The company was the first solar panel company to receive a loan from a federal programme to support innovative green technologies.
First Solar, a solar-panel company in Arizona that went public last year, counts a handful of German firms as its main customers.
Just yesterday, First Solar, the largest thin film solar company worldwide, said it would close its German factory, idle part of a Malaysian factory and layoff 30% of its global workforce.
FORBES: First Solar Struggles Amid Decline Of Thin-Film Solar Market
The target for AQT and most CIGS makers is First Solar, which has become the largest solar company in the world selling its thin film modules made out of cadmium and telluride.
The first is Abengoa Solar, a company that has agreed to build one of the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States.
As growth in the solar market slows in Europe and remains uncertain elsewhere, First Solar announced Wednesday that it has acquired a Chilean solar company with a 1, 500-megawatt pipeline of projects.
FORBES: First Solar In 1.5-Gigawatt Chile Deal While Google Puts $200 Million Into Texas Wind
First Solar spokesman Alan Bernheimer said the company is proceeding with the construction of the project, which has 185 workers on site, but declined to comment further.
Amazingly Suntech has a 25 year warranty and is known for quality however the anti dumping BS is a PR move to try and save First Solar as Sunpower is now a French owned company.
But, in January, First Solar reluctantly agreed to partner with a Chinese power company on the project.
The deal with Zhenfa will give First Solar a landing opportunity in China, which the company tried to tackle when it signed agreements in 2009 for a 2-gigawtt plan in Inner Mongolia.
First Solar is by far the world leader in thin film panel production and it is the most valuable solar company in the world.
First Solar shares are taking a beating Wednesday morning after the company posted mixed Q4 results and offered disappointing Q1 guidance, triggering a flurry of cautious commentary from the sell-side analysts, including several downgrades.
FORBES: First Solar Slides On Weak Q1 Outlook, Street Downgrades
Critically, First Solar executive vice-president T K Kallenbach insists the company will not have to share its cutting-edge PV technology with domestic competitors, as many Western renewables players seeking to enter the vast Chinese market have been forced to do .
One of the largest solar project developers in North America, First Solar, bought a small project development firm in 2007 and a fat portfolio of unfinished projects from a struggling solar company in 2009.
FORBES: A Startup's Matchmaking Service for Solar Project Developers, Investors
By 1996, in only his first year in business installing solar panels on German homes, his company had won 30% of the northern German market.
Tiller says his company uses about one-third the manufacturing space that First Solar needs.
FORBES: Potential Competitor To First Solar Closes $400 Million Loan Guarantee, Raises $110 Million
First Solar brought back Mike Ahearn as an interim chief executive last October after the company had struggled, along with just about every other solar equipment manufacturer worldwide, to deal with a market marked by a glut of solar panels and plummeting solar panel prices.
First Solar ( FSLR - news - people ), which is an alternative technology company.
The realization that building more factories, a key strategy for First Solar and its competitors for over five years, had become a really bad idea prompted the company to decide roughly a year ago to spend more money on research, said CEO Jim Hughes during the analyst day.
FORBES: How First Solar Is Remaking Itself With New Tech And Leaders
Because of China's laws and rulings on offshore listings, it first set up a vehicle in the British Virgin Islands called Solar Touch, which then turned the original company into a subsidiary.
In related news, the company was also showcasing a couple of other innovations: a new solar cell microchip and its first solar cell.
ENGADGET: Intivation intros Umeox Apollo smartphone: $100, solar-powered, Android 2.2 (hands-on)
The company is now using the technology to make multicrystalline silicon solar cells, and HiPerforma is the first product using the new silicon cells, Beebe said.
FORBES: Suntech's Bid To Outshine Solar Rivals In Cost and Performance
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