No investor in sight for Germany’s former solar power pioneer Solarworld

Investors appear uninterested in the main factory of Germany’s formerly biggest solar panel manufacturer Solarworld, which filed for insolvency in 2017, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “There is no visible prospect of finding an investor,” in the factory, insolvency administrator Christoph Niering said. Even though some two dozen prospective buyers from around the world signalled interest in taking over the production and research facilities in Freiberg, eastern Germany, none ultimately saw a viable economic future for the plant - not least because of much cheaper competition from East Asia, Niering said.

The investment security provided by the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) boosted German solar power panel producers to dominate worldwide production in the early 2000s. But as costs fell, competition from Asian manufacturers pushed most German producers out of the market.