Evergreen Solar Announces $100 Million Sales Agreement with S.A.G.

[phantom power]

MARLBORO, Mass., Feb 21, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLR), a manufacturer of solar power products with its proprietary, low-cost String Ribbon(TM) wafer technology, today announced that it has entered into a four-year supply contract with S.A.G. Solarstrom AG (S.A.G.), based in Freiburg, Germany. The agreement calls for Evergreen Solar to ship approximately $100 million of photovoltaic modules to S.A.G. over the next four years.

S.A.G. (Berlin: SAG) builds and operates solar power stations, and sells the generated energy to corporations and utility companies. S.A.G. plans to use Evergreen Solar's products to help satisfy the growing demand from those organizations. These products will be manufactured at Evergreen Solar's plant in Massachusetts and at EverQ's new 30-megawatt facility in Thalheim, Germany. EverQ is a strategic partnership between Evergreen Solar, Q-Cells AG of Germany and Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC) of Norway.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=123321&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=819407&highlight=

[shireen]

1. why cant we get solar panels?!

if only our government would subsidize it too!!! We need to follow the example of the Germans, and put as many of them on our roofs!

Who do we scream at?

[phantom power]

2. There are fed and state tax deductions. (states vary)

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I just read that you can get a 30% rebate for solar installations

up to $2000 between now & tghe end of 2007.

[jpak]

4. The US imports most of its oil and uranium

and just about everything else it seems.

But we EXPORT hundreds of millions of dollars worth of PV modules each year.

How can this be if solar is a "failure"....

(clue: it ain't)

[phantom power]

5. I would phrase it: "solar hasn't yet succeeded."

But my definition of "succeed" is different than yours. I consider solar to be a growth industry. I was pleased by this press release, partly because I happen to own some stock in Evergreen.

As far as exporting, I'm pretty sure this particular deal will involve the EverQ facility, which is in Germany, so the solar panels in question will in all probability be both manufactured and sold in Germany. Nothing will be exported from the US, per se, although Evergreen will reap their portion of the profit (and therefore I'll reap mine). EverQ is not wholly owned by Evergreen.

However, if I was a government or energy company with a 100 billion dollars to spend, I'd spend it on wind power before solar, simply because I'd get more (exa)joules for my money.

[jpak]

6. The US exported ~100 MW of PV in 2004

more than half of US production...that's what I was talking about...