Swiss solar manufacturer Meyer Burger has abandoned module production activities at its manufacturing facility in Goodyear, Arizona, US.
Yesterday, PV Tech reported that the company had laid off employees at the site, bringing its future into doubt. But overnight, Meyer Burger confirmed that operations at the site would cease “immediately”, and the remaining 282 employees received notices of termination.
Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis
Photovoltaics International is now included.
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
- Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
- Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual
In its statement, Meyer Burger said it was shutting down the 1.4GW of module production capacity at the site due to “lack of funds”. It added that it is still in talks with an “ad hoc group of bondholders” about “restructuring”.
The company now has no active module manufacturing capacity. It abandoned its former module production facility in Freiburg, Germany, in January 2024 to open the Arizona site. A planned solar cell production facility in Colorado was also abandoned in August.
Meyer Burger still has a solar cell production site in Thalheim, Germany, though earlier this year it announced a reduction in shift times for workers at the site.
Meyer Burger had been the only producer of heterojunction technology (HJT) modules in the US. The majority of US producers have focused on passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) technology and its successor in the mainstream of the PV industry, tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon).
Both HJT and TOPCon offer higher efficiencies and other technological improvements over PERC technology, though TOPCon has emerged as the leading mass production technology over the last 18 months.
Meyer Burger said it would release further updates when they emerge, though the future of the Goodyear, Arizona facility is “uncertain”.
