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First Solar to Invest $680m in Expanding American Solar Manufacturing Capacity by 3.3 GW

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  • New manufacturing facility in Ohio will be company’s third in the United States
  • Factory of the future will expand First Solar’s US manufacturing footprint to 6 GW
  • Facility will be designed to produce enhanced thin film PV module for US utility-scale solar market

TEMPE, Ariz., June 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) today announced that it will invest $680 million to expand America’s domestic photovoltaic (PV) solar manufacturing capacity by 3.3 gigawatts (GW)DC annually, representing an implied capital expenditure of approximately $0.20 per watt. The company intends to fund construction of its third US manufacturing facility, in Lake Township, Ohio, with existing cash resources.

Contigent upon permitting and pending approval of various state, regional and local incentives, the new facility is expected to commence operations in the first half of 2023. It is projected to achieve its throughput entitlement (modules produced per day) by the end of the same year with over 3 GWDC of nameplate capacity, and is expected to attain full nameplate capacity, based on the company’s module efficiency roadmap, in 2025. When fully operational, the facility will scale the company’s Northwest Ohio footprint to a total annual capacity of 6 GWDC, which is believed to make it the largest fully vertically integrated solar manufacturing complex outside of China.

“These investments in American-made solar technologies are the perfect embodiment of President Biden’s strategy to buildout domestic manufacturing and supply chains for critical industries,” said US Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm. “As a partner to our solar program since 2003 and a DOE loan guarantee recipient in 2012, this company is a great example of how investment and innovation can build the clean energy future right here at home—shoring up American competitiveness and bringing good-paying jobs to all pockets of the country.”

Unique among the world’s ten largest solar manufacturers for being the only US-headquartered company and for not using a crystalline silicon (c-Si) semiconductor, First Solar produces its ultra-low carbon thin film PV modules using a fully integrated, continuous process under one roof.

The 1.8 million square foot facility is projected to directly create approximately 500 jobs and is expected to produce an enhanced thin film PV module for the utility-scale solar market in the US, which is anticipated to have a higher efficiency and wattage in a larger form factor. The additional production capacity from this new facility, when available, is also expected to help mitigate the challenges currently being experienced in the global ocean freight market, by reducing the transoceanic gap between international supply and domestic demand.

“We have said that we stand ready to support President Biden’s goal to transition America to a clean, energy-secure future, and our decision to more than double our US manufacturing capacity with this new facility is First Solar making good on that commitment,” said Mark Widmar, chief executive officer, First Solar. “This facility will represent a significant leap forward in photovoltaics manufacturing, a true factory of the future. It will leverage our advantaged position at the intersection of efficiency, energy yield, optimized form factor, and cost competitiveness, while leading our manufacturing fleet in delivering the highest efficiency and wattage, and the lowest cost per watt.”

The facility will be one of the most advanced of its kind in the solar industry, allowing First Solar to produce an anticipated average of one module roughly every 2.75 seconds across its three-factory Ohio footprint once it achieves its full production capacity. The facility will combine highly skilled workers with Industry 4.0 architecture, machine-to-machine communication, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things connectivity to produce a higher degree of automation, precision, and continuous improvement.

“While designing and building this factory of the future we’re challenging ourselves to focus on the continuous improvement of our throughput, quality, and safety through automation without losing sight of our greatest strength, our people,” said Mike Koralewski, chief manufacturing operations officer, First Solar. “We see this as an opportunity for our associates to upskill, learn new technologies, continue to grow and develop themselves as our factories and products continually evolve.”

Meanwhile, Widmar noted that First Solar continues to evaluate opportunities to further expand its global manufacturing footprint and said, “Looking forward, strong demand for Series 6, a compelling technology roadmap, a strong balance sheet, and a largely fixed operating expense cost structure, are each catalysts as we evaluate the potential for future capacity expansion. While we have made no such decisions at this time, we are continuing to evaluate the potential for further domestic and international expansion.”

Designed and developed at its research and development (R&D) centers in California and Ohio, First Solar’s advanced thin film PV modules set industry benchmarks for quality, durability, reliability, design, and environmental performance. Each module features a layer of Cadmium Telluride (CadTel) semiconductor that is only three percent the thickness of a human hair and the company continues to optimize the amount of semiconductor material used by enhancing its vapor deposition process. First Solar also operates an advanced recycling program that recovers more than 90 percent of CadTel for use in new modules. In addition to its Ohio manufacturing facilities, First Solar also operates factories in Vietnam and Malaysia.

