Optisolar slashes half its staff
Solar power company OptiSolar Inc has cut nearly 300 jobs, or half its work force, and halted construction of a manufacturing plant because it could not secure the funding it needed to expand, a spokesman said on Tuesday. (...) OptiSolar made a big splash last year when it announced it would build a 550-megawatt solar farm in San Luis Obispo County whose power would be purchased by San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric on a long-term contract. (...) Bernheimer said the solar farm was still in the permitting stages and wasn't scheduled to begin delivering power until 2011, giving OptiSolar plenty of time to right the ship and meet its commitment to PG&E.
(...) Launched in 2005, OptiSolar is a vertically integrated solar power company. It manufactures its own [amorphous silicon] thin-film photovoltaic panels to supply solar farms that it develops and manages.