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DrQuine
Solar cell technology, like battery technology, is a technology minefield. ...
microe
Look at how dominant the US companies are in computers and cellphones, look at ...
Energy Conversion Devices files for bankruptcy
Dylan McGrath
2/14/2012 10:33 AM EST
SAN FRANCISCO—Solar equipment maker Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ECD) said Tuesday (Feb. 14) it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced plans to sell several assets, including its wholly owned subsidiary United Solar Ovonic LLC (USO) and its minority stake in Ovonyx Inc.
ECD (Auburn Hills, Mich.) becomes the latest U.S.-based maker of solar products to file for bankruptcy amid a downturn in the solar market and increased pressure from competitors in China and elsewhere, a list that also includes Solyndra Inc., Spectrawatt Inc. and Evergreen Solar Inc.
USO, which will continue to operate during the sale process, also filed a for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, ECD said. USO builds flexible, lightweight thin-film photovoltaic products for use in the commercial rooftop and building-integrated markets.
USO has retained the investment banking firm Quarton Partners LLC to manage the sale process, which is expected to be completed in 90 days, ECD said.
ECD said it sold its majority owned subsidy, Ovonic Battery Co. Inc. (OBC), to BASF Corp. Monday for $58 million in cash. OBC is the inventor and worldwide licensor of nickel-metal hydride rechargeable battery technology and is pursuing advanced battery technologies, including cathode materials for lithium-ion chemistry batteries. OBC's 35 employees were hired by BASF as part of the transaction, ECD said.
Quarton Partners will also manage the sale of ECD's 39 percent stake in Ovonyx, a developer of phase-change random access memory technology. Ovonyx, a joint venture with its co-founder Tyler Lowrey whose shareholders include Intel Corp., has license agreements with Micron Technology Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Hynix Semiconductor Inc, and ST Microelectronics NV, among others.
Solar Integrated Technologies Inc. (SIT), a U.S.-based wholly owned subsidiary of ECD, has voluntarily filed a petition for relief under Chapter 7 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in a separate proceeding, ECD said. SIT is an engineering, procurement and construction management company with solar installations in the U.S. and Western Europe. As a result of this filing, SIT and its European subsidiary, Solar Integrated Technologies GmbH, will continue to operate, though separately from ECD and USO, during the disposition of the SIT proceeding, ECD said.
ECD also Tuesday reported sales of about $20 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2011, down 9 percent from the previous quarter and down 71 percent from the year-ago quarter.
ECD (Auburn Hills, Mich.) becomes the latest U.S.-based maker of solar products to file for bankruptcy amid a downturn in the solar market and increased pressure from competitors in China and elsewhere, a list that also includes Solyndra Inc., Spectrawatt Inc. and Evergreen Solar Inc.
USO, which will continue to operate during the sale process, also filed a for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, ECD said. USO builds flexible, lightweight thin-film photovoltaic products for use in the commercial rooftop and building-integrated markets.
USO has retained the investment banking firm Quarton Partners LLC to manage the sale process, which is expected to be completed in 90 days, ECD said.
ECD said it sold its majority owned subsidy, Ovonic Battery Co. Inc. (OBC), to BASF Corp. Monday for $58 million in cash. OBC is the inventor and worldwide licensor of nickel-metal hydride rechargeable battery technology and is pursuing advanced battery technologies, including cathode materials for lithium-ion chemistry batteries. OBC's 35 employees were hired by BASF as part of the transaction, ECD said.
Quarton Partners will also manage the sale of ECD's 39 percent stake in Ovonyx, a developer of phase-change random access memory technology. Ovonyx, a joint venture with its co-founder Tyler Lowrey whose shareholders include Intel Corp., has license agreements with Micron Technology Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Hynix Semiconductor Inc, and ST Microelectronics NV, among others.
Solar Integrated Technologies Inc. (SIT), a U.S.-based wholly owned subsidiary of ECD, has voluntarily filed a petition for relief under Chapter 7 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in a separate proceeding, ECD said. SIT is an engineering, procurement and construction management company with solar installations in the U.S. and Western Europe. As a result of this filing, SIT and its European subsidiary, Solar Integrated Technologies GmbH, will continue to operate, though separately from ECD and USO, during the disposition of the SIT proceeding, ECD said.
