Solar factory closures and layoffs rampant in 2025: 10,000+ green manufacturing jobs lost (January 8, 2026 )
January 8, 2026 — A year-end accounting by Solar Power World found that 2025 was a watershed year of solar industry contraction: bankruptcies, furloughs, and factory closures cascaded through the sector as import tariffs, the end of the IRA's residential solar tax credit, and the OBBBA's curtailment of manufacturing incentives combined to end a years-long manufacturing boom. At least 10,000 green energy manufacturing jobs were lost in 2025, out of 72,000 total manufacturing jobs lost nationally across all sectors.
Specific casualties included: Meyer Burger, which laid off 355 employees in May at its recently opened solar panel assembly factory in Goodyear, Arizona, and shuttered the 1.5-gigawatt facility less than a year after beginning operations. QCells furloughed 1,000 workers and laid off 300 more at its two Georgia plants after increased Customs and Border Protection detainment of imported components disrupted production. Powin Energy, a battery storage company with more than 17 gigawatt-hours of global installed capacity, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June. GAF Energy laid off 138 employees and closed its California R&D facility in December.
The manufacturing losses were particularly notable given that the IRA manufacturing boom had begun to take hold: before federal incentives were enacted the U.S. had capacity to produce 8 gigawatts of solar modules annually; by June 2025 that had grown substantially, only to face the abrupt withdrawal of the policy supports that had made expansion viable. Rhodium Group projected that OBBBA would reduce U.S. clean energy installations by 57 to 65 percent over the following decade compared to IRA-era projections, weakening the long-term demand signal on which manufacturing investment depends.
| https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2026/01/solar-layoffs-and-closures-run-rampant-in-trumps-first-year-back/ |