U.S. market has become less interesting for the country’s domestic solar producers, due to decrease in number of contracts signed by utilities, which are wary of buying electricity from national power plants, Bloomberg reports.
SunPower Corp. and First Solar Inc., which are the largest U.S. manufacturers of panels, built some of the world’s biggest solar farms in the world. It’s significant that, the big projects were completed, because utilities had been buying the power.
The change in tax policy in 2015 resulted in slowing those power-plant deals. It was the federal investment tax credit, that has been one of the main drivers of the U.S. solar industry over the years.
According to SunPower Corp., the company is to lose $175m in year 2016, and is going to close a plant in the Philippines, as well as to fire 15% of employees.
