Albuquerque, N.M.-based Advent Solar said it's cutting its workforce almost by half, phasing out its production unit until manufacturing resumes next year.

The company said it would focus on research and development of its new, larger solar cells, laying off 68 workers on its manufacturing crew.

"Reducing the number of positions at the company is temporary," said Peter Green, CEO of Advent.

"We will be hiring for these positions again in the spring of next year. The company is currently solving the product development issues, and when that's done, this company will be stronger than ever."

Advent said it switched to developing the larger solar cells last September, holding onto its manufacturing employees at the time.

But the company said that it had become clear that the development, testing and certification process would take another year.

Advent said the product development phase would take six months, followed by three months of testing, and then six months of certification.

"We have to get it right before going out into the marketplace," said Green. "We are confident that we will have this technology ready to go to market early next year."

Green said the company is in "good financial shape," and that there are no other layoffs in the works.

Last June, Advent pulled in $70 million in a Series D round (see The week's hot solar deals).

The funding was led by ZBI Ventures, the private equity and venture investment subsidiary of Ziff Brothers Investments.