The solar news has been swamped with solar manufacturers not just walking away, but running away from manufacturing their solar products in the United States. Earlier this month, major solar manufacturer SolarWorld based in Germany was the latest manufacturer of solar modules to announce that it would close a production facility in the US.
Solar Industry Magazine reports that all U.S. manufacturing will be consolidated at the company's Hillsboro, Oregon facility, while sales and distribution operations will remain in Camarillo, California. In addition, at SolarWorld's Freiberg/Saxony, Germany, location, older sections of production facilities will be shut down. A new facility with an annual production capacity of 1,000 MW was recently placed in service, thus allowing for the shutdown of the older lines, according to SolarWorld.
The Ventura County Star, the local paper in California, reports the closure of the manufacturing facility in terms of the jobs lost: "A Camarillo solar panel producer announced Friday it plans to lay off 186 employees at the end of October, more than half of its local workforce. Employees at SolarWorld Industries America were told Tuesday they were being let go, said spokesman Ben Santarris. They will receive pay and benefits through Oct. 28, plus severance pay. Outplacement services also will be provided."
Bloomberg reports that SolarWorld's CEO Frank Asbeck ascribed the closure of the facility to the need to increase efficiency and reduce costs as Chinese rivals have helped drive down the price of solar cells by 42 percent this year. The rest of the world is not competing on a level playing field with Chinese producers. Bloomberg article quoted SolarWorld's CEO as saying that competing against Chinese producers that receive financial assistance from the government isn't "fair," Bloomberg quoted Asbeck as saying. The financing of Chinese GCL-Poly financing and SolarWorld's retrenching plan demonstrate the trends that are pushing Chinese companies to the top of the solar industry. "It's not about a free market or good products anymore, it's about who gets the most political protection," Asbeck told Bloomberg. That's not even industrial politics anymore. That's war."
According to Recharge News, Chief executive Frank Asbeck says the closures and layoffs will allow SolarWorld to keep its wage-cost share below 10%. "Especially in contrast to manufacturers who increasingly relocate to low-wage countries or come from there, this is of strategic importance," Asbeck says. "It means that we offer quality from Germany and quality made in the US that is competitive with the Far East. "
The move's financial impact won't be too bad. Despite reporting a 30% fall in second-quarter operating profit, there is optimism from the organization at a time when most of their European competitors are piling up losses. The main impact from the facility closure is that it allows the company to maintain quality of their products rather than shift production to a low-wage country, allowing them to still remain competitive with international rivals.
