Schott closes PV production plant in Billerica, Mass.

Elmsford, N.Y.-based Schott Solar is closing the doors to its Billerica, Mass., production facility come November. The company said the move is needed to streamline its global manufacturing footprint, but that no other cutbacks are planned. Production is expected to end July 31.

Schott Solar, a subsidiary of German glassmaker Schott, produces components for photovoltaic applications and solar energy power plants. It’s an integrated manufacturer of crystalline silicon wafers, cells and modules.

Schott North America CEO Gerry Fine told the Cleantech Group last month the company was experiencing a slowdown this year, but had expectations for a robust 2010.

The global economic slowdown has been compounded in some leading solar markets by legislation that reduces solar incentives, especially in Spain (see Spain leads 2008 solar market and Extra solar panels in Spain driving down prices). Germany has delayed its incentive reductions until next year (see German feed-in tariff reductions delayed till 2010).

The Billerica site, which employs 180 full-time and 45 temporary workers, manufactures 300-watt PV dual encapsulation modules. The company said employees affected by the closure are expected to be offered jobs at other Schott sites, where available, but job transfers are not guaranteed.

Company spokesman Brian Lynch told the Cleantech Group there’s been a softening demand for the 300-watt product that's been compounded by the global economic crisis. The company doesn’t have plans to transfer the product's production to any of its other sites.

Lynch wouldn’t indicate how much revenue the Billerica site was losing, but said the site had size and scale limitations. It has the capacity to produce 15 megawatts of modules annually.

In 2005, the company bought out joint-venture partner RWE's stake in the project. RWE is a German public utility. Schott leases the Billerica facility and, therefore, wasn’t able to expand the site. The company plans to return the site to the landlord after it’s been vacated.

Schott also has production facilities in Germany, the Czech Republic, the United States and Spain. Last month, the company opened a $100 million manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, N.M., to make components for the solar thermal and photovoltaic markets (see Schott Solar builds 200 MW CSP line with eye on new heat transfer fluids).

The Albuquerque site’s phase 1 capacity is expected to reach 85 MW of 225-watt polycrystalline PV modules by the end of 2009. The facility also has a peak production capacity of 200 MW of receivers for parabolic trough concentrated solar power plants. The company expects to expand the CSP production to 400 MW per year.

Lynch said the decision to close the Billerica site wasn’t made until after the inauguration of the Albuquerque location.

“This was relatively fast, and it was done based on the analysis of the markets and consideration of the declining prices of PV modules,” he said. 

The 200,000-square-foot facility in Albuquerque represents the company's bet on the North American market, but its production is expected to be shipped worldwide. Much of the industry regards North America and the Middle East as large future market opportunities (see UAE: The future of cleantech? and Chinese solar giant Suntech seeks base for US production).