First Solar Reaches Record 14.4% Efficiency, Company Says

First Solar Inc., the world’s largest maker of thin-film solar products, beat its own record for making the most efficient panels.

The company used factory equipment to produce cadmium telluride panels that convert 14.4 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity, it said in a statement yesterday. The results surpassed the previous record of 13.4 percent, also with a First Solar panel, and were confirmed by the U.S. Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Lab.