GE regains zest with solar manufacture

(ADPnews) – Oct 13, 2010 – After ditching the sector last year, US industrial giant General Electric (NYSE:GE) has put solar manufacture back on its radar with a new line of thin-film panels due out next year.

The launch of the cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar panels builds on GE’s 2008 purchase of a majority stake in PrimeStar, which operates a 30 MW production factory in Arvada, Colorado.

GE is pursuing solar manufacture also through a newly-announced technical and commercial agreement with Tokyo-based Solar Frontier, a subsidiary of Showa Shell Sekiyu (TYO:5002). Under the deal, GE will also assist the firm in spreading its copper indium gallium selenide panels into the utility scale market.

GE is also bolstering its solar inverter efforts, with a line of 700 kW and 1 MW components, and providing a utility-scale system comprised of the company’s inverters tied with thin-film panels and other components.

In 2009, GE pulled out from the solar manufacturing business, selling off its crystalline silicon module assembly plant in Newark, Delaware, to Motech Industries (TPO:6244), Taiwan’s largest photovoltaic (PV) maker.

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