By Lou Moore, Senior Vice President of Systems Engineering and Construction, First Solar

First Solar is pleased to be the top company in the Solar Power World Top 250 Contractors list. We believe our experience, vertical integration and bankability have contributed to this success.

As a contractor, we have completed more than 25 utility-scale power plants in various regions of the world. We have more than 3GW under contract today. With our proven track record and wide range of energy solutions, we are the partner of choice for leading utilities and global power buyers.

In addition to our research-and-development, we manufacture thin-film modules and perform all of the services required to build and maintain a PV power plant. This reduces the risk and complexity associated with delivering PV power plants to our customers.

We have a strong balance sheet and cash position. This is essential to obtaining low-cost financing which enables us to deliver turnkey PV power plants.

Our integrated strategy allows us to maximize value and minimize risk for our power-plant partners over the long haul.

Although utility-scale systems encompass the majority of our business, we are not exclusively focused on this sector. For example, First Solar recently acquired TetraSun, a solar photovoltaic technology startup that has developed a breakthrough cell technology that provides a new capability to meet the needs of customers with distributed-generation applications. Coupled with our thin-film offering, this technology gives us an end-to-end suite of solutions to serve the full spectrum of commercial applications.

We are fortunate to be located in Arizona, which has some of the most progressive solar policies in the country. As part of the renewable-energy standard, Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) created AZSun, an innovative program that decreases system and ratepayer costs by allowing APS to select the site and point of interconnection of larger-scale, lower-cost solar facilities. We believe residential customers should continue to have the right to connect their rooftop installations to the grid, but should pay a fair share of grid and other costs.

If we as a society hope to deal effectively with the threat of climate change, then we need as a matter of public policy to make certain that we are achieving the greatest impact in terms of carbon mitigation for every dollar spent.

Our success is intimately tied with the success of the industry. Continued growth in global demand for energy is key. With relatively fixed pricing, extremely low operating costs and no fuel-price volatility, solar provides reliable and affordable energy.

But Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) is also important. It’s the balance of module efficiency, balance of system, project development, operating costs and project finance. Obtaining low-cost financing and access to capital markets is critical to reducing the total cost of ownership and accelerating solar adoption worldwide.

For every project completed, we capture lessons learned. With every advance in technology, there are lessons learned. With this “lessons learned” culture, we take what we learn and apply it to the next project or the next technology, ultimately driving down cost. It’s our vertical integration that allows us to implement improvements from these lessons learned.