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Evergreen Solar Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLRD) plans to shut down its Devens manufacturing facility by the end of the first quarter, affecting 800 jobs, the company announced Tuesday.
The Marlborough-based solar technologies company said the closure will come as it ramps up its production in China. The company produces solar wafers at a company-owned plant in Wuhan, China, and had previously said it would outsource solar panel assembly from the Devens facility to China by the end of this year.
Evergreen had planned the moves amid stiff competition from Chinese solar manufacturers, which Evergreen cited in announcing the closure.
“While the United States and other western industrial economies are beneficiaries of rapidly declining installation costs of solar energy, we expect the United States will continue to be at a disadvantage from a manufacturing standpoint,” CEO Michael El-Hillow said in a statement.
Evergreen received $58 million in state financing in 2007 in connection with the construction of the Devens plant. The agreement required the company to create 350 jobs and keep them for five years, or until 2012, or face having to pay back some of the funding. The company did not specify what, if any, payments would need to be made to the state.
Evergreen also must maintain 310 existing jobs for seven years, or until 2014, under the agreement. The company had employed 925 in Massachusetts as of mid-2010.
In connection with the Devens closure, Evergreen said it expects to incur non-cash charges of approximately $340 million from a write-off of existing building, facilities and equipment. Approximately $150 million of intangible and cash-related prepayments associated with various silicon contracts are also under review to determine whether additional non-cash charges will be required, the company said.
Evergreen also expects to incur about $15 million of costs from employee severance and outplacement services, facility decommissioning and other closure-related costs.
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