USPTO Upholds First Solar’s PV Patents as Company Supplies 25 MW Mine Solar Project
First Solar’s thin-film modules will power Rio Tinto’s Kennecott mine with over 71,000 panels in a new 25 MW solar plant expanding total capacity to 30 MW. Separately, the USPTO denied three challenges to First Solar’s PV cell patents, preserving its technology moat.
1. US Patent Office Upholds First Solar’s Solar Cell Technology Patents
First Solar announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director has denied three third-party petitions challenging the validity of its proprietary thin-film solar cell technology patents. The upheld patents cover key advancements in cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules, which underpin First Solar’s series 6 and series 7 product lines. By maintaining protection over these core patents, First Solar preserves exclusive rights to processes that deliver module conversion efficiencies above 18% and manufacturing cost advantages of approximately $20 per megawatt-hour versus crystalline silicon competitors. The decision reinforces First Solar’s barriers to entry in the utility-scale solar market and safeguards an intellectual property portfolio that has supported over 6 gigawatts of module deployments in North America and Europe since 2020.