First Solar is a public US solar energy company. As of now it is the world's largest photovoltaic company by market value. They are currently trying to build three new solar plants in North America. Photovoltaics are defined "as a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity" (dictionary.com). The big solar plant they are currently building is in Agua Caliente, California which is about 290 megawatt solar plant. They have plenty of other plants in different countries. Most of their original plants were built in Malaysia and more are currently being built there.
First Solar differentiated themselves from other photovoltaic solar energy plants because they do not use silicon-based cells, instead they use very thin-film cells from cadmium telluride, which is known for turning sunlight into electricity. Because of this new type of solar plant use, they became an instant multi-million dollar company about 5 years ago when their plants started to grow throughout the world. They also recently bought Nextlight Renewable Power in July for $297 million which added more than 500 megawatt projects which First Solar buys which then helps them build more systems throughout the world and then sells them to customers.
First Solar is an elite growing company throughout the world and will soon be the basis of all energy power plants, since we are now focusing on solar energy to make our planet more "green".
-Michael Sheinfeld
It seems strange to me that First Solar would be building plants in Malaysia since photovoltaic plants have a very high initial start-up cost and Malaysia actually produces more than 2 billion kilowatt hours that they export(www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook). In the U.S. it seems like there would be a greater need for electricity producers such as First Solar not to mention they could potentially receive money from the government because they are a green company.
ReplyDelete-Tom Langevin