In a year marred by negative news, it is cheering to see some positive stories filter their way through. And, while First Solar has recently had a tough time of it, after its CEO made his shock midday exit at the end of October, and the plans for its Vietnamese module plant were suspended, the company can definitely celebrate this milestone.
The thin film giant says that it has now manufactured 66 million photovoltaic modules using its cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film technology which, it explains, is enough to provide power to around 2.5 million homes. The news follows its announcement at the start of June, that it had reached four GW of cumulative module production.
Established in 2002, First Solar has grown to encompass 36 production lines on three continents. In July, it achieved a record CdTe cell conversion efficiency of 17.3 percent, which resulted in an average module conversion efficiency of 12.4 percent on its "best-performing" production lines.
Tymen DeJong, First Solar Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing, said, "Our ability to scale high-volume production has been a key factor in reducing the cost of renewable energy."
Just one month ago, crystalline silicon photovoltaic module manufacturer, Suntech, announced that it was the first solar manufacturer in the world to have produced five GW worth of modules.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.