SolarWorld USA, a major player in the nation’s solar industry, announced it will shut down its Camarillo solar panel production line this month and move the work to a newer and larger manufacturing facility in Oregon. Cheaper solar panels made in China have saturated the U.S. market and contributed to the move that will result in as many as 186 job cuts, company officials said. SolarWorld’s Camarillo facility currently employs 300 workers. Sales and marketing operations will continue to operate out of the site. The production line will close on Sept. 30. SolarWorld’s announcement added to the bad news hitting American solar panel manufacturers as three companies — Evergreen Solar, SpectraWatt and Solyndra — filed for bankruptcy protection this month. The Solyndra filing was a significant blow in that the company had received $535 million in federal loan guarantees. China’s emergence as a major supplier of solar panels is a “background reality” that has developed for several years as the government there provides subsidies to the manufacturers, said SolarWorld USA spokesman Ben Santarris. “It is forcing everyone to be as efficient as they can be,” Santarris said. The business structure in the U.S. is a disadvantage with the financial obligations for employees and a tax system the Chinese do not have, said David Lee, the CEO of BioSolar, a manufacturer of bio-based solar module components headquartered in Santa Clarita. “The cost of making panels is going down fast so whatever plans there are to manufacture in the U.S. the numbers do not add up,” Lee said. Silicon: A worker handles solar panels. SolarWorld’s consolidation Some employees impacted by SolarWorld’s decision to eliminate the production line will have the opportunity to transfer to Oregon, Santarris said. The company will pay laid-off employees through Oct. 28 before a severance package begins. Workers at the Camarillo facility do the final assembly on photovoltaic cells. That facility, however, is smaller than the company’s factory in Hillsboro, Ore. that opened in 2009. SolarWorld leases six buildings in Camarillo totaling 179,000 square feet. Manufacturing and warehouse space take up 68,600 square feet. The company is reviewing how it will house its sales and marketing operations, which have grown in Camarillo over the past year, Santarris said. SolarWorld USA, owned by a German company, purchased the Camarillo factory in 2006. Solar panel development and manufacturing has taken place there since the 1970s under previous owners, including Shell and Siemens. Officials from the city of Camarillo, the state Employment Development Department and the Ventura County Workforce Investment Board met with SolarWorld representatives on Sept. 6 to discuss assistance for the laid off employees. John Fraser, a management assistant in economic development for the city who attended the meeting, said SolarWorld’s decision caught him off guard. However, it was not shocking. “It is reflective of the trouble in the solar industry right now,” Fraser said. U.S. solar manufacturing niche While losing out on the manufacture of solar panels to China, the U.S. remains strong in exporting parts and machinery used to make the panels. A study by GTM Research for the Solar Energy Industries Association showed that in 2010 the U.S. sent $2.5 billion worth of polysilicon and $1.4 billion in equipment to other parts of the world. Imports of solar modules totaled about $2.4 billion compared to $1.2 billion in exports in 2010. Tapping into that export market is BioSolar. The company recently signed a sales representative to get its product into solar panel factories in Asia that supply the North American market. As for U.S. manufacturers, what could happen is they concentrate in low volume specialty applications that would not interest overseas companies, Lee said. While Lee said he hopes that doesn’t happen, “the trend indicators are that it might be a possibility.” The SolarWorld USA announcement coincided with its German parent saying it was closing down older parts of its solar wafer production line in Freiberg/Saxony. The closures will strengthen the competiveness at the Oregon and German locations, SolarWorld AG CEO Frank Asbeck, said in a prepared statement. Keeping wage costs below 10 percent is also of strategic importance to the company, Asbeck said. “It means that we offer quality from Germany and quality made in the U.S. that is competitive with the Far East,” Asbeck said.
Production Halts at SolarWorld USA
