World's Largest Solar Producer to Lay off 30% of Employees

­The war in Ukraine has had a potent domino effect on the fossil fuel and renewable energy markets worldwide, and the latest casualty is the world’s largest solar manufacturer, which recently cut its workforce by a full third.

We all know the story by now – Russia has the biggest share of natural gas reserves in the world, around 20%, and they’re the world’s largest natural gas exporter.

So when Russia invaded Ukraine, and the West sided with the defenders, it upended the global energy market. Prior to this, the EU relied on Russia for around 45% of its natural gas imports, and the war’s economic impact (to say nothing of its obvious human impact) was devastating.

In 2022, when Russia said it was cutting off the flow of natural gas through the Nord Stream gas pipeline, prices surged 36%, totaling a 400% increase year-over-year, and the market has never really recovered.

A number of countries restarted domestic fossil fuel production, including and especially coal, and the war also accelerated renewable energy. But higher energy bills bumped up inflation, and that, in turn, led to the cessation of many renewable energy projects and higher costs for renewable supply chains.

Meanwhile, China – the world leader in photovoltaic production – has been dealing with a double whammy of U.S. embargoes (which also effected the U.S. solar industry) and the Ukrainian War energy domino effect.

Within China, the single largest solar producer is Longi, which manufactures wafers, and they’ve been applying a plethora of cost reductions, finally culminating with plans to cut about 30% of their workforce.

Longi has yet to comment, though you can only imagine what they’d have to say after their net income has fallen by about 44% year-over-year.