Solar cell maker SpectraWatt plans shutdown

[pintobean]

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20101222/BUSINESS/12220339/Solar-cell-maker-SpectraWatt-plans-shutdown

WICCOPEE — In a stunning reversal, the frequently lauded and taxpayer-funded SpectraWatt Inc. has told the state it will close its solar cell plant starting in March and lay off 117 workers.

The announcement was startling because in the past two months, the company, which had been promised about $8 million in tax dollars, planned to train more workers and changed its work shifts to enable a 24-hour operation.

In a news release, the company said it hopes to reverse the situation that led to the decision, but SpectraWatt officials did not respond to requests for details.

Created with nearly $100 million in private and public investments and announced in April 2009, SpectraWatt ramped up quickly, creating jobs in the midst of high unemployment. It began production by March this year and became one of the brightest new lights in the Hudson Valley economy. Now it has blinked, and may well go out.
<snip>
The company said, "This action is undertaken in response to deteriorating market conditions resulting from a harsher-than-usual European winter causing a large drop-off in demand for solar cells.

[n2doc]

1. China is killing us here, too

They took on Solar cell production with a vengeance, putting huge subsidies into this field. And we let another jobs source die.

[KurtNYC]

2. maybe the announcement of this shutdown is timed for the push back

starting here:

NYT: U.S. Says China Fund Breaks Rules

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/business/global/23trade.html?_r=1&ref=business

It represents an escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China over clean energy, viewed by the Obama administration as a frontier in which American companies are struggling to remain competitive.
...
Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said in a statement that China was on track to make half of the world’s wind turbines and solar panels and urged the administration to make trade enforcement a priority.

[OnlinePoker]

4. Pretty hard to compete when the country you're up against...

...has extremely weak environmental laws and pay their employees a fraction of the wages. Unless the U.S. is willing to get into a trade war with China, this is the inevitable result of globalization...manufacturing going to the cheapest source.

[DCKit]

3. Charlatans nt