GE solar plant dead

Aug 08 - Times Union Albany

 

Just two years after picking Aurora, Colo., over the Capital Region for a mega solar panel fabrication plant, General Electric Co. has dumped the business.

The decision was announced Tuesday by GE and Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar, one of the country's largest solar manufacturers. Under the deal, which has already been completed, GE sold its thin-film solar panel technology to First Solar in exchange for 1.75 million shares of First Solar stock -- about two percent of the company. GE cannot sell the shares for three years.

The shares had a value of $83.8 million as of Monday. By the close of the Nasdaq stock market Wednesday, GE's share of the company had dropped to just below $71 million

In April 2011, GE announced that its new $600 million solar panel plant -- and 400 jobs -- would be going to Colorado instead of the Albany area, which had fought fiercely for the plant. The competition by New York made sense because GE's renewable energy headquarters is based in Schenectady, and GE's research and development laboratory -- where it works on solar technologies -- is based in Niskayuna.

The consolation prize for this area was 100 jobs in Schenectady and Niskayuna that would support the new Colorado plant, which was expected to be up and running this year.

All of that was put temporarily on hold in July 2012 when GE announced the Aurora project would be suspended for at least 18 months after the collapse of domestic solar panel prices.

At the time, GE said it needed to make its panels more efficient and cheaper and that the business and the Colorado plant had to be redesigned to reach those goals.

Many analysts said that Chinese dumping of solar panels at cut-rate prices in the U.S. had led to a glut and to the crash of domestic solar panel prices.

As part of this week's announcement, GE said it no longer plans to build the Aurora facility. First Solar spokesman Steve Crum said Wednesday his company was not planning to build the facility either. The 100 jobs expected for the Capital Region never materialized.

Instead, the two companies will work together on complementary solar technologies.

For instance, GE makes solar electric inverters, which First Solar will use in its systems sold to customers. Inverters convert direct-current electricity from solar panels into alternating-current electricity used in homes and commercial buildings where solar electric systems are often sited.

GE will also sell First Solar solar panels to its customers.

The two companies will also collaborate on future R&D projects related to the thin-film technology that GE is selling to First Solar, which is based on materials made from cadmium telluride.

The efforts will take place in Niskayuna and at First Solar's research labs in Ohio and California.

lrulison@timesunion.com, 518-454-5504, @larryrulison

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