First Solar is fond of dropping big news on the day of its financial results. The company continued this tradition today, announcing that its CEO of the last four years, Jim Hughes, will be stepping down on June 30. Hughes will replaced by Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mark Widmer. This is first big management shake-up that First Solar has had for several years, and Hughes will remain in an advisory capacity during the transition, as well as remaining on First Solar's board. Alex Bradley, who was instrumental in setting up yieldco 8point3 Energy Partners, will step in to take over as interim CFO. This news does not appear to be an attempt to overshadow First Solar's financial results, which were strong. The company's revenues increased 81% year-over-year to $848 million, at a 19% operating margin. And while revenues for companies which build and sell large solar projects tend to be highly uneven from quarter-to-quarter, First Solar has shown strong growth and healthy profitability over the last year. More significantly, First Solar ran at 100% capacity utilization during the quarter, producing 774 MW of modules. Due to aggressive module technology improvements, First Solar has increased its average module efficiency to 16.2%, with its lead lines running at 16.4%. This is only marginally ...Den vollständigen Artikel lesen ...