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First Solar Sells Massive Solar Plant to NRG Energy

It would be remiss to say things aren’t going well for First Solar. While many industry rivals are struggling to weather the recession, the world’s leading thin-film solar manufacturer continues to ride relatively high. Whereas competitors like Evergreen Solar have watched their stocks fall to less than $2 per share, First Solar shares are trading at well over $100 each.

A big portion of this success is attributable to some huge deals in the last year, such as a 2-gigawatt project in China, but First Solar is pressing forward on a smaller scale as well, a fact evidenced by Monday’s announcement of the sale of a 21-megawatt First Solar power plant to Princeton-based NRG Energy. The plant, located in Blythe, California, will be operated by First Solar for NRG under a long-term contract, with the electricity produced sold to Southern California Edison. The plant is First Solar’s first utility-scale solar power plant in California. The financial details of the deal were not released by either company.

Another big part of First Solar’s success in tough economic times is cheap production. The Tempe-based company currently has the cheapest production costs in the industry for its cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells, which despite having lower conversion efficiencies than conventional silicon solar cells, have provided an edge in a down economy.

First Solar’s commanding lead in fast, cheap cell production (recently breaching the $1-per-watt barrier) could soon be challenged by Nanosolar and its CIGS solar panels, which Nanosolar claims will be produced at one-third the cost of First Solar modules. But it’s too early to call anything with confidence in that regard (Nanosolar has only been in mass production for a few months), and anyway, it’s not slowing First Solar down at all. In addition to the sale of the Blythe plant, in October, First Solar sold a 20-MW plant in Ontario to Canada’s largest oil pipeline company, Enbridge, Inc.

Source: Reuters

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