Germany's Solar Industry Is Imploding Germany produced a record 23.9 gigawatts of electricity yesterday from thousands of solar photovoltaic systems, according to SMA Solar Technology. Despite setting yet another solar world record, the collapse of Germany’s solar energy industry seems to be spreading downstream from manufacturers to distributors and installers. On Friday, Gehrlicher Solar and Conergy, two of Germany’s leading downstream solar power companies, filed for insolvency. In 2011, Gehrlicher Solar, a wholesale distributor of photovoltaic components that also offers engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for solar projects, reported $415 million in revenues. Meanwhile, the collapse of Conergy comes after two failed efforts to close a new round of investment to support a shift in Conergy’s go-to-market strategy to focus on downstream solar project development and distribution. “In the last fifteen months, we have presented two concrete concepts on the investment by investors to our lenders,” Dr. Philip Comberg, CEO of Conergy told PV-Tech. “We very much regret that they repeatedly could not reach a reliable agreement on a timely implementation of the proposal. Without a solid capital structure, however, Conergy Group cannot continue its course for growth as planned.” Only a few weeks ago, Siemens SI +0.04%, the industrial conglomerate based in Munich, Germany, said it was shutting down its solar power division after enduring nearly $1 billion in losses over the past two years. Similarly, Bosch also recently said it was exiting the solar energy market after suffering significant losses.
