In this interview Mark Widmar talks about the market for PV modules and his company's supply situation, First Solar's position in the Section 201 case, and the role he sees for solar in the future of energy.Editor's note: Earlier this month pv magazine Americas Editor Christian Roselund traveled to First Solar's Analyst Day in Ohio, where the following interview was conducted.
pv magazine: I noticed that First Solar has commitments up through 2020 for Series 4, and a significant portion of Series 6. Are you doing any prioritization of certain markets for Series 6 over others, or is it first come, first serve?
Widmar: It is a difficult balance right now, because we have something of an inverted procurement process. The normal process would be that you have the opportunity to secure a PPA, a contractual off-take agreement, and potentially you would have an EPC opportunity, and then someone would look to procure modules.
In some cases, what we are seeing now in the U.S., and even in some of the international markets, because of somewhat limited supply, especially of high-quality, high-efficiency modules, is that people are buying modules even in the absence of having firm, committed off-takers in some cases. Or buying the modules much sooner than they would otherwise.
So we are trying to prioritize to make sure that we can support our key international markets. We are trying to prioritize for our own development opportunities, either what we have contracted or what we have currently in the process of being short-listed, or in the process of having a signed agreement, but not having an announced agreement, because it could be a CP is required, such as the commission has to approve.
We have, for example, awarded utility agreements - a few hundred megawatts - which are subject to public utility commission final approval. We won't recognize them as final bookings until that actually happens, but we are reserving the volume for that.
But it is hard. We are seeing tremendous demand in the U.S., that is somewhat pulling in volume that we could potentially otherwise serve international markets with.
pv magazine: So do you think there is a possibility that people will be looking for modules as early as the second half of next year, and will be told that they have to wait until 2020, or that you just can't get them?
Widmar: I think that there could be certain situations where customers could find themselves without adequate module supply. Some of it depends on what happens with the 201 case. The other thing is that there is a potential anti-dumping case in India right now. That could be another inflection point depending on how it plays out.
If there is a successful 201 case in the U.S. and if there are some restrictions around imports coming into India, then I think what happens is that a lot of the other international markets have an abundance of supply, because that supply, largely sourced from China, is going to have to go somewhere. So you could see much more demand in some of the international markets outside of the U.S. and India.
If neither one of those go through I think near-term it could be a very tight module supply situation.
pv magazine: To get back to the 201 case, I noted that First Solar took the step of, even though you are not formally involved in the case, coming out and making a statement during the remedy phase. Why was it important for First Solar to make a statement in this case, and what are your thoughts more broadly on 201 and what is ramifications are?
Widmar: As you noted and everyone knows, we are not part of the case. We are not a petitioner to the case, we have not been active in the case. But a lot of the commentary that was coming through was directed at First Solar. Even to the point that First Solar should be held up differently and as an example of what Suniva and SolarWorld should have done i