Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

• Most Popular Articles

  • UK feed-in tariff is announced: payback begins April 1
  • Intel outside: Chipmaker moves to install more PV power systems, equipped with First Solar modules
  • Suntech predicts excess solar supply will move to U.S.
  • New Product: SunPower ‘T20 Tracker Evolution’ delivers maximum energy with 128-cell, 400-watt mo
  • Project Focus: GA-Solar to build 300MW solar PV power plant in New Mexico

• Popular Technical Papers

  • Photovoltaic Fab Managers’ Forum Review
  • Photovoltaic industry 2009: a journey into uncertainty
  • Thin-film CIGS starts to come of age
  • Overview of automation in the photovoltaic industry
  • CIGS, CdTe thin-film PV equipment sector emerges, standardization remains elusive

• Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

  Name
  Job title
  Company
  Email

Solar PV manufacturers/tool suppliers GT Solar, Emcore, and Advanced Energy said today they have laid off or plan to lay off employees. Emcore also announced its annual financial results, revealing a soft fourth quarter for its solar business unit.

A report in the Nashua Telegraph quotes a GT spokeswoman as saying the company let 25 people go, or about 10% of its workforce. Those laid off all held manufacturing positions at the Merrimack, NH-based firm. The company also said that it is still hiring in areas other than manufacturing.

GT recently completed a 50,000 square-foot expansion of its DSS furnace manufacturing facility, increasing production capacity by 40%.

In its annual financial results released today, Emcore said it will cut its own employee and contractor headcount by 100 as well as reducing bonuses, eliminating fiscal 2009 merit increases, and decreasing its capital expenditures.

(Update: After the initial story posted, an Emcore company spokesman told PV-Tech that the company performed "our layoffs in early November and we are not expecting any in the near future.")

Emcore saw its annual and quarterly revenues increase overall, but although the solar PV segment of the company grew 15% for the year, it experienced an 8% dip in the fourth quarter and represented about 24% of Emcore's overall sales. It also said there is about $35.2 million in solar-related backlog.

Negotiations to sell a minority equity position in the photovoltaics segment continue, according to Emcore, as part of moves to a potential spinoff of that unit.

The company forecasts a flat December quarter (its 1QFY09) and 10% higher revenues in the new fiscal compared to FY08.

In an additional update to the original story, Advanced Energy, which manufactures solar inverters and offers power and control solutions for solar-cell manufacturers and other industries, said in a guidance statement that it "will reduce its global workforce by approximately 114 people, or 7% of its total workforce. This reduction will be across all functional areas and geographies."