Toledo solar-panel manufacturer Xunlight Corp. is bankrupt and plans to liquidate its remaining assets.

The flexible solar-panel manufacturer that uses technology developed at the University of Toledo closed the doors of its Nebraska Avenue headquarters this summer. This month, the company filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation petition.

Company filings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court show Xunlight has about $1.9 million in assets but $28.5 million in debts.

Its assets consist of about $800,000 in inventory and about $1 million in financing. The largest creditor is Emerald Technology Ventures, a Swiss-based venture capital fund that Xunlight owes about $11.4 million. Markus Moor, a partner at the fund, is listed in court documents as a member of Xunlight’s board of directors.

More than $7 million is owed to several state agencies, nearly $1.9 million is owed to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, and about $1.38 million is owed to UT, according to court filings.

Among its creditors is Huntington National Bank, which is owed about $247,000. Sharon Speyer, vice president of the UT board of trustees, is a regional president for Huntington Bank.

John Buckey, who was president of Xunlight, left the company when it ceased operations. He attributed the company’s downfall mostly to market forces, saying the price for solar cells had dropped to between a third and a fourth of their value from when the company started.

“I'm not surprised there’s a chapter filing, but this is the first I’ve heard of it,” he said Monday.

He said it was likely Xunlight was filing for bankruptcy on behalf of Emerald Technology Ventures. Mr. Buckey said the company’s production line is now owned by the state, and that UT has a secondary interest in one of its production lines. The intent is to market and sell that equipment, he said.

The company was founded by Xunming Deng, a UT professor of physics, and his wife, Liwei Xu, based on technology he developed while at UT. He started a holding company called Midwest Optoelectronics LLC in 2002; the company’s main asset was an ownership stake in what would become Xunlight.

The holding company was licensed the technology by UT, and it then sublicensed the technology to Xunlight.

Mr. Deng was chief executive officer and board chairman of Xunlight until March, 2012.

University of Toledo Innovation Enterprises, now known as Rocket Innovations, received about $5 million of equity in 2008 from the University of Toledo Foundation. Most of that equity was stock in the holding company. UTIE also made a $3 million investment in Xunlight, according to UT records. It ultimately forgave $1 million of its investment, and received ownership of one of Xunlight’s manufacturing lines in exchange.

Xunlight was a significant part of Rocket Innovations’ investment portfolio, making up more than 30 percent of its estimated book value as of June 30, according to a presentation made to the University of Toledo board of trustees earlier this month.

Rhonda Wingfield, interim CEO of Rocket Innovations, said in a statement that UT was “determining the amount of the debt write-off and the final destination of the prototype line.”

“While it is disappointing, this is not a surprise,” she said.

The university wasn’t the only public entity to help Xunlight. In 2010, the company received $34.5 million in tax credits as part of the stimulus bill. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) helped secure nearly $3 million in federal earmarks for the company.

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority loaned $3 million in 2009 from its Northwest Ohio Bond Fund. The company received a $3 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a more than $4 million loan from the state, and more than $2 million in state and local tax credits.

Soon after Xunlight announced its closure, the port authority voted to repurchase up to $600,000 worth of bonds invested in Xunlight.

Mr. Deng did not return a message for comment left on his cell phone.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086, or on Twitter @NolanRosenkrans.

First Published November 25, 2014, 5:00 a.m.