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Private company

Global Solar Energy

Logo: Global Solar Energy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

US-based manufacturer of solar cells founded in 19961

Global Solar Energy is a US-based manufacturer of CIGS solar cells, a thin-film based photovoltaic technology, with manufacturing operations in Tucson, Arizona, United States, and Berlin, Germany. In 2013, it was bought by Chinese renewable energy company Hanergy.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1996Founded1

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Global Solar Energy is a US-based manufacturer of CIGS solar cells, a thin-film based photovoltaic technology, with manufacturing operations in Tucson, Arizona, United States, and Berlin, Germany. In 2013, it was bought by Chinese renewable energy company Hanergy.2

Products and brands

  • Copper indium gallium selenide solar cells

Listed on Wikidata.1

Technology

The company uses copper indium gallium diselenide to produce CIGS cells, which achieve up to 19.9% efficiency in laboratory samples, and production cells of about 10.5 to 11 percent average efficiency. This type of solar cell is ideal for portable power and is 1.5 to 2X greater in performance than comparable thin film flexible solar materials.

Mass production

Global Solar Energy opened in 1996, and in 2008 finished another phase of development as it expanded its CIGS production to a new 40 MW facility in Tucson, Arizona and a second 35 MW facility in Berlin, Germany.

The company expects to produce 20 megawatts of the films at the plant in 2008 before ramping up to 40 megawatts of capacity in 2009 and 140 megawatts by 2010. This makes Global Solar the largest full-scale manufacturer of CIGS thin-film photovoltaics.

From Wikipedia’s article on Global Solar Energy, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 1996Founded Founded1

Sources

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