Sanyo Electric Co., a subsidiary of Panasonic Energy Co., will shut down a solar wafer factory in Carson, Calif., next month. The closure will affect approximately 140 employees.
Masatsugu Uemura, a spokesperson for Panasonic Energy Co., told Bloomberg that the factory manufactures the equivalent of 30 MW of PV ingots and wafers annually. Production will stop next month, and the entire plant will close down in October.
Uemura told Bloomberg that the age of the equipment at the California factory, as well as pricing competition, led to the closure. Panasonic is building a 300 MW plant for solar wafers, cells and modules in Malaysia. Production is expected to begin in December.
