Solar4america -initiatives to produce solar technology in California and South Carolina are quickly closed, the site in the latter is without ever opening.
At the beginning of 2022, Spi Energy Co. Ltd. Enjoying intervals of the American domestic solar panel by announcing initiatives to produce solar panels and cells in California and South Carolina respectively.
The sites would receive two of the largest and most advanced American solar factories.
But in developments that PV Magazine USA Discovered, Spi’s panel factory In California, the operation suddenly stopped and his cell production In South Carolina never got off the ground.
The company, which is active under the Solar4america brand on the American market, has not issued a public explanation on both sites, has answered its top officials and business lawyer any requests for comments and no other media reporting has described the derailments of the projects in detail.
Nevertheless, two former Solar4america managers-the former vice-president of Sales and a former manager of operations-the contours of the closure of two locations have confirmed.
While Solar4america enjoyed a robust sale of around 100 MW in 2023, the two former managers said, the company saw the sale fall by half in 2024, and it started to struggle costs for payroll, shipping and supply, they said.
The former Solar4america managers are Franz Feuerherdt, vice -president of sale from September 2022 to last January, and Cody Blevins, an operational manager from February 2022 to last February.
TOPE managers gambled quickly in their own country produced solar products to become much more valuable and then Solar4america to reach viability for an initial public offer (IPO), the former managers said. Although the inflation reduction law began to reward inland solar energy in 2023 in 2023, the boost was not enough to prevent production and therefore the sale became bumpy, they said.
“They who hoped good things will happen,” said Feuerherdt.
SPI became public with its own supply of $ 15 in 2008 on the New York Stock Exchange and then switched to the Nasdaq sharing market in 2016. On January 15, 2025, Turned out of the Nasdaq, recently traded for fewer than two cents on the over-the-counter-market.
Spi’s household production projects came to light for the first time in 2022, when the company announced that it would take over a modest module assembly line in the Sacramento, California, the suburb of McLellan that bankruptcy China Energy Co. Ltd. had operated earlier.
Only a few months later, Spi said that it would add 550 MW production capacity to establish a total of up to 700 MW in 270,000 square feet of production, warehouse and office space. Because the site would operate some of the most up-to-date production tools in the country, Solar4america could market itself as one of the most advanced and largest American solar factories. The new line in McLellan was to produce 410 watts, 108 cells panels and 550 watts, 144-cell bifacial modules.
“We are working hard to be the radiant example that production can be successful in California,” was Hoonong Kheong “HK” Cheong, President and CEO of Solar4america quoted in a statement. “Sacramento had been our home for more than ten years and we are looking forward to a long, successful collaboration with the community and our partners throughout the region.”
In June 2023, Solar4america announced that it would go further: the company said it would invest $ 65.9 million to start a rare domestic cell production site in Sumter, SC, which would eventually have 2.4 gigawatts of production capacity. After initially intended to produce waffles there, SPI plans resettled to produce n-type hetero junction and topcon (tunnel oxide-passivated contact) solar cells. The site would eventually employ 300 people.
“We are planning to market the highest quality in our own country and modules, which improves the production options of our nation with a long -term investment that will create well -paid jobs for South Carolina,” said chairman Denton Peng in a statement.
Exercise notes that the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office on the McLellan building on January 29 shutdown indicated.
Although the site was expected to employ 400 employees at some point, an estimated 80 had stayed on January 1. During the peak in mid-2023, the Sacramento operation used around 140 employees, the former managers estimate.
Rumors have spread and suggest that the company has protected $ 2 million in new investments to restart the line, but neither of them said that he could gauge their truthfulness.
Solar4america did little in Sumter, said Blevins, than to contract the first cleanroom and industrial design and to create deposits on electric and production equipment that the company wanted to buy but never did.
An employee of Solar4america, he said, managed to clean up the remaining items stored on the site.
Peng and Cheong and Solar4america lawyer George Milionis could not be reached by PV Magazine USA To describe the status of the two sites. Without their insights, it is difficult to say which combination of market prices, policy and commercial volatility, commercial lawsuits or business missteps can take up the budding Solar4america imperium.
The former managers believe that the company is now confronted with a lawsuit on different fronts.
Although many employees of the better days were dripping out of the company during more and more interrupted production schedules, Blevins said, some of those who stayed and redeemed were looking for ways to collect excellent amounts from Solar4Aamerica.
“Many employees are still owing wages and expenses,” said Blevins, who said he is one of them.
Feuerherdt said he is doing what he can do to help customers he sold panels, but they said they didn’t receive one.
Along one road he tried to arrange customers to buy modules from Auxin Solar in San Jose, California, under a mechanism that would enable them to share in the reception of the manufacturer of domestic production stinging to cover the costs of buying a second time, Feuerherdt said.
“I want to make sure they get their modules,” he said.
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