But from an investment standpoint, even more damaging was last month’s announcement by First Solar — the only thin-film manufacturer truly competing with the crystalline-silicon (c-Si) industry on its own terms — that it will permanently shut its production lines in Germany.
Thin-film’s problems are not limited to a few one-off bankruptcies or restructuring programmes, nor are they new. But First Solar’s struggles have hammered home the message that thin-film PV is fighting for its very survival.
Although
