US solar module sales company ET Solar files for bankruptcy
The US module sales subsidiary of Chinese PV module maker and developer ET Solar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming less than $50,000 in assets and $10-50m in debt. The parent company’s US project development and construction subsidiary ET Capital has not been affected.
It’s a strange time for a PV module sales company to be filing for bankruptcy, given that the price of solar panels has surged in recent months while developers buy up available supply in advance of a ruling by the Trump Administration on the Section 201 case.

Nevertheless, on December 4 ET Solar Inc., based in Pleasanton, California, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal courts. The company claims less than $50,000 in assets but $10-50 million in debts. Over $10 million is owed to three other ET Solar entities in China and Hong Kong, however three other companies are owed at least $2 million each.

No reason has yet been provided and little is known. ET Solar Inc. has been notified by the court that it has failed to file many of the required documents, including a summary of assets and liabilities, a statement of financial affairs, and a statement of the company’s property. ET Solar Inc. has until December 18 to file these.

There is no evidence that the bankruptcy will necessarily have any effect on ET Solar’s gigawatt-scale Chinese manufacturing, or its network of sales and development & construction subsidiaries operating in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Additionally, project development, construction and sales efforts continue unabated in the United States through another subsidiary, ET Capital Inc.

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As of the writing of this article ET Solar Inc. still had 10 employees listed on LinkedIn, with most in the San Francisco Bay Area. We will be either updating this article or following up with additional coverage as more information becomes available.

Update/correction: This article was modified at 1:40 PM EST (U.S.) on December 13 to note that ET Capital remains active in project development and construction, as well as to remove the indication that ET Solar Inc.’s website is down. It is not clear at this time that there was a separate website for ET Solar Inc.