First Solar bets on US to make up for German decline - report

(ADPnews) - Sep 21, 2010 - US thin-film photovoltaics (PV) maker First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) is building three large PV plants in North America and plans to start construction next year on its biggest yet, in a bid to make up for a projected decline in Germany, Reuters reported yesterday.

"I think for the industry these first several major utility-scale sites are critical for the momentum," First Solar CEO Robert Gillette told Reuters in an interview.

Gillette has sped up the company's push to build the large-scale plants by naming CFO Jens Meyerhoff head of a new group to focus specifically on those projects.

Global solar sales for the industry are set to hit a record of above 12,000 MW this year, paced by strong demand in Germany, which is expected to take delivery of a total of between 6 MW to 8 MW of modules this year.

While some companies expect Germany's 2011 demand could match its 2010 levels, Gillette is sceptical, even with the country's goal of increasing renewable energy's share of electricity production to nearly 40% by 2020. He expects Germany, where First Solar sells half its modules, to continue to do a range of 3.5 MW to 4 MW per year. "Seven or eight is just mind blowing, to maintain that kind of pace."

That makes it critical for the company to win new utility-scale solar projects in the US, the market that nearly every manufacturer expects to leap ahead of the current leader, Germany, in the next few years.

The company has module manufacturing plants in Ohio and Germany and is building a plant in France. But more than two-thirds of its production is done in Malaysia, where it is also increasing manufacturing capacity as it moves toward its 2012 goal of more than 2,200 MW of total output per year.

First Solar also has its sights set on winning large projects in Australia, which it expects to announce in the coming months, as well as other markets around the globe.

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