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simple structure, required no doping, produced films that bonded well, was tolerant to impurities, and could be constructed from mostly readily available materials. The crucial missing piece was the ability to manufacture CdTe solar panels in large quantities at a low cost. Given that the entire global demand for solar panels was only 125 megawatt (MW) at that time, the strategy to develop large-scale manufacturing capability was a huge gamble in the face of proven and established crystalline silicon technologies. To put that in perspective, the 2008 demand for solar was 5950 MW. Racing against time and very significant cash constraints, Jim Nolan and his team invented a unique and innovative Vapor Transport Deposition technology that provided the breakthrough to large-scale manufacturing. By 1993, the company had built a pilot production machine, driven by a flurry of technology breakthroughs. Cash was so tight that employees bought discarded school furniture at auction to use as office furniture.

In contrast to Harold’s 500-MW dream plant, Jim wanted to commercialize the technology as soon as possible. Trying to find buyers for a completely new technology in a market that still considered photovoltaic energy a curiosity proved a real challenge. By 1993, the plant was producing 0.2 MW per year—a far cry from Harold’s 500-MW vision. By 1995, five of the seven key managerial and technical staff had resigned, considering SCI too risky to sustain a career. Harold sold yet more shares, forced to buy most of them himself because the high level of perceived risk deterred even the most daring investors.

By 1998, SCI had burned through $35 million without turning a profit. Time was running out.

Despite living on the ragged edge of failure for so many years, the dream came to life again when the company reached a new milestone—the production of a 60.3-W module with 8.4 percent efficiency. They knew there was gold at the end of the rainbow.

By 1999, the lone manufacturing line was producing 20 panels a day, still fraught with quality problems. Adding to the systemic risk was the demise of BP Solar, the only other major company that had been working on commercializing CdTe. It dealt a huge blow to investor confidence and left SCI as the lone entity in the United States and a dark future.

Enter True North Partners, a private equity firm backed by the late John Walton, son of Sam Walton, the creator of Walmart. Mike Ahearn, a partner at True North, saw the long-term business potential in thin-film solar technology and convinced John Walton to invest in SCI, providing some $10 million in operating capital.

The investment opportunity was made interesting by the following:

Semiconductors were manufactured without the use of clean rooms.

The manufacturing process was self-contained and end-to-end.

Widely available materials were used other than for the semiconductor itself.

The manufacturing process was low cost and easily scalable.

With the new investment in the now-named First Solar came Mike Ahearn’s hard-nosed business skills and relentless drive for bottom-line results, which unfortunately did not fit well with the pioneering culture of “turning knobs and seeing what happens.”

Management found it difficult to adapt to True North’s expectations and, in 2003, True North Partners bought out the entire shareholding, gaining full control of First Solar’s destiny. From that moment on, the company blasted off on its meteoric rise, culminating in its inclusion as an S&P 500 company in 2009.

One of the first actions Mike Ahearn took was to assemble and integrate a superb top management team. This entailed the painful hiring and firing of managers until the best team was in place. To bring discipline to experimentation with manufacturing processes, Taguchi’s Quality Engineering approach was introduced. To reduce process variation, Six Sigma was introduced, and to maximize Throughput, TOC was introduced. This was executed under the leadership of the new COO, George “Chip” Hambro.

As the manufacturing process matured, the