Hillsboro solar panel factory shuts down, 170 laid off January 12 2021
SunPower purchased the 47-acre solar panel manufacturing facility in 2018 after its former owner faced challenges.
In another setback for the former SolarWorld factory in Hillsboro, SunPower announced Thursday, Jan. 7, that it would close the 47-acre solar panel manufacturing facility and lay off 170 workers.
The factory was originally built in the 1990s after a $500 million investment from the Japanese semiconductor company Komatsu Silicon America.
But Komatsu never opened the facility, which sat idle for nearly a decade before SolarWorld began manufacturing solar panels there, thanks in part to state tax breaks.
At its peak, SolarWorld was the largest solar panel material-producing company in the United States, employing more than 1,000 people.
January 12 2021
Just a few years ago, Hillsboro took pride in being home to SolarWorld. A lot has changed.
It s the end of an era: The former SolarWorld solar panel manufacturing plant in Hillsboro is now expected to close its doors for good this year.
It s a tough break for 170 factory workers still employed at the facility, who join long unemployment lines during this tenacious pandemic and follow hundreds more out the door, after years of cutbacks and layoffs at the plant.
The solar panel factory won a reprieve in 2018. This time three years ago, SolarWorld was seriously considering closing the plant, which had just undergone a painful round of job cuts. But rival company SunPower bought SolarWorld that year, and its executives decided to keep the Hillsboro facility open at least, until now.