First Solar Information Review

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is one of the hottest solar stocks on the market today. Founded in 1999, First Solar manufactures thin film solar photovoltaic panels.

Share History
At the company's IPO in November 2006, stock prices were $20 per share. Current prices are around $220 per share. This jump from $20 to $220 in a year was extensively covered by news agencies. Michael Horowitz, a stock analyst with Pacific Growth Equities, recently upgraded the stock from "Neutral" to "Buy" citing "its scale, its well articulated and achievable cost cutting strategy, a tight polysilicon market, and its recent acquisition of DT Solar."

Acquisition History
First Solar acquired Turner Renewable Energy, formerly DT Solar in November 2007. It will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary, First Solar Electric, LLC. First Solar's FS Series PV Modules are intended for large-scale commercial installations. Turner Renewable Energy has designed and deployed commercial solar projects for utilities and Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. since 2004. The vertical integration achieved by this acquisition will only benefit shareholders in the end.

Now that First Solar has acquired NextLight, it now has power purchase agreements for 2.2 GW of utility-scale solar projects in USA and Canada.

Solutions Offered
The company mainly offers solutions for three kinds of systems

1. U.S Residential and Small Commercial Solutions
2. Utility-Scale Solutions
3. Commercial-Scale Solutions

U.S Residential and Small Commercial Solutions
It's been over a year since First Solar Series 2 Photovoltaic Modules were introduced by the company SolarCity to residential and small commercial rooftops. SolarCity currently operates in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado and Oregon.

Utility-Scale Solutions
The lowest cost solar PV generation is provided by First Solar under the Utility-Scale solutions for North America. Major projects under this category include

• Blythe, California, USA (45,000 megawatt-hours/year)
• Boulder City, Nevada, USA (23,000 megawatt-hours/year)
• Sarnia, Ontario, Canada (120,000 megawatt/year)

Commercial-Scale Solutions
First Solar works with numerous leading solar energy developers to successfully install First Solar PV in commercial rooftops worldwide.

Achievements in the Use of CdTe
First Solar FS Series PV modules are made with CdTe (cadmium telluride), a polycrystalline compound formed from cadmium and tellurium. The use of CdTe has helped First Solar to achieve the lowest manufacturing cost per watt in the industry in several ways. CdTe is cheaper than silicon, which is used in the majority of PV's. Cadmium and tellurium, byproducts of zinc mining and copper refining, are transformed into a stable, inert semiconductor. Both are readily available in the U.S. CdTe also permits a simple device structure and process, resulting in lower manufacturing costs. The production process First Solar developed does not require a clean-room environment or other expensive specialty equipment.

CdTe has also helped First Solar produce more efficient PV's. In September 2007, their average module conversion efficiency was 10.5%.

"The conversion efficiency of a PV cell is the proportion of sunlight energy that the cell converts to electrical energy. This is very important when discussing PV devices, because improving this efficiency is vital to making PV energy competitive with more traditional sources of energy (e.g., fossil fuels). Naturally, if one efficient solar panel can provide as much energy as two less-efficient panels, then the cost of that energy (not to mention the space required) will be reduced. For comparison, the earliest PV devices converted about 1%-2% of sunlight energy into electric energy. Today's PV devices convert 7%-17% of light energy into electric energy" (Mary Bellis, How a Photovoltic Cell Works)

Solar panels generally are less efficient as the temperature increases, but CdTe is less susceptible to temperature increases than silicon. It also absorbs low and diffuse light more efficiently, making it more useful in a real world environment.

Future Prospects
First Solar is well prepared for growth. They have contracts in place for more than 3.4 gigawatts through 2012. They also have plans to increase their total manufacturing capacity from the current level of 970 megawatts to 1.3 GW by the end of 2010. They have manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. First Solar also offers an innovative PV recycling program, the first of its kind in the industry.