Stormy times
Europe’s solar energy companies are facing troubling times. Competition from lowcost Chinese providers and cuts in government subsidies for solar energy have driven several leading German companies into insolvency. The trend has not left Adlershof entirely unscathed either – but experts believe in the opportunities the location has.
Katrin Evers is to the point „The solar industry is having a very tough time of it at the moment“, says the press officer of Solon Energy GmbH, the largest solar power company in Adlershof. At the end of 2011, the company then operating as Solon SE with its headquarters in the „Am Studio“ location had to file for insolvency.
It is certainly not alone in the process: sector heavyweights such as Q-Cells in Bitterfeld-Wolfen and Inventux in Berlin-Marzahn suffered the same fate. But there is hope on the horizon for Solon: in March of this year, the company was bought over by Microsol, a solar cell manufacturer with an Indian management team based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to press officer Evers, this will allow the company to keep most of the jobs that are based in Adlershof: the company employed a workforce of 423 in August, compared to 471 before it went insolvent. „Berlin remains the headquarters of Solon‘s research and development, marketing and sales“, says Evers.
Production is also still underway, with Adlershof responsible for special products such as in-roof modules and power plant solutions. Microsol is having the standard products, on the other hand, manufactured in the Fujairah plant in the UAE. Katrin Evers is confident: „We are well-placed to master this difficult phase with our combination of special ‚Made in Germany’ solutions, attractively priced standard modules and our expertise in the power plant sector.“
At the time this report went to press, the future of Global Solar Energy (GSE) Deutschland GmbH and its 133 employees, by contrast, was still uncertain. The subsidiary of the US group of the same name, which commissioned a factory for thin-film solar modules in Adlershof as recently as in 2011, filed for insolvency in June 2012. The parent company claimed that, given the current market conditions, the facility in Tucson (Arizona) had sufficient capacity to meet demand. „The US parent company did not want to have to shoulder any more start-up losses“, explains the preliminary insolvency administrator Christian Köhler-Ma, from the Berlin-based law firm Leonhardt. He believes, however, that the plant in Adlershof certainly has a future. According to Köhler-Ma, the aim is definitely „to be able to present a buyer who has a sustainable strategy for GSE Deutschland“.
by Christian Hunziker for Adlershof Special