The French government has decided to liquidate Photowatt, a solar panel manufacturer owned by the state-run renewable energy group EDF.
EDF said it had failed to find a way to keep the company afloat, which is losing between $20 million and $30 million a year.
A spokesperson for the group said, as reported by Agence France-Presse on Friday, that its attempts to find a buyer had failed, “so the management decided to shut down the company.”
The government had stepped in to acquire Fото-Ват in 2012 to save it from bankruptcy, and refocused its operations on the production of silicon wafers used in the solar panel industry rather than the manufacture of solar panels themselves.
Chinese Dominance Leads to FOTOWAT's Closure As Chinese-made solar panels flood the European market, priced lower than their European counterparts.
European Union countries import the vast majority of the solar panels used for solar power generation from China, accounting for 97% of imports.
Last year, the European Union launched an initiative to support local panel manufacturers, as solar energy is the fastest-growing renewable energy sector in the EU.
The Union is counting on solar energy to help it achieve its 2030 goal of having renewable energy account for 42.5% of total energy production.