AUSTRALIA’s only photovoltaic energy cell plant will close it’s doors next year following an announcement yesterday by BP Solar that it will close the Sydney-based manufacturing plant at the end of March 2009.
The British oil giant said the move is part of the company’s global drive to reduce the cost of renewable power and is looking to focus its operations at larger scale plants in lowest cost manufacturing countries, in order to drive down the cost of solar power for consumers.
Approximately 200 jobs will be lost from the manufacturing plant, with more local renewable energy jobs under threat.
The Greens and the Opposition have both claimed that the Rudd Government should have done more to save the solar industry, saying if $6 billion was spent “propping up” the automotive industry, why couldn’t the same be done for the renewable energy sector.
BP has denied claims that the decision was related to Federal Government policy but has refused to receive any government assistance, saying no amount of aid or policies would have reversed the decision to move its operations to where it could be closer to its silicon suppliers and ramp up production more cheaply.
The company’s decision was greeted with disappointment by the Federal Government with Industry Minister Kim Carr saying the move was a let-down because of the “extensive amounts the Government had spent on solar technology research” and from which companies such as BP Solar had benefited.
BP had received a commercial advantage through the government-sponsored $75 million Solar City project that subsidised rooftop solar energy panels.
Global CEO of BP Solar, Reyad Fezzani, said it was a “sad day” for the company and the employees at the Sydney plant, but explained if the company was going to meet the challenge of reducing solar power costs to the point where it can compete on an equal footing with conventional electricity, BP needed to expand and demonstrate profitable returns.
“We’ve looked at all options in our Sydney manufacturing site and the physical location, lack of expansion potential and lease agreements just don’t make it competitive: the most modern Solar PV manufacturing plants are up to twenty times larger than our Sydney site and we are competing in this global market,” Fezzani said.