Solar Energy and Jobs

It eliminates 800 jobs in Massachusetts and shut its new factory at the former military base in Devens, just two years after it opened the massive facility to great fanfare and with about $58 million in taxpayer survey.

The company announced yesterday that it will close the plant by the end of March, calling itself a victim of weak demand and competition from cheaper suppliers in China, where the government provides solar companies with generous subsidies.

Evergreen itself has a factory in Wuhan, China, built in collaboration with a Chinese company, Jiawei Solarchina Co. Ltd., and with money from a Chinese government investment fund. The company had previously said it would shift some production from Devens to the Wuhan plant but yesterday was the first time it said Devens would be closed.

“This is a grueling decision for any management team to make,’’ said Evergreen spokesman Michael W. McCarthy, who added that company officials struggled over the fate of the Devens plant “for a particularly long time.’’

The Devens closing is a major hit to Governor Deval Patrick’s efforts to make Massachusetts a hub of the emerging clean-energy industry. The administration persuaded Evergreen to build at Devens with a package of grants, land, loans, and other aid originally valued at $76 million. The company ended up taking about $58 million, one of the largest aid packages Massachusetts has provided to a private company, and the governor was the featured guest at Evergreen’s ribbon-cutting in July 2008.

“We are disappointed to learn about Evergreen Solar’s decision,’’ Greg Bialecki, Patrick’s secretary for housing and economic development, said in a written statement. “The company has worked hard to compete against heavily subsidized foreign competition and to live up to its commitments to the Commonwealth.’’

In the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Patrick was heavily criticized by his rivals for providing so much public aid to a company during tight fiscal times. One mark of the sensitivity of the issue: Evergreen yesterday requested that the State Police provide four troopers for security at the Devens plant until it closes, two Massachusetts officials said.

The plant closing is also likely to revive the debate over the use of state funds to help private companies under economic development programs.

“I really hope the Legislature and the governor take a hard look at these tax-break strategies for big corporations,’’ said state Senator James B. Eldridge, a Democrat from Acton whose district includes Devens. Eldridge has pushed to give the state more authority to recover public funds from companies that fail to deliver jobs and live up to commitments they make. It is the time of change to solar because this is the time of energy crises.