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Politics : Politics of Energy

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To: Brumar89 who wrote (22082)	7/24/2010 4:47:55 PM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) of 86350

Feature \| SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2010 More Heat on First Solar By BILL ALPERT A new study questions the safety of the solar company's panels. But pricing of silicon may be a bigger problem. FIRST SOLAR HAS WORKED MIGHTILY in the last year to reassure investors that its "thin-film" solar-energy panels will continue to enjoy a cost advantage over rivals' increasingly cheap silicon-based wares. Shares of Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar (ticker: FSLR) have yo-yoed from 170 to 100 and then back to about 140 recently, as the company's gross margins veered from 56% to 42% and then back up to 50% for the March 2010 quarter—reflecting the competitive pressures that we predicted when the price of raw silicon began to drop ("Nightfall Comes to Solar Land," March 30, 2009). View Full Image Gescher, Germany (1.4 MWp); COLEXON Energy/AG First Solar panels at work in Germany. Competitors now are challenging its prices and the safety of its products. But another front is heating up in First Solar's fight with competitors like Suntech (STP), Trina Solar (TSL) and Yingli Green Energy (YGE)—a debate over the long-term safety of First Solar products. First Solar's panels use cadmium-tellurium technology while the others use silicon wafers. The company has presented tests to show that the highly toxic cadmium is safely sealed in glass, and First Solar runs a voluntary program that will reclaim the panels at the end of their 30-year lives. Yet some silicon-panel rivals have argued for the treatment of First Solar products as hazardous waste. On July 28, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control will hold a workshop in Sacramento to discuss how solar panels should be exempt from the state's hazardous-waste category. A non-profit group concerned about cadmium toxicity released a lab study last Thursday that asserts that cadmium-tellurium panels crushed in a landfill would leak the toxic substance at levels exceeding California's allowed levels.

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