The solar industry isn’t immune to job losses. A couple months back OptiSolar was making the news as it cut 300 jobs from its roster. And, over the last year SunEdison, SunTech, Day4 Energy, GT Solar, Emcore, and Advanced Energy have all cut jobs.

Photo Credit: Renewable Energy World

The most recent round of layoffs come from GE Solar and BP Solar and total more than 700 jobs.

BP Solar plans to sharply curtail manufacturing operations around the globe by eliminating 620 jobs, which equates to more than a quarter of their workforce. 480 of those job losses will occur at two cell manufacturing and module factories in Madrid while the other 140 jobs will be cut from an assembly plant in Frederick, MD.

BP Solar cut the jobs in order to reduce product costs by 20 to 25 percent. Their plan is to halt assembly of the solar modules at plants in Frederic and Madrid, outsourcing the operations; however, the Frederick plant will continue casting the silicon into parts.

BP solar attributes its cuts to the “global economic environment, an over-supplied market, increased competition, and rapidly falling prices,” per BP Solar CEO Reyad Fezzani.

86 jobs were cut from GE Solar, a General Electric company, as the company whittled production of its solar modules from three shifts down to one. The facility, located in Newark, Delaware, now employs around 200 people.

Inventory was piling up while orders were trickling in as potential customers struggled to secure financing for photovoltaic installations.

Photo Credit: Aten

GE began operating in Newark in 2004 after salvaging AstroPower Inc. out of bankruptcy. At its peak AstroPower employed over 600 workers.

Brad Collins, executive director of the American Solar Energy Society, said green energy companies are grappling with excess capacity of product not sold in Europe, causing prices to fall in the 25 to 30 percent range.

Solar companies are struggling to remain competitive with the currently falling price of petroleum and they’re trying to survive the credit crunch that is restricting people from buying the products.

The solar industry is expected to weaken during the first half of 2009 but then start to recover in the second half and, it’s expected to grow by a minimum of 50 percent in 2010.

Resources and related articles:

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/seeds-of-revival-in-wind-and-solar/

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090408/BUSINESS/904080334/

http://www.ases.org/

http://earth2tech.com/2009/04/01/another-700-solar-jobs-bite-the-dust/

http://earth2tech.com/2009/01/13/get-ready-for-the-solar-layoffs/

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Posted on April 20th in Solar News by Beth.