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_First_Solar-80x80.jpg "First Solar's Frankfurt (Oder)'s plant reached full capacity in October.")
In June, First Solar predicted its plant in Frankfurt (Oder) would reach full capacity during the third quarter of 2011. This prediction was realised in October when the plant reached full production.
Arizona Public Service’s (APS) AZ Sun Program is seeing progression as the company announced the completion of two 17MW solar power plants in Gila Bend, Arizona. The Paloma Solar Power Plant, which was developed with the help of First Solar, is the first site to reach commercial operation under the AZ Sun Program while the Cotton Center Solar Plant entered commercial operation shortly after.
Just one day after First Solar announced that Rob Gillette was no longer its chief executive officer, the company made the unusual move to push up its earnings announcements for the third quarter of 2011. Net sales for Q3 reached US$1 billion showing an increase of US$473 million from Q2 2011. Quarterly net sales also saw jumped up US$798 million from Q3 2010.
First Solar’s board of directors advised that effective immediately, Rob Gillette was no longer serving as the company’s CEO. No specific details to the sudden announcement of Gillette’s departure were released, but the company did inform that former First Solar CEO, company founder and current chairman Mike Ahearn had stepped in as interim chief executive officer.
Abound Solar is planning to triple the capacity of its thin-film module manufacturing plant in Colorado by the end of 2012. The site expansion will see annual production capacity reach 200MW and help the company meet growing global demand for cadmium telluride modules.
Thin-film technologies are a favoured manufacturing alternative to conventional crystalline solar modules in the US. The R&D history goes way back and of course the US is home to First Solar, which stamped thin-film technology firmly on the PV industry map. That said, announcements at Solar Power International 2011 relating to thin-film technologies have been rather thin on the ground these first few days of the show.
On the eve of the largest solar power event in the US, GE has announced the location of where it will build what it claims to be the largest solar module plant in the US, having initially announced plans in April 2011. GE said it had selected a site in an existing building in Aurora, just east of Denver, Colorado, which is near to the company’s existing solar centre of excellence. It said that the new CdTe thin-film plant is expected to start ramping in 2012 with commercial availability in 2013.
First Solar and Solar Chile, a subsidiary of Fundación Chile, have agreed to a strategic alliance that will see the companies work together to co-develop solar projects in Chile. First Solar has agreed to provide its PV modules, engineering and procurement services for the projects, which are subject to the execution of definitive project agreements.
Effective November 1, Abound Solar will have a new CEO and chairman of the board. Tom Tiller, current president and CEO, will be taking over as chairman leaving Craig Witsoe to step in as president and CEO of Abound. Witsoe joins Abound after serving three years as president and CEO of Lineage Power, which is now GE Power Electronics.
EDF Energies Nouvelles has brought its 67.2MW Gabardan solar PV project in the Aquitaine region of France into operation. The solar plant, located in the municipality of Losse in the Landes department utilizes approximately 872,300 thin-film PV panels by First Solar. The project was first begun in 2009 and will see EDF Services provide operation and maintenance support.
