How did First Solar end up being the market leader in thin-film solar cells?
To me, the recipe seems to be two-fold. First Solar focused on manufacturing process technology to drive the cost curves down on the back end. They really became among the best in solar panel manufacturing. Then, on the front-end, they focused on where to sell their photovoltaics and get the best bang for their buck. And that’s Spain or Germany, where you had big government subsidies driving very large utility-scale installations and buyers. First Solar has been really pragmatic as business guys. I am curious, though. There are many types of solar power products on the horizon that promise to be far-more efficient than what First Solar, SunPower and other solar panel makers are building right now. There is not going to be any one right answer. Different technologies have different attributes that make them uniquely suited to different marketing issues. We didn’t do anything in thin-film solar cell makers because the valuations were so high. We had missed those inflection points. Then w
