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Evergreen Solar, the solar panel manufacturer lured to Massachusetts
by a generous incentive package from Governor Deval Patrick, may be
facing fiscal trouble and downsizing, the Boston Globe
reports. The plant was built in a repurposed old Army base at Fort
Devens two summers ago. While its welcome to the neighborhood could have been warmer, the plant has so far been making the state proud with more than 700 local employees.
But now,
Battered by the ailing economy, stiff global competition, and plunging prices for solar panels, Evergreen says it may be forced to downsize its new manufacturing plant…[I]t expects to burn through most of its $83 million in cash by year-end, and last month it persuaded the state to lend it another $5 million. Its stock, which peaked at nearly $19 per share in late 2007, closed at $1.83 yesterday.
Apparently, even though solar panel sales are way up, the company is feeling the pangs of stiff competition and falling prices in the global solar panel manufacturing industry. If the company folds, Gov. Patrick may face severe fallout for his taxpayer-dollars supported push for Evergreen in the first place. But the company itself is optimistic, and an analyst for JP Morgan thinks that Evergreen’s unique, materials- and cost-efficient manufacturing process for silicon solar wafers may be the company’s key to survival.
All eyes in the state–and not a few in the solar industry at large–will be on Evergreen Solar in the coming months. The company lost almost $85 million in just the first six months of 2009…a tourniquet needs to be applied or the company that so invigorated the clean energy sector in Massachusetts may find itself in deep disfavor with its former supporters.
