SunEdison to close its Pasadena plant and cut 180 jobs

A Pasadena chemical plant owned by financially troubled SunEdison will close its doors for good by midyear, shedding about 180 jobs in the process.

SunEdison, the largest global renewable energy development company, announced the closing Thursday as part of a larger restructuring effort. The company grew substantially in recent years but is now dealing with potentially crippling debt as its stock has tanked.

The local plant manufactures polysilicon, a primary building block of solar panels. The polysilicon production ceased immediately, but the plant will continue to produce seed — used to grow the polysilicon granules — until it closes by the end of June.

The nearly 29-year-old Pasadena facility has dealt with a series of safety incidents over the years, including an October explosion that injured four workers. SunEdison said the latest accident had

nothing to do with the closure.

Rather, SunEdison blamed the decision on trade decisions made abroad. China imposed a 53.6 percent tariff on the plant’s polysilicon in 2014, which SunEdison said priced it out of the Chinese market. The tariffs on U.S. companies were seen as retaliation for the U.S. government taxing cheap solar cells it said China was dumping in the American market.

Opened in 1987

The Pasadena plant opened in 1987 under the ownership of the Ethyl Corp., now Albemarle Corp. In 1995, the plant was sold to the Monsanto Electronic Materials Co., or MEMC, which became SunEdison in 2013 to reflect its focus as a renewable energy company.

SunEdison also said Thursday it will sell a Malaysian silicon wafer production facility, and “refocus” its Portland, Ore., operations into a research and development center.

SunEdison’s stock was trading at more than $30 a share in July, but it has been in a free fall since then. The stock closed Thursday at $1.51 per share, down 16 cents for the day.

In a prepared statement, CEO Ahmad Chatila said the changes will maximize the value of its silicon production technologies, helping to offset any negative financial headwinds. The company declined interview requests.

SunEdison’s solar materials manufacturing business has served as a significant financial drag for a while, so some restructuring was expected, wrote Sven Eenmaa and Craig Jones, analysts at Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, in a note.

SunEdison is still building a handful of solar and wind farms in West Texas and the Panhandle. The company is based in Missouri with an operational base in Belmont, Calif., near San Francisco.

In November, Chatila bemoaned the company’s recent financial woes and said he wanted the company to become “much more boring.” He said the company must grow along with the renewable energy market, rather than continue to outpace it. The company recently cut 15 percent of its workforce.

After its name change, SunEdison expanded rapidly to build up its infrastructure and market share, but wind and solar power are only beginning to turn profits in some parts of the world.

In two deals each nearly worth $2 billion, SunEdison recently bought First Wind Energy and it is in the process of buying Vivint Solar, a rooftop solar company.

But the pending Vivint deal has been widely criticized by many analysts for over-extending the company financially.

While Chatila said the deal will still move forward, he acknowledged in November that a series of deals in a short period of time have “really taken a toll.”

Wind farms

In Texas, SunEdison is building two phases of the 500-megawatt South Plains Wind f arm in Floyd County, near Lubbock, and it is expected to be completed this year.

SunEdison’s Route 66 Wind project was completed in the Texas Panhandle last year, but SunEdison sold a majority stake in it to J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Solar projects

SunEdison also is building two solar farms in West Texas slated for completion this year — the 150-megawatt Buckthorn Solar project and the 116-megawatt Castle Gap solar farm.

SunEdison will sell the Castle Gap power to the Dallas-based Luminant electric utility.

They tout the deal as the largest in the country in which solar power is bought to compete in a competitive wholesale marketplace with all other power generation.

One megawatt can typically power 200 homes on a hot summer day.

jordan.blum@chron.com twitter.com/jdblum23