Advent Solar announces layoffs

NEWEST HIGH-TECH PLANT ADVENT SOLAR S PLANT JUST OPENED UP SEVEN MONTHS AGO AT MESA DEL SOL AND WE VE LEARNED THE COMPANY IS ALREADY LAYING OFF SOME OF ITS WORKERS JEFF MAHER IS LIVE OFF UNIVERSITY IN MESA DEL SOL WITH TONIGHT S TOP STORY — JEFF OFFICIALS WITH ADVENT SOLAR WON T TELL US HOW MANY WORKERS THEY RE LAYING OFF BUT SAY THE ONES WHO ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS WILL BE THE FIRST TO GET WON T TELL US HOW MANY WORKERS THEY RE LAYING OFF BUT SAY THE ONES WHO ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS WILL BE THE FIRST TO GET CALLED BACK WHEN THINGS START TO IMPROVE IT S SOMETHING NOBODY SAW COMING ADVENT SOLAR - A COMPANY THAT MAKES SOLAR PANELS - IS ONE OF THE NEWEST ADDITIONS TO THE EVOLVING MESA DEL SOL COMMUNITY - AND IT S ALREADY LAYING OFF WORKERS you can imagine that as we are declining in the amount of through-put going through the factory we don t need as many employees today BRENT JENSEN THE COMPANY S CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER WON T SAY HOW MANY WORKERS ARE GETTING LAID OFF - OR EVEN HOW MANY WORKERS THEY HAVE RIGHT NOW BUT HE SAYS THE NUMBER OF LAYOFFS IS MINIMAL - AND WILL AFFECT THE PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING DEPARTMENT MORE THAN OTHERS well we certainly aren t going anywhere - this is the location where we re at and we hope to be hiring again when production ramps up in the first quarter of 08 JENSEN SAYS THE REASON FOR THE LAYOFFS IS SIMPLE - A TRANSITION TO A NEW AND IMPROVED PRODUCT THAT INVOLVES SOME NEW TECHNOLOGY so we re going away from the old product and into the new product and that s going to require some manufacturing changes out on the floor - some re-tooling WHEN THEY HAD THEIR GRAND OPENING BACK IN FEBRUARY - OFFICIALS TOLD US THEY EXPECTED TO EMPLOY UP TO A THOUSAND PEOPLE BY 2010 it still has that potential that s one of the reasons why we re focusing on the new technology going forward ADVENT SOLAR SAYS IT WILL TRY TO HELP LAID OFF WORKERS FIND NEW JOBS COMPANY OFFICIALS SAY OVERALL THE SOLAR INDUSTRY I EYEWITNESS NEWS FOUR NEW MEXICANS ARE PREPARING TO TAKE ON HENRIETTE THE HURRICANE IS