen quite yet, but that’s a story for another day). Read More... For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
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