Evergreen Solar just announced that it has finalized its contracts with Jiawei Solarchina Co., Ltd with the following provisions in place:
Evergreen will lease a production facility that Jiawei is building on its campus and use the facility to manufacture its String Ribbon wafers.
Jiawei will take those wafers and turn them into panels on a contract manufacturing basis. As part of the contract manufacturing agreement, Evergreen will pay Jianwei for its cell and panel conversion costs, as well as an additional contract manufacturing fee.
Evergreen Solar will put up $17 million in cash and equipment for the facility. HSTIC will loan the company $33 million at a $7.5 interest rate, which will be due in full by July 2014. Jianwei will make similar investments, also using HSTIC as a lender.
Production will begin in spring 2010 and will start at 100ME per year, with a planned expansion to approximately 500 MW by 2012.
Evergreen Solar and Jianwei’ parent company, Dynamic Green Energy, Ltd, have exchanged warrants representing 1% of outstanding shares. According to the press release, the warrants “may be exercised for 20% of the warrant shares for each incremental 95 MW of production capacity achieved.”
In a press release, Richard M. Feldt, Chairman, President and CEO of Evergreen Solar, commented on the deal:
“Our String Ribbon wafer technology, combined with Jiawei’s low-cost manufacturing capabilities, should enable our products to stand out distinctly among customers seeking both value and dependability for their solar energy solutions. As we reach the 25 MW quarterly capacity by the end of 2010, we expect total manufacturing costs of our String Ribbon panels produced in China to be in the range of $1.40 per watt to $1.50 per watt with both companies working aggressively to further improve technological performance as well as reduce manufacturing costs. Our mutual goal is to drive conversion efficiency and manufacturing performance so that panels are produced at the $1.00 per watt level by no later than 2012.”
Glad to see the financing come. 7.5% may seem high at present, but one would think, what w/the way the Fed is printing money, that inflation and interest rates will be substantially higher in the next couple of years. Analysts start crunching the numbers and I think you will want to pinch youselves and make sure you are not dreaming. The “Dog of Solar” is off the porch!