Question

Summarize the history of First Solar and provide an overview for what it does and what goods/services it sells.

Answer 1

In 1984, inventor and entrepreneur Harold McMaster founded Glass tech solar. After trying on amorphous silicon, he founded Solar Cells, Inc(SCI) in 1990. In February 1999, SCI was acquired by True North partners which then formed the First Solar.

At 2009, First Solar had surpassed an energy power production rate of 1 GW and was the largest producer of  PV Cells in the world.

The company is headquartered in Arizona and has manufacturing facilities in Ohio, and  Malaysia.

In July 2010, First Solar formed a utility systems business group in order to address the large-scale PV systems solutions market. Utility systems are now the company's major business focus, with a strategy to focus on markets that do not  generally requires subsidies to support the solar generation business.

On April 17th of 2012, First Solar announced that it would restructure its operations globally. This restructuring process mainly included phasing out operations in  countries like Frankfurt, Germany and idling four production lines in Malaysia.

30% of First Solar's workforce was laid off as a result of these actions, which were highly blamed on market volatility and also for its reduced demand.

Mark Widmar, the CFO of First Solar, said, "We need to resize our business to a level of demand that is highly reliable and  most predictable.

On July 1, 2016 Mark Widmar was appointed CEO of First Solar. Previously he was Chief Financial Officer. Company founder and former CEO Mike Ahearn remains the Chairman of the Board.

This American manufacturer of solar panel and a provider of utility-scale PV Power plant and supporting services that include finance, construction, maintenance and end-of-life panel recycling.

In 2009, First Solar had became the first solar panel manufacturing company to lower its manufacturing cost to $1 per watt.

First Solar manufactures  the cadmium telluride (CdTe)-based photovoltaic (PV) modules, which can produce electricity with a thin CdTe film on glass.

The  company also produced CdTe-panels with an efficiency of around 14% at a reported cost of 59 cents per watt.