Green Jobs: Moving to China

By Ken Silverstein

From the Boston Globe:

Little more than a year after cutting the ribbon at a new factory in Devens built with more than $58 million in state aid, Evergreen Solar said yesterday that it will shift its assembly of solar panels from there to China.

About half of the 577 full-time and 230 contract employees at the Devens factory are involved in putting the panels together. Evergreen declined to say how many of those jobs would disappear with the scheduled transfer next year to China, where it is expanding because of lower costs.

Evergreen uses the Devens facility to make the silicon wafers and cells used in the production of solar energy. It also assembles those parts into the solar panels that increasingly adorn rooftops. The wafers and cells will still be manufactured at Devens, but the final assembly of the panels will move to China.