CSP World

Rioglass Solar plans to temporarily lay off 40 workers from one of the facilities at Mieres, northern Spain. The company was forced to dismiss further 44 employees late last year due to a lack of new orders.

Rioglass Solar has two factories in Mieres, the Sovilla and the Villallana facilities. The company announced last year it planned to lay off 91 employees and the closing of one of the facilities engaged in manufacturing mirrors for concentrated solar power parabolic trough plants. After negotiations with unions and local authorities, the company agreed to reduce the number of lay offs to 44 while keeping the two factories running.

Las January 2013, the company told to employees that orders had been received to produce mirrors, at least up to September. Rioglass also warned that once the orders have been delivered, it would assess the feasibility of the facility. After the announcement, it seems one of the factories will stand idle for six months.

After the announcement of the purchase of Siemens' CSP assets in Israel, including technology, patents and equipment to manufacture receiver tubes, rumors about a posible relocation of this assets to Spain's factories have come to light, what could led to keep the Spanish facilities running.

Rioglass Solar, a subsidiary of Abengoa, opened late 2011 a mirror manufacturing facility in Surprise, Arizona. The American factory is running at full capacity employing about 100.