Wal-Mart boosts on-store solar with thin-film tech | Green Tech - CNET News

Wal-Mart boosts on-store solar with thin-film tech | Green Tech - CNET News

Retail juggernaut Wal-Mart is using panels from First Solar and MiaSole in what is expected to be one of the largest business installations of thin-film solar technology.

Wal-Mart on Monday said that it is adding solar panels at between 20 and 30 store locations in California and Arizona, building on the 31 stores in California and Hawaii already equipped with on-site solar. The majority of the new installations will use thin-film solar panels, a technology a number of companies are developing to undercut traditional silicon cells on price.

First Solar's cadmium telluride panels have been available for years and are widely used, often by utilities. But Walmart also plans to use panels from MiaSole, an upstart supplier of panels with cells made from another thin-film material--a combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenide (CIGS). Wal-Mart's adoption of CIGS panels could help scale up the technology and bring it to business customers quicker, the company said.