General Electric (GE) is providing an update on its push into the solar market this morning. I first posted back in March that GE was making a direct run at First Solar (FSLR) with its partnership with PrimeStar to develop cadmium telluride thin solar panels. Today they have announced that the the thin film solar panels will be commercially available next year from PrimeStar’s 30MW facility and the companies have plans to increase capacity further.
GE isn’t ending at solar panels. It’s clear they want to be a full service provider and will also provide solar power inverters. The Brilliance Solar Inverters will come enabled with SunIQ offering monitoring and controls that allows a large solar plant to operate similarly to a traditional plant.
“We believe that thin film offers the best characteristics for continued advancements in efficiencies and materials,” said Danielle Merfeld, GE’s solar research and development leader. “We recently celebrated a milestone when our CdTe cell efficiencies topped 15 percent on commercial glass. With continued advancement, we know we can further reduce total installed system costs, making solar more accessible to consumers worldwide.”
Shares of GE are up about 1% today and are looking increasingly bullish in recent days. The stock recently broke out from a double bottom base as well as cleared resistance above the 200 day moving average.