With two facilities, Corporate Headquarters in Arvada CO and and Manufacturing Facility in Montague, MI, PrimeStar Solar was founded to make large scale, clean, renewable, cost competitive solar electric power a reality. The General Electric Company was early involved with teh firm assuming, in 2008, a majority shareholder position. The experienced PrimeStar team brought core competencies in thin film photovoltaics (PV) and thin film deposition equipment. The companys proprietary semiconductor technology and equipment were been optimized for automated continuous manufacturing for high throughput and yield that could result in low cost PV modules. The thin film technology requires far less semiconductor material and far less energy to manufacture PV modules than conventional crystalline silicon PV. PrimeStar Solar's product is designed to enable economically competitive large scale solar PV power plants that will help offset the negative environmental impacts of fossil fuel electricity generation. In 2008, General Electric became the majority stock holder in PrimeStar. completing the acquisition in 2011. In August 2013, GE announced an IP sharing and commercial partnership with First Solar. At the same time, GE announced the end of its CdTe solar manufacturing operations.
