News

23 March 2009

 

First Solar surpasses 1GW of CdTe PV module production

First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA, which makes thin-film photovoltaic modules based on cadmium telluride (CdTe), says that it has produced 1 gigawatt (GW) of its solar modules since beginning commercial production in early 2002.

First Solar began production in 2002 with a single manufacturing line in Perrysburg, OH and about 150 associates. It took more than six years to produce its first 500MW, but just eight months to produce its second 500MW. By the end of 2009, the firm’s solar modules will come from 23 manufacturing lines employing more than 4000 associates on three continents (in the USA, Germany and Malaysia), giving the capacity to produce more than 1GW per year (the equivalent of an average-sized nuclear power plant).

“This volume allows us to rapidly reduce manufacturing costs, thereby furthering our mission of making solar power an affordable alternative to conventional energy sources,” says First Solar’s president Bruce Sohn.

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