First Solar, Inc. is an American manufacturer of thin film photovoltaic (PV) modules, or solar panels, and a provider of PV power plants and supporting services that include finance, construction, maintenance and end-of-life panel recycling. First Solar uses cadmium telluride (CdTe) as a semiconductor to produce panels that are less expensive than those manufactured from crystalline silicon.[2] In 2009, First Solar became the first solar panel manufacturing company to lower its manufacturing cost to $1 per watt[3] (since reduced to 68 cents per watt).[1][4]