Solar business from Korea

Taking note of the focus that investors and the solar industry in general were waiting to hear from the guidance given today by First Solar about its operational performance expectations for 2010, the thin film leader kicked off its investor meeting in New York by announcing a capacity expansion plan that includes the build-out of another eight production lines at its manufacturing hub in Kulim, Malaysia. Fiscal year 2010 net sales are projected to be $2.7 billion to $2.9 billion. Approximately US$365 million will be allocated to the two new production plants that each will have four manufacturing lines, with the new capacity starting to come online in the first half of 2011. This expansion is expected to increase First Solar's annual capacity by 424MW, assuming the third-quarter 2009 reported annual line run rate of 53MW. Interestingly, its previously announced 100MW-plus, two-line contract manufacturing plant to be built in France for EDF will not be started until the new expansi...

Setting the lowest cost per watt production figures in the photovoltaics industry while ramping production past the 1GW level in 2009, should prove to be the key reasons why First Solar becomes the largest solar cell producer in 2009, leapfrogging Q-Cells and Sharp for the first time. According to market research firm, iSuppli Corp, First Solar is set to produce more than double the 503MW it made in 2008 and increase its market share as well as be responsible for nearly a third of global installations this year! Totting-up first-half year figures and taking into account third quarter company projections, iSuppli has projected some impressive gains for the CdTe thin film leader in 2009. The market research firm believes that First Solar is set to produce 1,100 Megawatts (MW) worth of solar cells in 2009 and actually have the majority of this record production level installed rather than a given percentage stuck in inventory. This is in contrast to many rivals facing inventory build as t...

Focussing its research capabilities on the thin-film sector, LG Display is looking to the future of solar energy with its recent investment of 50 billion won ($40 million) in a pilot line and testing facility for solar cells. The pilot line will be built in LG’s Paju display complex in Korea later this year, while an outdoor test power generation facility will also be constructed at the site. The pilot line will enable the testing and research of thin-film solar cell efficiencies, with the company aiming to achieve an increase in the current energy conversion efficiency rate of 8% to 12% by 2010. Commercialization, planned for 2012, will occur when the research facility has raised the cells’ efficiency to 14%, enabling the manufacturing cost to be lowered to less than US$1 per watt. LG Display’s target market in this phase will be commercial applications buildings and public displays, graduating to solar cells for mobile displays, automobiles, and eventually to supplying cells for suc...