[Guest larryvand]

FSLR getting crashed after hours. $28.10 is so far the low, from a $31.36 regular close (which was down 4% but now down 12% AH).

[Guest joshchang]

FSLR $0.66 cost per watt vs. TSL $0.61 cost per watt. FSLR's cost advantage is completely gone now.

[Guest joshchang]

projects development & pipeline is still way ahead of chinese competitors. but chinese peers will catch up quickly in this area I believe.

[Guest spiritcraft]

projects development & pipeline is still way ahead of chinese competitors. but chinese peers will catch up quickly in this area I believe.

This is the big deal... utility scale PV is going global fast and I don't think any of us dare to imagine it. The old inflection point that was once ten years off is very close indeed. Somehow our companies have to be ready price wise and performance wise or someone else will step in and do these globally. First Solar and SunPower are both way up due to the simple fact that they are utility scale companies with pipelines. Some think that FSLR may one day morph into a developer using Chi-Solar modules since Si PV offers more wattage per square foot.

[Pop2mollys 416]

Boy it really sounds like they are waving the white flag to Chinese solars. From there cc it really sounds like they are try to transform themself into a developer instead of a producer. Very good news... Demand is ramping again but they refuse to open closed down factories because they can't compete on a per watt production basis with solar 11. This is very interesting and good news

[Guest Klothilde]

FSLR $0.66 cost per watt vs. TSL $0.61 cost per watt. FSLR's cost advantage is completely gone now.

That's apples to oranges. If you look at apples to apples you'll get a different result.

[explo 648]

That's apples to oranges. If you look at apples to apples you'll get a different result.

Care to share?

[Pop2mollys 416]

Ummm that's about a direct comparison as you can get ... Just look at the 9 cent gap between fslr and SOL and tell me how they are not in trouble. That gap is only going to extend throughout 2013 too

[Guest larryvand]

All you have to know to figure out that FSLR is in trouble is the fact that they did not want to give guidance for 2013.

[Guest eysteinh]

First solar has more cost than both rec and trina solar. (Rec 0.65 Trina 0.61 First solar 0.68) If you add opex costs things get even more interesting. Only strenght of First solar now is low interest on debt, but this is in no way enough to compensate. Btw, Rec produced a system in q4 at 1euro per watt = 1.3$/watt. First solar according to the conference call has a cost of 0.68 for module and BoS cost of 0.73 for a system cost of attleast 1.41 $/watt. (http://seekingalpha.com/article/1227281-first-solar-s-ceo-discusses-q4-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?page=4) If REC can produce system cheaper than First Solar I am pretty sure Trina solar can too. And since system cost was the advantage first solar has claimed so far, this is very dramatic for first solar.