About First Solar, Inc.
First Solar is a leading American solar technology company and global provider of responsibly produced eco-efficient solar modules advancing the fight against climate change. Developed at R&D labs in California and Ohio, the company’s advanced thin film photovoltaic (PV) modules represent the next generation of solar technologies, providing a competitive, high-performance, lower-carbon alternative to conventional crystalline silicon PV panels. From raw material sourcing and manufacturing through end-of-life module recycling, First Solar’s approach to technology embodies sustainability and a responsibility towards people and the planet. For more information, please visit www.firstsolar.com.

For First Solar Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements concerning (i) First Solar’s expected approximately $680 million investment to establish a third US manufacturing facility, (ii) its anticipated annual capacity of 3.3 GWDC, (iii) when it will commence operations, (iv) when it will achieve its throughput entitlement and full nameplate capacity, and (v) First Solar’s continued evaluation of further manufacturing expansion. These forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of words such as “estimate,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “plan,” “intend,” “seek,” “believe,” “forecast,” “foresee,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” “goal,” “target,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “predict,” “continue” and the negative or plural of these words and other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and our projections about future events and therefore speak only as of the date of this release. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the matters discussed under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and our subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as supplemented by our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f55fbc98-5d01-4cf0-bedf-8d5245685588
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GlobeNewswire is one of the world's largest newswire distribution networks, specializing in the delivery of corporate press releases financial disclosures and multimedia content to the media, investment community, individual investors and the general public.

Artificial Intelligence

Automotive Digital Cockpit Domain Controller Power Expected to Double by 2030

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NEW YORK, March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The lengthening lifecycle of vehicles is driving automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to plan several years of customer support through regular Over-the-Air (OTA) updates. Achieving this requires a digital Cockpit Domain Controller (CDC) with an architecture that supports long-term updating and maintenance. According to a new report from global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, the computing power of the CDC will increase significantly over the next few years, with graphical computing power and deep-learning processing power (for AI-powered functions) expected to double by 2030 for an average mid-market CDC.

OEMs are beginning to plan for several years of support, both in software patches and bug fixes, and for delivering new added value features to the driving experience. “This support and feature roadmap requires a hardware and software architecture that supports the continuous updating of vehicles over time. OEMs need a system that accommodates quick, targeted updates by shipping vehicles with planned overhead in computing power, software containerization, and robust hypervisors. These can be accommodated by silicon vendors such as NVIDIA or Qualcomm with their suite of high-powered System-on-Chips (SoCs), along with hypervisor and software specialists such as Blackberry QNX. The ecosystem hasn’t fully adjusted to OTA updates in mixed-criticality systems like the digital cockpit domain controller yet, with most OEMs speculating about the level of computing power that is needed for several years of support and few going to their silicon and tier-one partners with roadmaps of planned features,” explains Abu Miah, Smart Mobility and Automotive Analyst at ABI Research.
The computing power of the CDC will increase significantly over time. The Tera Floating-Point Operations per Second (TFLOPS) of an average mid-market CDC is expected to rise from 1 TFLOPS in 2023 to 2.5 TFLOPS by 2030. Miah adds, “One of the primary drivers of this increase is the implementation of a larger number of higher resolution screens in the vehicle to accommodate new high-end gaming and video-on-demand features.”
Building a ‘future-proofed’ CDC is not as simple as throwing compute power at the vehicle. “OEMs, tier ones, and silicon vendors must all work toward an ecosystem of hardware and software agnosticism, modular architecture, and collaborative software development if they are to match customers’ expectations of updates, patches, and bug fixes from the consumer electronics space,” Miah concludes.
These findings are from ABI Research’s Future-Proofing Digital Cockpit Domain Controllers application analysis report. This report is part of the company’s Smart Mobility and Automotive research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Based on extensive primary interviews, Application Analysis reports present an in-depth analysis of key market trends and factors for a specific technology.
About ABI Research
ABI Research is a global technology intelligence firm uniquely positioned at the intersection of technology solution providers and end-market companies. We serve as the bridge that seamlessly connects these two segments by providing exclusive research and expert guidance to drive successful technology implementations and deliver strategies proven to attract and retain customers.
ABI Research是一家全球性的技术情报公司,拥有得天独厚的优势,充当终端市场公司和技术解决方案提供商之间的桥梁,通过提供独家研究和专业性指导,推动成功的技术实施和提供经证明可吸引和留住客户的战略,无缝连接这两大主体。
For more information about ABI Research’s services, contact us at +1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe, +65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific, or visit www.abiresearch.com.
Contact Info: 
GlobalDeborah Petrara Tel: +1.516.624.2558 [email protected] 
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ACL Digital in Collaboration with AWS and Infineon to Participate at Embedded World 2024

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SAN JOSE, Calif., March 28, 2024  /PRNewswire/ — ACL Digital, an ALTEN group company, is a pioneer in design-led digital experience, innovation, enterprise IT modernization, and product engineering services, announced that ACL Digital, in collaboration with AWS and Infineon, is going to showcase its AWS IoT & Cloud capabilities at Embedded World 2024, Hall 4 (Booth #4-552) from April 9 to April 11 in Nuremberg, Germany.

