Panasonic follows Solarworld in shutting down a Solar Factory in California

California which has the largest number of solar installations in the USA and is the capital of solar energy in North America is seeing a rapid exit of solar panel manufacturers. First it was Solarworld which closed a solar module manufacturing facility. Now Sanyo Solar Panels will stopped being made in the state as well as Panasonic consolidates  manufacturing in Asia. Note cheap Chinese solar panels have made western manufacturers exit the solar industry and their have been a number of media grabbing bankruptcies as well. Western solar companies as well as Japanese solar panel makers have been shutting down in droves now .

Sanyo Solar is one the biggest Japanese solar companies along with Sharp,Kyocera and Mitsubishi.After Panasonic bought Sanyo,the emphasis on the renewable energy green division has been increased by Panasonic..Sanyo had been already been metamorphizing into a Green company from an Electronics company before Panasonic bought it for a very cheap price.Sanyo had never found much success in the cut-throat Electronics Sector with Operating Margins very near to break-even.However under Panasonic it could become a potential leader in the extremely fast growing Green Sectors.Panasonic has completely changed its strategy to become a major Green Player targeting a Major Percentage of Sales in the future to come  from Green Products.Panasonic which is the world’s biggest Plasma TV producer is going to spend $1 Billion on Green Building investments.Panasonic will combine its Green Strengths with Sanyo’s to sell a complete Eco-Friendly Home complete with Solar Power,LED Lighting and Energy Storage and Efficiency capabilities.In Solar where Panasonic  is the No. 3 player in Japan behind Sharp and Kyocera ,it is speeding up the expansion of solar capacity.It will spend more than $500 million aiming to triple its energy solutions business in Europe to 800 Million Euros by 2016.

Sanyo which was bought over by Panasonic a couple of years ago had started the facility back in 2003 when most of the big Chinese solar companies did not exist. Now 140 Solar Jobs will be lost as Panasonic like others shift solar manufacturing to Asia. Sumco another Japanese company has totally exited the solar business due to the freefall in solar material prices with solar wafer prices down by 70% in one year.

Japanese Companies which were the leading solar companies in the early part of the century have steadily lost the top global rankings to Chinese companies. Now many of the topJapanese Solar Energy Companies are retreating from markets and manufacturing completely . Sharp which was the largest solar company in 2009 and 2010 has radically restructured its strategy but is still losing marketshare. Panasonic the second biggest solar company has closed down its Japanese factory. Other Japanese solar companies like Mitsubishi, Kyocera are also being forced to rethink solar panel manufacturing.

Note most of the higher cost producers in the solar industry are effectively bankrupt and are only being supported by government or big parents. Many Western companies have already closed or are on the verge of closing. Some of the bankrupt companies are not finding buyers of their equipment even at 10c/dollar. Massive overcapacity remains in the solar industry particularly in China which is not being taken out fast enough which will probably lead to another bad year for solar stocks in 2012.

Sanyo Factory Closure

Sanyo Electric Co. will cut about 140 jobs and close an aging solar wafer factory in Carson, California, as it prepares to start up operations at a plant in Malaysia.

The plant, which makes the equivalent of 30 megawatts of silicon ingots and wafers for solar cells a year, will stop production next month and close in October, Masatsugu Uemura, a spokesman for Panasonic Energy Co., said by phone from Osaka. Sanyo is a unit of Panasonic Corp. (6752)