Dozens of Connecticut workers were recently laid off by PosiGen, a solar energy company known for leasing solar panels to low and moderate-income residents.
PosiGen laid off 78 people from its offices in Shelton, Danbury and Wethersfield on Sunday, Aug. 24.
In a letter notifying the cities of the layoffs, the company’s chief administrative officer wrote that the company was ceasing “most of its operations throughout the United States, effective immediately.” The company said it was experiencing “significant financial difficulties” made worse by the Trump administration’s spending and tax package, which will end solar tax credits by the end of 2025.
Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) criticized the Trump administration for the job losses.
“President Trump talks a big game about standing up for the working man, but the truth is he’s left 78 Connecticut families without a paycheck,” Duff said in a statement. “These are blue-collar jobs that built our clean energy future. Now they’re gone because Trump needed the money for tax cuts for billionaires and his corrupt circle.”
The layoffs at PosiGen come days after the Trump administration ordered a halt in construction on Revolution Wind, an offshore wind farm in Connecticut and Rhode Island, which could threaten more than 1,000 additional jobs.
An uncertain future for green jobs in the state
PosiGen is based in Louisiana and was set to supply more solar panels to Connecticut residents through Solar for All, a federal grant program that awarded $62.4 million to the state last year. But the Environmental Protection Agency cancelled the program earlier this month, terminating the funds that were sent to Connecticut.
Aziz Dehkan, executive director of the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs, said the job losses stand to set the state’s green job economy back by years.
“We had a robust, green, renewable energy policy in the state that created green jobs and we're just losing them daily it seems like,” Dehkan said. “What's the next one that's going to happen is really the question here.”
U.S. Rep. John Larson, a Democrat, said the layoffs at PosiGen, and the Trump administration’s move to halt construction on Revolution Wind, would hurt the pocketbooks of consumers.
“If these misguided and vindictive actions are not reversed, thousands of Connecticut households will be stuck paying more for their electricity from an increasingly unreliable power grid for years to come,” Larson said in a statement.
Following the layoff notice, PosiGen now has eight employees remaining in Connecticut. Those workers are expected to be laid off by Sept. 13 if the company can't obtain financing or sell the company.
“The uncertainty that's being caused by the federal government, one by one, ending tax credits or closing down renewable energy projects, hurts everybody,” Dekhan said. “It hurts the economy. It hurts the climate.”
Áine Pennello is a Report for America corps member who covers the environment and climate change for Connecticut Public.
