Meyer Burger has shut down its solar module manufacturing plant in Goodyear, Arizona
Workers at the factory have been laid off with the company citing lack of funds as the reason
Closure of the factory follows continued financial stress amid a pivot back to Europe for the manufacturer
Meyer Burger Americas Ltd., a subsidiary of Meyer Burger Technology AG, has shut down its Goodyear located solar module factory in Arizona, US, and has handed termination notices to its workers.
The company issued Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) under the state law to its employees on May 22, 2025. A search on the Arizona Department of Economic Security website shows that Meyer Burger’s decision will impact 355 employees.
However, post the publication of this news, Meyer Burger released an official statement that read, “Meyer Burger Technology AG is forced to stop its solar module production in the U.S., which is still ramping up, due to a lack of funds. Today (May 29, 2025), all 282 remaining employees at the Goodyear, AZ, site received their notices of termination. Production with an annual capacity of 1.4 gigawatts was shut down immediately. The future of the site is uncertain.”
Earlier, a report in the Phoenix Business Journal stated that Meyer Burger has informed the state labor department of its decision to dismiss ‘production leads, material handles, quality assurance supervisors’ and other employees employed at the site. This lay-off will be permanent and will also include project managers, engineers and accountants.
Meyer Burger launched operations at the Arizona factory in June 2024 with plans for 1.4 GW annual production capacity targeting residential, and commercial and industrial rooftop installations and solar farms. It followed the manufacturer’s decision to shut down its solar module factory in Freiburg protesting against the lack of financial support for local manufacturers in the German Solar Package I (see Meyer Burger’s Arizona Module Factory Starts Production).
Soon after, it announced plans to shelve its planned 2 GW solar cell factory in Colorado US citing financial constraints. Meyer Burger continued solar cell production at its Thalheim, Bitterfeld-Wolfen site in Germany to feed its US module factory. To save costs in the short term, Meyer Burger has also resorted to short-time work at the Thalheim site (see Europe Solar PV News Snippets: PGE Polska Secures PLN 2.25 Billion EIB Backing For RE & More).
Its problems compounded after Meyer Burger’s largest customer D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) terminated its master purchase agreement for up to 5 GW module purchase. Meyer Burger had to issue a going concern warning (see Meyer Burger Doubts Ability To Maintain Going Concern Status).
In the midst of all this, Meyer Burger seems to be retraining its focus on the European market as its high-performance modules qualified for the highest subsidy rates under Italy’s Transizione 5.0 incentive program (see Meyer Burger’s Made In Europe Modules Qualify For Italian incentives).
Following this, it entered module supply contracts for its Made in Germany modules from the stock with IBC Solar, Memodo and OGT Solar.
Meanwhile, uncertainty abounds in the US market where President Donald Trump backed One, Big, Beautiful Bill threatens nearly $220 billion of solar and storage investments. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), this bill could jeopardize nearly 300 solar and storage factories (see SEIA: 300 Solar & Storage Factories At Risk With US Legislation).
The manufacturer says it is still in talks with an Ad hoc group of bondholders about restructuring that affects 2 convertible bonds issued by MBT Systems GmbH, guaranteed by Meyer Burger Technology AG, and due in 2027 and 2029.
This news report, originally published on May 29, 2025, has been updated with official response from Meyer Burger.