Tag Archives: fslr
First Solar Posts Loss; Executives Play Musical Chairs
First Solar (Nasdaq:FSLR) announced its Q1 earnings yesterday and posted its second-ever loss. As reported yesterday, the company appointed Jim Hughes as new CEO, and as reported last month, First Solar idled lines in Malaysia, closed down its German factory, and fired 30 percent of its workforce, or about 2,000 employees. The quarter’s loss was [...]
First Solar Shares Drop to Record Low $FSLR
First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR), the world’s largest maker of thin-film solar panels has seen its value fall to an all-time low today. At 4:00 PM EST, the company’s shares were down 6.78%, trading at $19.25 on the Nasdaq. It has been a difficult day for U.S. stocks, but for First Solar, one of the day’s [...]
First Solar: Restructuring
First Solar (Nasdaq:FSLR) has revealed its consolidation plan. The thin film market leader joins SunPower, the conversion efficiency leader, which is closing its 125-megawatt Fab 1 in the Philippines and moving some of those operation to Fab 2. First Solar is closing its Frankfurt (Oder) manufacturing facility and indefinitely idling four production lines of the [...]
Drama at First Solar’s Antelope Valley Solar Project? $FSLR
Rumors of a verbal dispute involving the Los Angeles County Inspector and First Solar employees at the 230-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One (AVSR1) photovoltaic power plant led GTM to the discovery that 3.7 million cadmium telluride thin-film panels that First Solar was preparing to install at the Exelon facility are not Underwriters Laboratory-approved. If [...]
7 Reasons First Solar Could Be DUNZO
This may be a dramatic statement to make about the world’s most valued solar company but there are several reasons which I will explain below to illustrate this point. Note the solar industry is in a league of its own in the astonishing drop it solar panel prices (80% price drop over the last 3-4 [...]
The Safety of First Solar’s CdTe Thin Film
Those who live near the 230-megawatt Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One want to know whether the 3.7-million cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film solar panels First Solar will install in their desert terrain are a threat to them. “I feel somehow that we’re the experimental rat,” one resident said in an email to GTM. “Cadmium? Hmmmmmmm.” [...]
First Solar: 2011′s Largest Solar Producer
Which solar manufacturers produced the most modules in 2011? Chinese solar companies grabbed four of the top five positions. US-based First Solar holds the lead with 2 gigawatts (GW), followed by China-based Suntech, Yingli Green Energy, Trina Solar and Canadian Solar, according to Lux Research’s latest Solar Supply Tracker. The top 10 companies produced 12.5 GW of modules, 44% of [...]
Should You Buy First Solar’s Stock? $FSLR
First Solar Inc.’s fourth quarter 2011 earnings release this week showed that the company is continuing its focus on regrouping then moving forward with a business plan that looks to non-subsidized markets to expand. That may be a good thing, because it announced results shortly after German Ministers announced plans that would sharply reduce solar [...]
First Solar’s $215M Manufacturing Mishap
In the early part of First Solar’s rise to the top as U.S. solar module maker, the firm encountered a glitch in its manufacturing process that compromised the performance of a small portion of its modules. An estimated four percent to eight percent of the cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film modules manufactured by First Solar [...]