Profile: First Solar Inc. is a photovoltaic module designer, developer, manufacturer, and seller based in Tempe, Arizona. The company, founded in 1999, produces cadmium telluride thin-film PV modules that produce clean and reliable solar energy. The company sells its products to distributors, wholesalers, power plant developers, and PV system 
integrators. The company has partners/subsidiaries throughout Asia, Europe, and North America with the majority of the company’s business coming through the United States, Germany, France, China, and other countries.
Thesis
Solar energy continues to be a tough industry to predict with continuous changes in the energy picture, different nations offering subsidies, taking them away, shifting costs and demand, etc. The market is heavily crowded with many companies offering mostly similar silicon photovoltaic modules, but there is one company that has established itself as the cheapest and most efficient solar company. The company is so efficient that they have created a custom assembly of their PV cells and do not let anyone see them during production.
First Solar Inc. (FSLR) has established as a definite leader in the industry not only through its ability to create the most inexpensive PV cell but also through its abandonment of silicon as its source of PV cells and use of cadmium telluride instead as the base material. The company can produce a PV module for only 76 cents a watt, which is the cheapest in the industry. The key in solar energy since it is a commodity is cost structure. In this field, FSLR is king. The company would like to reduce their PV production to 52 cents per watt in the next five years, which is very attractive especially given the current situation in solar.
Solar energy now is facing the fact that the industry will be receiving feed-in tariff cuts (FIT) from the largest markets it operates
in (Germany, Spain, Italy, and France). Additionally, the supply of PV cells continues to grow as more and more companies come to the playing table and larger established corporations are beginning to eye the industry (GE, ExxonMobil). Therefore, cost structure remains key to being able to compete in this industry. Additionally, with tariffs coming down and the Euro maintaining weakness, a diversification to new markets is crucial.
First Solar has made great strides to expand its business into the USA and China, which is a great sign that the company will be able to maintain its high rate of growth that it…
