GE to build massive solar plant

FAIRFIELD, Conn., April 8 (UPI) -- GE announced it will build a $600 million thin film solar manufacturing plant, the largest in the nation.

The 400-megawatt facility will produce enough panels each year to power 80,000 homes. GE said several locations are being considered for the plant, which will employ 400 people.

The company said that a thin film solar panel it had developed was independently certified as the most efficient ever publicly reported.

"Continually increasing solar panel efficiency is a key component of GE's goal to offer advanced solar products while reducing the total cost of electricity for utilities and consumers," the company said in a statement, adding that a 1 percent increase in efficiency is equivalent to approximately a 10 percent decrease in cost.

GE also said it had completed the acquisition of Colorado's PrimeStar Solar, Inc., a thin film solar technology company in which GE has held a majority equity stake since 2008.

"Over the last decade, through technology investment, GE has become one of the world's major wind turbine manufacturers and our investment in high-tech solar products will help us continue to grow our position in the renewable energy industry," said Victor Abate, vice president of GE's renewable energy business.

Abate told The New York Times he expects the company's push into solar would parallel the rise of GE's wind energy business, noting that in 2005 GE was building 10 turbines a week and by 2008 it was building 13 a day.

But GE's wind is losing some market share.

Sinovel, China's largest wind turbine maker, has replaced GE as the world's second largest such company after Danish manufacturer Vestas, states Sinovel's annual report released Wednesday in Beijing.

The Times said GE's move into solar could shake up the American solar industry and represent a significant challenge for Arizona's First Solar, currently the thin-film market leader and principal manufacturer of cadmium telluride panels.

The Financial Times reports Shayle Kann of GTM Research as saying that GE would have difficulty matching First Solar's costs but, because First Solar had been running at full capacity, GE would likely find willing customers, even if its prices were a little higher.

GTM Research data indicate that the market share for thin film has steadily increased, with global revenues for thin-film products rising from about $4.6 billion in 2009 to about $5.1 billion in 2010 and projected to reach $6.1 billion by 2013.