ACL Digital, a top-tier AWS Services partner, propels organizations of all sizes to navigate digital transformation to accelerate time-to-market. The company provides comprehensive support, from adopting to modernizing IT infrastructure on AWS. By leveraging expertise in architecture, security, migration, and operations, ACL Digital unlocks the full potential of AWS, streamlining IoT and cloud journeys and fast-tracking business growth and innovation.
The AWS Advanced Tier partnership enables ACL Digital to leverage AWS expertise, its robust support ecosystem and best practices to deliver customer delight.
ACL Digital offers visitors at Embedded World 2024 a chance to experience the exclusive demo of a Smart Stove Solution, built by leveraging the AWS Cloud and Infineon platform and how it has added value to our customers.
With over 100 AWS-certified experts, ACL Digital empowers clients to achieve breakthrough results in their digital transformation. Also, the leading digital transformation company supports global clients in navigating the complexities of cloud implementation, migration and digital transformation with ease and helping them unlock new growth opportunities.
About AWS
Since 2006, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any workload, and it now has more than 240 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, media, and application development, deployment, and management from 105 Availability Zones within 33 geographic regions, with announced plans for 12 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit https://aws.amazon.com .
About Infineon
Infineon Technologies AG is a global semiconductor leader in power systems and IoT. Infineon drives decarbonization and digitalization with its products and solutions. The company has around 58,600 employees worldwide and generated revenue of about €16.3 billion in the 2023 fiscal year (ending 30 September). Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the OTCQX International over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: IFNNY). To learn more about Infineon, visit https://www.infineon.com/
About ACL Digital
ACL Digital an ALTEN Group Company, is a digital product innovation and engineering leader. We help our clients design and build innovative products (AI, Cloud, and Mobile ready), content and commerce-driven platforms, and connected, converged digital experiences for the modern world through a design-led Digital Transformation framework.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, ACL Digital is a leader in design-led digital experience, innovation, enterprise modernization, and product engineering services converging to Technology, Media & Telecom. The company has a workforce of 57,000+ spread across more than 30+ countries.

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Gilbarco Veeder-Root champions fuel efficiency, clean fuels and diesel rebate solutions in mining

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JOHANNESBURG, March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Global leader in technology solutions OEM Gilbarco Veeder-Root (GVR) is dedicated to enhancing operational performance by delivering comprehensive end-to-end wetstock, industrial, mining, and business-to-business solutions, all tailored to meet the specific needs of the customer.

 
 
By encompassing every aspect of mining operations, GVR commercial and industrial Middle East and Africa director Westtar Kapito says, “the company is setting new benchmarks for fuel efficiency, safety and sustainability within the mining industry”.
As part of a holistic approach to mining excellence, Kapito explains that Gilbarco’s integrated fuel and fleet management technology solutions are designed to address the multifaceted challenges of the mining industry.
Some of these facets include wetstock control, equipment maintenance and management, fleet management and automation, compliance monitoring and environmental sustainability, as well as driving productivity and profitability through innovation.
In addition, the introduction of Gilbarco’s clean fuel solution exemplifies the company’s commitment to maintaining equipment integrity and performance.
This technology, GVR says, monitors in real-time the status of up to 16 “clean fuels” key performance matrices, thereby ensuring that dirty fuel is flagged and not transferred into mining equipment which would affect engines and injectors and thus lower productivity.
Gilbarco’s comprehensive site automation solutions empower mining companies with critical data analytic insights, facilitating efficient monitoring and management of fleet and fuel inventory. Gilbarco’s dataFLEX360 platform plays a pivotal role, offering near real-time reporting and analytics to drive informed decision-making and operational agility.
dataFLEX360 is a Web-based, cloud-hosted strategic operational insights platform. The system ensures accurate, reliable and relevant reporting of all fuel, fleet and asset transactions, and provides for proactive corrective measures to reduce complex reporting and gives a consolidated and comprehensive view across all sites and assets.
With reconciliations at its core, dataFLEX360 provides solution accuracy on operational data.
Integral to the company’s solutions is compliance with Global Industry Standards and environmental stewardship, from leak detection to vapour recovery and clean fuel technologies. Gilbarco’s products are designed to ensure compliance and minimise the carbon footprint of mining operations.
Additionally, through the company’s innovative telematics technology and the data generated, it can systematically and seamlessly generate South African Revenue Services- (SARS-) compliant fuel rebate reports for any selected tax period.  
GVR’s technology provides a full audit trail required for eligibility for SARS rebates, and its reporting platform simplifies logbook and data gathering required, enabling successful rebate claims and return on investment.
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