March 19, 2014 – First Solar Inc. and GE’s Power Conversion business are leveraging their recently established technology and commercial partnership to develop “a more cost-effective and productive” utility-scale solar photovoltaic power plant design that combines First Solar’s thin-film CdTe modules with GE’s ProSolar 1500V inverter/transformer system.

First Solar says it has integrated new technology into its modules and optimized them for 1500vdc applications. Combined with GE’s 4MW ProSolar 1500V stations, this development enables power plant engineering design that increases the size of the solar array served by each inverter while reducing the number of inverter/transformer stations required for each plant to convert the power from DC to AC for the grid. The resulting design maintains high power delivery while lowering installation and maintenance costs, boast GE and First Solar.