ECD also Tuesday reported sales of about $20 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2011, down 9 percent from the previous quarter and down 71 percent from the year-ago quarter.
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Nic_Mokhoff
2/14/2012 11:51 AM EST
For amorphous silicon semiconductors pioneer Stanford Ovshinsky this must be a sad day. His resilience is an example to follow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_R._Ovshinsky
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Volatile Memory
2/14/2012 12:47 PM EST
Nic: Mr. Ovshinsky is no pioneer. He is an extraordinary Charlatan. And I can prove it. He has been lying since 1977 that his amorphous silicon semiconductors can make electricity for 0.2c per kWh and that they can be used in a memory chip that would be better than DRAM and EEPROM combined.
Ovonyx will file for Chapter 11 by the end of this year, and will be liquidated shortly thereafter. And that will be the end of the phase-change memory techno-Ponzi.
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Robotics Developer
2/14/2012 12:58 PM EST
I wonder if the company was positioned properly in the market? With low cost solar panels being made in China and manufacturing costs so high here what was their value proposition? Where they banking on driving costs down (like Solyndra) over time? It seems that the downturn in the economy may have been a larger factor here and could possibly be a factor in future companies that were not on solid footing to begin with failing do to the general weakness in the economy.
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Volatile Memory
2/14/2012 2:43 PM EST
Robotics Developer: It was perfectly positioned - it stole hundreds of millions from gullible investors and partners. ECD/Unisolar has a plant in China (a joint venture), touted by Republican candidate Huntsman, the Treasury Secretary Geithner, and the Ambassador to China Locke - all facilitating the fraud. Unfortunately, the Chinese JV ran out of money last week. ENER was always a scam - since its inception in 1960 - that's what they were banking on.
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elctrnx_lyf
2/15/2012 12:20 AM EST
Many US technology companies starting operation in china are still not able to come out with any profitable business. This again proves how difficult it is to compete with the Chinese manufacturers who are backed up by Chinese government.
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iniewski
2/15/2012 12:50 AM EST
Pretty sad...another US company that can't compete with Chinese government...is anyone left in solar cell market in North America? Kris
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microe
2/15/2012 6:19 PM EST
Didn't US government subsidize US companies? Why criticize China? Forgot the government funding to Solyndra? Forgot the GM shares that US government holds? Maybe, more relevant, why still fails even with government subsidize?
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iniewski
2/15/2012 8:54 PM EST
Good point @microe...Solyndra received $500M loan guarantees from the government and still failed, so maybe the technology was not cost effective no matter what...the problem though is assessment how much support Chinese companies receive from their government, if it is 10x than in US then the playing field is far from even...Kris
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microe
2/16/2012 2:49 PM EST
The playing field is never even, Kris. Technology, market, work force, infrastructure, funding... Do we think Chinese solar companies have advantages in all the areas? If not, did they complain? Or did you hear Japanese complaining US support for GM? I didn't hear any except the fishy Toyota investigation. When criticizing China is the fashion, it is just an easy excuse. Is that the truth? What someone is trying to cover with that excuse? How can that corrupted communist country generate good companies? How can those brain-washed, slave workers have innovation? BTW, if you have evidence of that 10x, I'd like to know. (just some discussion, don't take it personal)
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iniewski
2/16/2012 4:40 PM EST
I don't have any evidence of the 10x, it was just a wild guess on my part...your points are well taken, it is easy to use China as an execuse...what I am wondering about is why solar sector? how they could become so dominant so quickly? they don't make similar progress in computers or cell phones...is solar business so much material intensive? Kris
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microe
2/16/2012 5:34 PM EST
Look at how dominant the US companies are in computers and cellphones, look at how many patents they have out there to block the competitors, look at how much money they have in pocket to defeat any potential competitors, look at who make the standards, look at those technology export control... This may be a good case to evaluate how uneven the playing field is... Solar, on the other hand, is relatively new...
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DrQuine
2/17/2012 11:31 PM EST
Solar cell technology, like battery technology, is a technology minefield. Improvements tend to be very broad so existing manufacturers get wiped out by the newcomers. In most industries, new technologies are incremental additions for the current vendors. Battery / solar cell manufacturing plant to be designed flexibly so they can produce new technologies when they emerge. If new designs can be manufactured in an existing factory, it also saves the start-up time and money. A win-win situation.
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