Europe’s low carbon, high-performance monocrystalline silicon ingot and wafer producer NorSun has thrown in the towel, announcing plans to discontinue its Årdal factory in Norway and file for bankruptcy, blaming market failure in Europe as the reason.
The Årdal factory has been shut temporarily since September 2023 as NorSun blamed a lack of demand, and price pressure due to heavy Chinese inventory in Europe for the decision.
A year later, things don’t seem to have improved as NorSun says this year the price pressure has ‘further intensified’ due to overcapacity in China and Southeast Asia. Europe, on the other hand, continues to sell at below production costs.
As per a company statement, “Together with inadequate market regulations in the EU, this has led to widespread closures of solar businesses in Europe and a declining customer base for NorSun's factory in Årdal.”
NorSun Holding CEO Erik Løkke-Øwre added, “The discontinuation of our operations in Norway is a result of oversupply and lack of regulations in Europe. NorSun will now concentrate all efforts on our US project, capitalizing on the NorSun global reputation in the industry to spearhead rebuilding the US PV value chain and help reshoring American Manufacturing jobs.” NorSun has been developing its US project with a 5 GW annual solar wafer manufacturing capacity in Tulsa, Oklahoma, due to come online in 2026. The final investment decision on the project is expected in Q1 2025.
For the US factory, due to come online in 2026, NorSun claims to have signed sales contracts for the entire planned production volume and supply contracts for all critical production equipment. It has also hired Clayco as the EPC contractor for the US factory to start construction in 2025 (see Clayco On Board For NorSun’s 5 GW US Solar Wafer Manufacturing Plant).
NorSun is another big name in the European solar industrial chain to have called it quits. In August 2023, its compatriot solar ingot, bricks and wafer company Norwegian Crystals filed for bankruptcy (see Norwegian Crystals Files For Bankruptcy).
Earlier this year, European solar cell and module manufacturer Meyer Burger too shut down its module plant in Germany to focus on the US market. However, it ran into financial difficulties after its largest US customer pulled back. The 2 are currently in discussions for a new agreement.
（Picture: Veer）
