Evergreen Solar to Build $150 M Manufacturing Facility in Massachusetts

The planned facility, which will be located on the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) campus in Westborough, Massachusetts, will be built with the help of state support, including up to $23 million in grants, up to $17.5 million in low-interest loans and a low-cost, 30-year lease of MTC land.

"Our new plant in Massachusetts is a natural evolution of this market penetration as we focus on the significant opportunities in the United States. Several states aggressively pursued our planned new facility. Governor Deval Patrick's vision for broad scale solar power adoption through an innovative solar incentive program as well as the creative financial incentive programs that the Governor, the Legislature and the Town of Westborough are expected to provide were key factors in our decision to expand in Massachusetts," said Richard M. Feldt, chairman, president and CEO of Evergreen Solar.

Evergreen Solar currently operates its prototype production and solar manufacturing facility using it's proprietary String Ribbon wafer technology in Marlboro, Massachusetts. The new plant is expected to increase the company's capacity in The Commonwealth by 70 megawatts (MW) and double its employee base to more than 600 employees.

"Evergreen Solar is one of the companies that is going to help us get clean energy right," said Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. "I am proud that my economic development and energy and environmental affairs teams are able to help Evergreen Solar grow and thrive right here in Massachusetts, and give us a head start toward building a clean energy economy."

Construction of the new facility is planned to begin in early fall 2007 with completion expected in late 2008.

In related news, Evergreen Solar announced yesterday that it has signed a multi-year polysilicon supply agreement with DC Chemical Co., Ltd with shipments beginning in late 2008 and continuing through 2014. Under the agreement, Evergreen Solar will receive sufficient polysilicon to manufacture a total of approximately 1 GW of photovoltaic solar modules through 2014.

The company also yesterday announced an alliance with NSTAR, an electric and gas delivery company based in Boston, which is designed to increase the role of solar power in Eastern Massachusetts. The alliance will leverage Evergreen Solar's unique String Ribbon solar power technology with NSTAR's expertise, capabilities and customer relationships to promote cost-effective solar options for consumers.

"This relationship with a utility can dramatically improve solar market delivery and significantly accelerate closing the gap between solar and conventional energy costs," said Feldt. "NSTAR has ideal infrastructure to reduce the non-hardware portion of solar system costs. This vision has been central in Evergreen Solar's strategy, and we are very pleased to have NSTAR join in this vision and appreciate very much Governor Deval Patrick's work to help us create this important alliance."