FirstSolar is one of the world's leading manufacturers of solar photovoltaic modules, with production bases located in the United States, Malaysia and Germany. By 2009, the company's production capacity had exceeded 1 gigaway peak (GWp). At the same time, FirstSolar is also the world's most important manufacturer of cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film photovoltaic modules. Compared with traditional crystalline silicon technology, solar power using patented cadmium telluride technology has greater power generation and has lower production costs. FirstSolar was the first in the industry to achieve cost less than one dollar (85 cents) per watt and announced in June 2009 that by 2014, the company would reduce the manufacturing cost per watt to 52-63 cents.

FirstSolar was founded in Tempe, Arizona in 1999 and was formerly SolarCell Corporation (SCI), a company acquired by TrueNorth Partners, which is owned by the Walton family, which is owned by the Walton family, the Walton family is owned by the Walmart group. Mr. Michael Ahearn serves as CEO of FirstSolar. Since 2002, FirstSolar has begun to enter the photovoltaic module business, and its manufacturing capabilities have been steadily increasing, and the company has also made great progress. In 2005, the company's annual output rate reached a peak of 25 megawatts (MWp). In the following years, the company continued to expand its scale, adding a new production line in Perrysburg, Ohio, and setting up four production lines in Germany. In 2006, FirstSolar's annual yield reached 75 MW and announced the construction of 16 more production lines in Kulim, Malaysia. In the same year, FirstSolar was first listed on Nasdaq and is the first company in the pure solar industry to be included in the Stamp 500 share price index (S&P500). Currently, the company has more than 4,000 employees around the world.

In September 2009, FirstSolar signed a memorandum of understanding with Ordos City, China, to build a 2GW solar power station in the Gobi Desert area of ​​Inner Mongolia. The project will take ten years to complete, with an area of ​​one Manhattan.

In the first quarter of 2009, FirstSolar has expanded the annual production capacity of each production line to 49.4 MW. Including the production base to be built in 2009, the company's annual production capacity is expected to reach 1.1 gigawatts by the end of 2009. In the first quarter of 2009, the average photoelectric conversion rate of each module reached 11%, which made significant progress compared with 2003 (about 7%).

In the solar industry, FirstSolar has taken the lead in implementing prepaid photovoltaic module recycling and recycling programs. Any customer who purchases FirstSolar solar modules can make recycling requirements at the end of the module's service life, and FirstSolar will cover the cost of recycling and recycling these products. According to data provided by FirstSolar, 95% of semiconductor materials can be recycled through a closed reuse process and ultimately used to produce new photovoltaic modules. 90% of glass can be used to make other products. The cost of the program is included in the initial selling price of the PV module and is transferred to a dedicated investment account monitored by an independent agency. In this way, the processing of recycling modules is independent of FirstSolar and has long-term guarantees. While launching the recycling program, FirstSolar also cooperates with most European manufacturers as members of the PV recycling professional association to jointly establish a recycling and reuse system, that is, no matter what brand of modules, they will be recycled after their service life expires. Through these measures, the company will assume greater responsibility during the life cycle of its products and do its best to prevent photovoltaic modules from being mixed with other household waste to ensure its recycling.