5N: Riding the First Solar wave
Montreal-based 5N Plus Inc., a developer and producer of high-purity metals, has filed its final prospectus for a $62 million initial public offering, which is expected to close Dec. 20. The company says it will use the money to fund construction of a new 40,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Eisenhuttenstadt, Germany. This facility will be devoted exclusively to cadmium telluride production.
5N’s traditional business services the electronics market, but the German plant appears to be dedicated to supplying Phoenix, Arizona-based First Solar Inc., which as we all know is a stock-market darling (a 9-fold jump in the company’s stock price in 14 months!). First Solar’s solar modules are based on cadmium telluride cells, and 5N Plus is a major supplier of this material.
It stands to reason that 5N can benefit tremendously from First Solar’s success, and no doubt its IPO seems aimed at riding in First Solar’s wake.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
December 17th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
It is my understanding that cadmium is considered a banned or restricted substance under Europe’s RoHS directive. At this point in time it is my understanding that First Solar’s solar panels are neither exempt or restricted, so one assumes that a decision will be pending sometime in the future. First Solar itself have a production in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, not far from 5N’s production site.
So with the news that 5N is going ahead with the production of the same type of solar technology, obviously makes me wonder if I am missing something here.
Have you heard anything that would lead one to assume that Europe has exempted solar panels built using cadmium telluride technology, or is everybody (First Solar, 5N, etc) expected a positive outcome?