America’s largest photovoltaics manufacturer must innovate if it is to compete with Asia as prices stay low
On a soyabean farm in Ohio, America’s largest solar manufacturer is trying to beat China to the next breakthrough in clean energy. This month, First Solar opened the country’s largest solar research facility in the Rustbelt state, where it has manufactured panels since 2002. The objective: to commercialise the next generation of technologies to harness power from the sun before Beijing does.
First Solar also operates research centres in California and Sweden, and invested $152mn in research and development in 2023, up 35 per cent from the year before. Among its rivals, Canadian Solar invested $101mn in R&D last year, up from $70mn the previous year. Qcells, which manufactures in Georgia, spent “hundreds of millions” on R&D last year, it said.
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