UniSource to sell off CIS manufacture Global Solar by end of year

Arizona-based electricity provider UniSource Energy Corp. has announced plans to sell off CIS manufacturer Global Solar Energy (GSE). 

In an Aug. 7 conference call on second quarter results, UniSource CEO James Pignatelli said a sale would most likely be concluded by the end of the year. Millennium Energy Holdings (MEH), parent company of UniSource's unregulated energy businesses, currently owns 99 percent of GSE. Pignatelli, who put GSE's book value at about $20 million, said the PV company »has been a disappointment to me in that it never made its sales goals.« UniSource says GSE lost $5 million in 2004 and another $3.3 million in the first half of 2005. GSE produced 1.38 MW of CIGS cells last year on a capacity of 2.7 MW, far below a once anticipated capacity of 4 MW for 2004. GSE president Michael S. Gering, declined to comment on the sale.

In its April 2005 annual report, UniSource stated its intention was »to cease additional funding of Global Solar« due to continued losses, and that MEH would either seek additional investors or sell all or part of its interest. In the conference call, Pignatelli admitted the possibility that sales at GSE would »take off« right after selling it. »That would be just my luck,« he said.

William P. Hirshman
© PHOTON International, September 2005