Tempe-based First Solar to lay off 150 workers
By Ryan Randazzo | The Arizona Republic
Tempe-based First Solar Inc. plans to lay off about 150 North American workers in the next few weeks as it continues to restructure its global operations, officials said during a conference call Monday.
The company has been struggling as the price of polysilicon decreases, making solar panels made by its competitors less expensive. First Solar does not use the same polysilicon in its panels as most traditional solar panels, and has the least expensive solar panels on the market.
But increasing pricing pressures and a global oversupply of solar panels in the past year forced First Solar to make a variety of cuts, including 2,000 layoffs announced a year ago. It also canceled some factory expansions and announced it would not build panels in the Mesa facility that it completed last year, instead opting to lease that facility to someone else.
Chief Financial Officer Mark Widmar said Monday the company will release about 150 workers, mostly in administration, saving the company about $30 million in operating expenses.
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First Solar seeks 5.5 gigawatts of sales to fill pipeline
By Christopher Martin & Ehren Goossens | Bloomberg
First Solar Inc. (FSLR), the largest U.S. solar manufacturer by shipments, said it’s pursuing as much as 5.5 gigawatts of prospective sales, mainly in the Americas, after its pipeline of orders was unchanged in the first quarter.
The company reported $8 billion in expected revenue at the end of the first quarter, unchanged from the end of December, Chief Executive Officer Jim Hughes said during a conference call yesterday.
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A contractor for First Solar Inc. works on construction of the Tenaska Imperial Solar Energy Center South project in Imperial County, California. Photographer: Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg
The company expects results in the second half of the year to be better than in the first half, reversing an earlier forecast, as it acquires new solar farms that will use its panels. Of the 5.5 gigawatts of potential orders, about 700 megawatts comes from mid- to late-stage projects that are nearing construction, Hughes said.
“We are focusing on replenishing our pipeline in 2014 and beyond,” Hughes said.
That includes projects in Chile, Canada and a “steady diet” of stranded solar projects that developers can’t complete in California and elsewhere in the U.S. Southwest, he said. The company forecasts its results using expected revenue from panels it will install at solar farms it’s developing and contracted sales to other developers.
