Berlin-based solar company Inventux, a manufacturer of "micromorph" thin-film solar panels has filed for bankruptcy. According to a release, the 200-employee company is looking for investors.
Inventux's micromorph process was an amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology based on an equipment set from Oerlikon, which boasted some of the higher efficiencies to be coaxed from that material, with figures approaching 10 percent according to data sheets from the firm.
MJ Shiao, GTM Solar Analyst, says not to count out thin-film silicon, citing Trony as a leader in off-grid applications. (Read more in MJ Shiao's epic thin-film solar report.)
German photovoltaic panel manufacturers are faced with reduced feed-in tariffs, increased competition from China, and a global oversupply of solar modules. A statement from the firm implicated "massively subsidized" Asian manufacturers as the cause for the company's fall.
Inventux joins Germany's Q-Cells, Soltecture, Odersun, Solar Millennium, Sovello, and Solon in the group of the country's extremely troubled or shuttered PV manufacturing firms. Q-Cells was Germany's -- and once the globe's -- largest solar manufacturer. It is now on the brink of bankruptcy.
As Shyam Mehta has said, "'Consolidation' is a nice word that refers to a lot of ugly things.”