Thin-film solar manufacturer First Solar will invest up to US$1.2 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US, including setting up a vertically integrated factory in the country’s Southeast with an annual capacity of 3.5GWdc.
Thin-film technologies such as cadmium telluride and perovskites can markedly reduce the carbon intensity of PV compared with silicon alternatives, according to researchers at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
First Solar is to supply 2GWdc of its at thin-film cadmium telluride modules to National Grid Renewables after securing a framework agreement with the developer.
Finlay Colville, head of market research at PV Tech, explores why PV module supply to the US market is so heavily scrutinised and why ASPs are sky-high, while also previewing this year’s PV ModuleTech event, to be held in the US for the first time.
SoftBank-owned SB Energy has signed an order for 1.5GW of thin-film PV modules from First Solar to deploy across its 4GW solar and storage development pipeline projects in the US.
The economic viability of deploying thin-film floating solar systems at offshore locations is being explored by a new collaborative study in the Netherlands.
