The Industrial Behemoth Is About to Start Building The Largest Panel Factory

The industrial behemoth is about to start building the largest panel factory in the us, and expects to begin commercial shipments in 2013. General electric (GE) has ended speculation about the location of its planned 400 mw cdte solar panel fab, announcing that it has selected a site in aurora, colorado, for the new factory. Close to denver, as well as GE’s existing solar center of excellence and thin-film solar pilot line, the factory is expected to create 355 jobs when completed, by which time it will represent the largest solar panel manufacturing facility in the us. GE says it will begin installing production equipment in january 2012, with the first panels scheduled to come off the line later the same year, ahead of commercial shipments in 2013. The thin-film cdte technology at the heart of the new ge fab was initially developed at the national renewable energy laboratory (nrel) – also in colorado – before being transferred to start-up firm primestar solar in 2007. A year later, ge acquired a majority stake in primestar, before completing a full acquisition earlier this year and announcing a total $600 million investment to ramp the technology to volume production. GE will be competing with first solar, the long-time market leader in thin-film cdte panel production with global annual manufacturing capacity already in excess of 2 gw. First solar is also building a new us facility, in the form of a 250 mw fab in arizona, part of an expansion plan that will see its capacity rise to around 2.9 gw next year. Panel efficiency key GE’s new site is expected to have a 400 mw capacity, with the company saying that its panels