SUNNY FUTURE THIN?

Reports from installers who have worked with it are that thin film is expensive, inefficient and hard to work with. Still, hope springs eternal in the Herman breast...

First Solar Stock Surges
Leah Krauss, May 10, 2007 (UPI)

WHO
J. Peter Lynch, renewable-energy market expert, Mike Ahearn, CEO, First Solar

WHAT
First Solar, a solar panel producer and installer, is exemplary of the rising prices for renewable energy stocks. Perhaps overpriced, yet perhaps poised to take advantage of the new thin film technology about to hit the solar energy market. PERHAPS.

WHEN
First Solar’s stock sold for $25 in November, 2006; it is presently nearing $70.

WHERE
First Solar is headquarted in Phoenix, Arizona. Production facilities are in Perrysburg, Ohio.

WHY
Earnings in companies like First Solar are up, stimulating interest in the stocks.
Thin film photovoltaics continue to be “the new new thing” in the solar energy world. Lynch predicts 2007 will be the year the technology comes through.
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QUOTES
Lynch: "First Solar is a great company, but the stock, I think, is a bit ahead of itself…Look at the price earning ratio…Yes, they are growing, but nothing goes straight up and normally -- always in my experience -- what goes up must come down."
Ahearn: "During the first quarter we benefited from continued solid execution providing for both sequential revenue and throughput growth, while readying ourselves for the production ramp at our German plant…"
Lynch: "I think that 2007 may mark a very significant chapter in the history of the renewable energy industry -- the beginning of the transition from the current dominant technology, crystalline silicon, to the 'next generation' photovoltaic technology -- thin film technologies…This year may well be the 'Year of Thin Film Photovoltaics.'"