BP SHUTS ITS LAST U.S. SOLAR PLANT

Abstract

BP SOLAR has ceased production of solar cells at its Frederick, Md., plant and will lay off 320 of the 430 employees there. The move spells the end for BP’s solar cell manufacturing in the U.S. The Frederick closure is part of a restructuring at BP Solar that will shift all photovoltaic manufacturing to its joint venture and contract manufacturing partners. Some of the production work will move to the Xi’an, China, facility of BP SunOasis, a joint venture of BP and Xinjiang SunOasis. BP also has a joint venture with India’s Tata and plans to ramp up capacity at the venture’s plant in Bangalore to 300 MW—about twice the size of the Frederick facility—by 2012. Last March, the company signaled that its commitment to manufacturing crystalline silicon solar cells in developed countries was waning when it closed its photovoltaic module plant in Sydney Olympic Park, in Australia, and said cell manufacturing in Madrid would ...