The past two years have seen Missouri-based SunEdison (formerly MEMC) exploring “various options” to improve the competitiveness of the Italy factory, but to no avail.

The decision will affect about 200 Italian employees and see SunEdison record a $37m impairment charge in its 2013 figures.

SunEdison – which is planning to spin off its semiconductor business this year and so become a solar-only company – has significantly refined and in many cases shrunk its manufacturing operations over the past few years, even as its downstream PV projects arm has grown massively.

In