Applied Materials To Cut 400+ Jobs From Solar Power Branch

Barron’s: This morning nanotech manufacturer Applied Materials announced that it would be cutting anywhere from 400-500 jobs from its solar energy products division.  The division is part of the company’s Energy and Environmental Solutions segment and the cuts come as the result of a planned restructuring of that group.   Increased focus on crystalline silicon solar and advanced energy tech, including LED projects, will replace the manufacture and sales of Applied Materials’ more traditional solar panel products.

Of the discontinuation of its SunFab line of products, Applied CEO Mike Splinter cited the lack of mass-scale solar power adoption as one of several reasons for a focus shift:

[W]hile Applied has delivered significant innovations with our SunFab production line and made substantial progress on our technology roadmap, the thin film market has been negatively impacted by several factors, including delays in utility-scale solar adoption, solar panel manufacturers’ challenges in obtaining affordable capital, changes and uncertainty in government renewable energy policies, and competitive pressure from crystalline silicon technologies.

Such news certainly brings into view the paradoxical nature of green tech and the hope pinned to it of job creation.  Does Splinter mean that their is no future for mass-scale use of solar energy in the U.S. or simply that new more marketable technologies need to be developed before such mass-scale use can be realized?