Solar Success on the Market

The sun isn’t the only thing that’s hot these days.

First Solar Inc., one of the more high-profile manufacturers of solar technology, is raising eyebrows on Wall Street. The clean technology company recently reported a 57% increase in quarterly earnings, exceeding projected revenues by nearly 20%. Second quarter revenues equaled $267 million, more than triple last year’s 2Q earnings of $77.2 million. Over this time the company’s operating profit more than quadrupled to 33.2%, as compared with last year’s margin of 7.5% for the same quarter. “Despite expectations being so high, they completely outdelivered again,” gushed technology investment analyst Mark Bachman of Pacific Crest Securities.

First Solar credits the launch of a new production facility in Malaysia for its current spate of success; the plant’s output is helping the company meet the high consumer demand that is currently inflating the price of silicon. As production levels begin to meet this demand, however, raw costs should decrease, creating the potential for yet greater profit margins.

At the moment First Solar is pursuing utility-scale initiatives in California and emerging markets in France and Italy; it is also one of the largest makers of thin-film photovoltaic cells, a cutting-edge technology that is significantly cheaper to manufacture than traditional solar panels, though not yet as efficient. Recent experimental efforts by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have raised thin-film conversion efficiency to 19.9%, as opposed to 20.3% for traditional multicrystalline silicon panels. First Solar’s cells convert sunlight at an efficiency rate of 10.7%, but that is increasing with the development of these new techniques and applications.

Sources: “First Solar Q2 net soars past view, shares rise”, Scientific American; “19.9%: New Thin Film Solar Efficiency Record”, Treehugger; “First Solar’s Earnings Warms Investors’ Hearts”, Earth2tech.


Posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 2:58 pm | Tagged in Energy, Green Building, Photovoltaics, Renewables | posted by Bill

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