Suntech Power feels economic pinch, lays off staff
By Susan Wilson
The economic news for green technology becomes grimmer and grimmer with staff layoffs at the largest solar PV manufacturer in the world. Suntech Power, based in China is feeling the economic pinch of the rest of the world.
Reuters reported today that Suntech Power has reduced its workforce by at least 10 percent. Since Suntech’s workforce normally numbers around 8,000 workers, that results in hundreds of people out of work in what was once one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Furthermore, the company had planned to hire approximately 2,000 more employees in 2009. That staff expansion is now canceled.
The company is also suspending its planned increase in capacity. The drastic slowdown in the economy and drop in oil prices has severely limited the demand for solar installations.
Four days ago Suntech and Open Energy Corporation, an American company that has created unique solar products, announced that Suntech would have the exclusive license for the world wide manufacture, and marketing of Open Energy’s solar roofing tiles. With the current layoffs and scuttling of plans to increase manufacturing capacity on the part of Suntech, Open Energy looks will be feeling the slowdown as well.
Further contractions in the solar market are expected to reach 19 percent in 2009. According to Reuters this would be the first ever contraction for the formerly booming solar sector.
The worldwide economic slump has led to fewer solar projects than expected leading to a surplus of solar panels on the market. The decrease in oil prices have also affected the solar power market as the call for alternative energy has dropped.
President-elect Obama needs to fire up his plan to invest in green technology quickly after taking office. Only by implementing green technology infrastructure projects will our fledgling green technology companies be able to survive in this abysmal economy.
Graph: Data provided by SimplyHired.com, a search engine for jobs.
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Entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
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Stumble It!
January 14th, 2009
It’s not the economy overall that causes the problem, it’s the tech makes no fiscal sense. The same thing has happened twice before.
Obama won’t be able to fulfill many of his out of touch with reality promises.