ABSTRACT
As planned, and in spite of the COMSAT’s lawsuit, Solarex broke even sooner than its first year of operation which ended in mid-1974. After that, Solarex finished the next 5 years with at least 10% profit of which about 5% was paid to the government as income tax. After 1975, the year of change until about 1980 when Arco Solar became a strong competitor, Solarex had an easy life because as described before, Berman left, Solar Power Corporation closed its European offices, and in the same year Hughes took over Spectrolab and did not pursue the terrestrial PV business strongly. Yerkes started STI but with very little money, so in the first years STI was not a big competitor and ARCO acquired it only in 1978. In Europe, Photowatt was started, but that company was still in its infancy, and Philips RTC, after technical problems, discontinued its terrestrial solar business. Sharp was mostly concerned with their domestic market. These events made it easier for Solarex to expand sales for PV modules, systems, and consumer products and become profitable.
