Solon joins a growing list of struggling solar panel manufacturers grappling with grappling with a particularly sticky challenge: sales are up in many cases, but prices are falling even faster with a consequent drag on profits.
Last month, Energy Conversion Devices, a maker of solar thin film laminates, shut down production and announced it would furlough about 400 employees at its factories in Michigan, Mexico and Canada. The Michigan-based company said it also planned to cut 500 jobs at the end of the year.
SolarWorld closed its California solar module assembly factory back in February. And, of course who could forget Solyndra, the Energy Department loan guarantee darling that went belly up earlier this year. Evergreen Solar and SpectraWatt of New York also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and Ascent Solar Technologies staved off its demise by agreeing to sell a stake in the companyand license its technology to China’s TFG Radiant Group.
