“The predominant feeling is obviously sadness after fifteen years of working with people committed to building a sustainable photovoltaic sector and ensuring the energy transition. » Paul Toulouse, the director of the Systovi company, one of the last two French producers of photovoltaic panels, gave himself one month to find a buyer.
No one showed up and the Commercial Court of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) declared the liquidation of the company this Wednesday, April 17 in the morning. “For a month, we tried as much as possible to bring together the players in the sector, we had around fifty contacts but unfortunately, this did not result in an offer,” regrets the boss.
It is indeed difficult for buyers to position themselves in a context of extreme competition with photovoltaic panels from China and currently sold four times cheaper than panels of French origin. “The uncertainties are such that our contacts did not want to take the plunge. There is no regulatory perspective, underlines Paul Toulouse, referring to the implementation of protection tools for French or European industries. Today, it’s very easy for the Chinese to sell in Europe.”
“There are attacks aimed at destroying the photovoltaic sector”
“Systovi is a company which has developed potentially profitable technologies but which is the victim of a Chinese economic attack,” enrages European MP (PS) Christophe Clergeau. The councilor knows the company very well, having supported it when he was vice-president of the Pays de la Loire region.
“There are attacks which aim to destroy the photovoltaic sector in Europe in the face of which the French and continental authorities have shown unforgivable passivity”, he judges, calling for rapid action “to preserve the companies which remain.” The 87 employees of Systovi will have to turn the page. Two thirds of them voted “for” the cessation of activity this Tuesday, April 16 during a vote, rather than asking the Court for a one-month reprieve in the hope of the arrival of a providential buyer. The management was on the same line.
An “audible” reasoning for Geoffroy Nguetebe, staff representative and CFTC elected official who was in court this Wednesday, April 17 and who evokes a company “clearly in deficit”. “Behind this vote for liquidation, there is a feeling of “all that for that”, he underlines. Politicians promise things, but nothing has been put in place to protect us even though we have raised awareness about our situation. It’s a suffering and a disappointment,” he explains, expressing his feeling of “waste.”
Prices of Chinese panels have been halved
Systovi, which achieved a turnover of 21.5 million euros in 2023, had just invested nearly a million euros in its production facilities at the end of last year to produce 200,000 panels. per year. “The quality was there,” assures an employee, “our products are efficient, but what killed us was the market and the gap with Chinese prices. »
As of last Tuesday, the machines stopped in the huge production hall. The employees, groggy, chat among themselves in small groups. “We were doing well, it was full of activity until last summer. Then the decline was very rapid,” sighs Xavier Rumeau. It was in fact on this date that the prices of Chinese panels were halved.
This head of procurement and planning, who had been with the company for six years, voted for the continuation of the activity. “I have the feeling that we did not go all the way to the end,” regrets Xavier Rumeau, “I was hoping for a little extra time to save the company.”
He evokes with bitterness the announcement this week by Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, of protection measures for French heat pump manufacturers. “The aid will be reserved for Made In Europe. They will perhaps extend this principle to photovoltaic panels, he believes, but for us, it will be too late. »
The sudden cessation of Systovi’s activity comes a few weeks after the government’s announcement of a “battle plan” to double the rate of deployment of solar energy capacities in the territory. Very behind on this energy, France has revised its objectives upwards.
While it currently peaks at 19.3 GW (gigawatts), it aims to increase the objective to 100 GW of solar production in 2035. To achieve this, it is counting on the commissioning of two panel manufacturing sites. The disappearance of the Carquefou factory does not jeopardize this objective but it demonstrates the difficulties in creating a viable French or European sector.