Owners: Solar mirror plant will not reopen in Imperial
IMPERIAL – The owners of a bankrupt Western Pennsylvania plant that manufactured solar power components have abandoned plans to reopen.
Flabeg Solar U.S. Corp. shut down its plant near Pittsburgh last March, but the owners had hoped to reorganize.
A Pittsburgh newspaper reported the plan to reopen collapsed earlier this month when a Chinese mirror manufacturer failed to complete a court-approved purchase of a piece of equipment for $900,000 and to fund a reorganization plan.
An auction is now scheduled for mid-December.
The plant shutdown unexpectedly when the parent company cut off funding amid its own financial problems. At its height in 2011, the plant employed 240 and had sales of about $30 million. The facility used a robotic production line to create large mirrors for solar energy plants.