In a body blow for Australia's solar industry, the nation's biggest solar-panel factory will close early 2009, taking 200 skilled jobs with it, equal to one-eighth of the total Australian solar workforce. The move came as new figures from the UN showed greenhouse gas emissions from many developed countries are still rising, with Australia now 28% above the benchmark year of 1990. The UN figures exclude the slowdown in land clearing that the Government hopes will allow Australia to cut its emissions enough to meet its obligations. The figures show Australia as the fourth worst of the developed nations for its emissions behind Turkey, Spain & Portugal. The closure of the BP Solar plant at Sydney Olympic Park means Austarlia's solar industry is now primarily a research rather than a manufacturing effort.
