MiaSole Replaces CEO With Former First Solar Marketing Chief

MiaSole Inc., a closely held manufacturer of thin-film solar panels, today hired John Carrington as chief executive officer to replace Joseph Laia.

Carrington, who left First Solar Inc. more than two years ago, said he plans to focus on increasing panel efficiency to 15 percent next year. MiaSole, based in Santa Clara, California, currently sells panels that convert about 13 percent of sunlight into electricity.

“I see a very credible road map to 15 percent and I think we can get there in 2012,” Carrington said today in an interview. “That’s more important than scaling up capacity at this point.”

Carrington was executive vice president of global marketing and business development at Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar, the world’s largest thin-film company.

Thin-film solar panels are made with a highly automated process that consumes about half as much energy as the more common silicon panels made mostly in Asia, according to the U.S. Energy Department. MiaSole coats stainless steel cells with a layer of copper-indium-gallium-selenide, or CIGS, that’s sandwiched between sheets of glass.

Thin-film panels tend to be less efficient than panels made with polysilicon. The technology makes up about 15 percent of the global market for solar power, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Laia, who was hired as MiaSole’s CEO in 2007, will step down, the company said without giving a reason for the change.