After filing similar bankruptcy documents in Europe earlier this month, Meyer Burger has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. The company estimates its assets between $100 million and $500 million, and its liabilities between $500 million and $1 billion.
Meyer Burger lists its largest creditor with unsecured claims as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with $5.1 million in unpaid import duties.
The Swiss company operated a solar panel assembly plant in Phoenix but laid off the entire workforce in late May. Meyer Burger also held a cell manufacturing facility and R&D office in Germany, but those sites have also closed.
Meyer Burger started in the solar industry as a manufacturing equipment developer for heterojunction technology (HJT) solar panels. Its “SmartWire” designs were licensed by other manufacturing names, including REC. In 2020, the company ventured into direct solar cell and panel manufacturing and sales, first opening production facilities in Germany before looking at the U.S. market. Meyer Burger’s 1.5-GW solar panel factory in Goodyear, Arizona, opened in 2024 and was the only HJT manufacturer in the United States.
What helped get Meyer Burger’s U.S. factory off the ground was a 5-GW supply agreement with large-scale developer D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI). DESRI terminated its supply agreement in November 2024, and Meyer Burger was in a financial scramble ever since.
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