First GE Solar closed up shop in Newark, DE (but sort of reopened) late in 2009. A couple of weeks ago, BP Solar announced that they were shutting down (photovoltaic) PV manufacturing in Frederick, MD and laying off a couple hundred people. Around the same time, Applied Materials announced that they were relocating some of their Solar Cell group to China and now this week Applied Materials indicated that their (silicon) thin film solar cell equipment product line SunFab is on thin ice. Also, this week it looks like Signet Solar is cancelling plans to build a thin film solar manufacturing plant in New Mexico and not too many days ago, auditors raised questions regarding the viability of CIGS solar cell producer Solyndra. Seems like the kind of (bad) news that we should be getting with Bush still as the President instead of Obama.
The linked article mentions that the Signet Solar plant would have created 600 high paying local (green) jobs in New Mexico.
Signet Solar backs out of plans for Belen
http://www.news-bulletin.com/...
A local developer announced Signet Solar has formally withdrawn its commitment to build an $840 million manufacturing center after the company was unable to secure funding for the project.
A local developer announced Signet Solar has formally withdrawn its commitment to build an $840 million manufacturing center after the company was unable to secure funding for the project.
Maybe someone can comment on just how real the Signet Solar deal for New Mexico really was? Seems like a big loss for both the local area and the USA in general if it was real and if the deal fell through late in the game.
As for Solyndra, the following linked article isn’t too flattering.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/...
"The company has suffered recurring losses from operations, negative cash flows since inception and has a net stockholders' deficit that, among other factors, raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern," PricewaterhouseCoopers wrote in the filing.
Solyndra produces copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar panels that are cylindrical rather than flat. CIGS is an onerous material to work with and applying it to a cylinder rather than a flat piece of glass or aluminum increases the difficulty quotient. As a result, skeptics about Solyndra abound.
Also in the same article, it looks like Solyndra’s technical approach is still much more expensive than conventional silicon photovoltaic solar cells. Granted, Solyndra has only had a very short time to mature its technology, while silicon cells have been under continuous improvement for more than 50 years. Too bad the article didn’t make any mention of independently measured efficiency – such as by NREL – of the Solyndra PV panels. The performance (efficiency) of the Solyndra technology seems to be somewhat of a secret, while most PV manufacturers routinely report the efficiency of their products.
Solyndra says that the cost of its cylindrical solar panels is $3.24 per watt, including mounting, or 66 percent higher than the average cost of a crystalline silicon solar panel
As for Applied Materials USA based Solar (SunFab) operations, it’s not looking so good based in the following article and AMAT's employees don't seem too happy about it.
http://www.eetimes.com/...
Applied has given its SunFab solar unit a deadline to meet certain targets by July--or the company will cut its funding, according to sources. At that point or beyond, Applied may pull the plug on SunFab, sources said. Applied itself said the SunFab unit must stand on its own.
But at the same time, there are growing fears among Applied's SunFab employees in U.S.--as well as other company employees--that the company will soon hand out pink slips in the U.S., at a time when it continues to expand in Asia, sources said.
The events are causing concern and anger among employees
(snip)
At the meeting, according to the source, the Applied CEO also stated that perhaps the SunFab model would possibly work in China or India. In other words, ''Mr. Splinter is finding a reason to rid himself of his U.S. employees,''
From a sampling of press reports this week, solar energy is certainly looking like a much tougher business to be in (in the USA). Solar certainly doesn’t seem like it will be generating that many new green jobs (in the USA) any time soon unless the US Government intervenes (soon). If anything, it looks like there will be a large net loss for solar energy jobs in the USA this year. Not good. One would think that the US Economy should be creating green jobs instead of losing them. Yes, there's winners and losers in the business world, but it seems like there's an awful lot of losers (in the USA) lately.
At least US-based Suniva seems to be doing well, along with First Solar and SunPower. But are any of the other USA Solar Cell manufacturers making money or are off-shore PV manufacturers killing off most of the domestic (USA) PV industry? Granted, the PV players that are doing poorly seem to be the ones with more non mainstream technology that might be considered by the experts as never having had a chance. But is there a downside of scaring off future venture capitialists from more viable green technologies? For example, what’s wrong with just making high efficiency multicrystalline silicon solar cells using highly automated equipment (i.e., low labor costs) in the USA instead of off-shore?