Renewable energy developer Scout Clean Energy has agreed to purchase 378 MW of First Solar modules for use on several U.S. projects with expected completion dates of 2024.
“We’re excited to partner with First Solar as we continue to develop and grow our portfolio of solar PV assets across the US. This deal reflects our confidence not just in the technology, but in First Solar itself,” said Michael Rucker, founder and CEO of Scout Clean Energy. “Sourcing our modules from a US-based supply partner at this challenging time solidifies our competitive advantage in meeting our customers urgent timing needs for solar power to meet their decarbonization goals. As we diversify Scout’s asset base and grow our solar portfolio, we want to source our panels through partners that we can trust to deliver with no compromise on quality, ethical sourcing of raw materials and who is committed to ongoing innovation. First Solar readily satisfies those critical criteria for Scout.”
First Solar has also inked several solar module supply agreements with other U.S. developers, including Silicon Ranch, Origis Energy and Lightsource bp.
First Solar is a much different animal than the poly crystalline, or mono crystalline solar PV cell industry. They are thin film solar PV panels, already have a cradle-to-cradle recycling program since 2003 and although are not the “record setting” solar PV cell type with claims of 25% plus solar harvest efficiency. These panels have been in production for 22 years, have been proven in use on many utility scale installations around the (World) and with efficiencies of 18.2% to 18.6% are still competitive in large utility solar PV farms. The CdTe chemistry does better under low light conditions and First Solar has announced that by 2028 all of their manufacturing facilities will be using solar PV to (manufacture) their thin film solar PV panels. When a company starts out without having to get an energy intensive supply chain of the silicon foundry of silicon to wafer to solar PV cell to make their product, they are ahead of most others in energy costs and transportation to manufacture their product. Making their CdTe product with solar PV would remove an extra overhead cost of the energy to run the manufacturing line for the product they sell. China can subsidize and dump panels, but can they sustain the practice while First Solar works to erase the energy input of much of the manufacturing process of their product? An in-service LID of 92% capacity after 30 years of use. Payback on manufacturing costs of a month or two of online use would be all it would take to make this a system that would amortize in less than 10 years, with proper design could be 5 years. How does crystalline silicon solar PV offset all of its energy costs and what will the amortization period be for these types of constructed assets compared to thin film panels?