SiliconBeat

OptiSolar, a once-promising builder of solar power plants, continued its recent spate of bad news.

The company, which had an agreement with PG&E to build a solar power plant in San Luis Obispo County, had a first-round of layoffs and then said it had sold its entire portfolio of planned power plants to First Solar in a deal worth $400 million in stock. It has trouble raising funds and getting financing to see its plans through.

This week, according to spokesman Alan Bernheimer, another 200 employees lost their jobs; now, fewer than 100 remain.

“The remaining employees (in Hayward and Sacramento) are securing the production lines, continuing some R&D activities, supporting the completion of the First Solar transacation, and continuing to seek a buyer,” Berhheimer said via an e-mail.