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General Electric (GE) made its first move into the thin film solar market in 2007 when it acquired a stake in PrimeStar Solar (of which it now has a majority stake).  It appears the company is sold on PrimeStar’s cadmium telluride thin film technology which happens to compete directly with industry leader First Solar (FSLR) and continues to ramp up research.  With the kind of resources GE has at its disposal, First Solar has reason to be concerned. 

GE’s Danielle Merfeld commented: “After having completed an exhaustive survey of the PV landscape, we determined that thin films were the optimum path for GE.  Specifically, the CdTe technology from PrimeStar has great potential. Bringing together world-class materials expertise, unique materials and systems modeling and design capabilities and state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor solar testing facilities, GE researchers are innovating across our four global research centers–literally around the clock–to deliver a breakthrough product to market.

PrimeStar is working on the the thin film solar product at its headquarters in Arvada, Colorado, while GE researchers across India, China, German and here in the US add to the efforts.  It will be interesting to follow the efforts of this collaboration.  PrimeStar was expected to release its product at the end of last year, but the waiting game continues.  Perhaps this press release is a signal they are getting close to a launch.