LDK just announced that it has been able to substantially cut the electricity needed to produce one kilogram of silicon, reducing it from 300 kwh to 100 kwh.  The improvements in efficiency took place at LDK’s new polysilicon plant in Xinyu, Jiangxi province.

However, as Cleantech.com notes, LDK has been struggling lately:

The good news comes as LDK continues to battle negative reports from analysts, including ThinkEquity’s Jonathan Hoopes, who downgraded the stock to ‘sell’ with a target price of $4.50 late last week. Previously he rated the target as $45.

The stock has a 52-week high of $52.40 but closed today at $5.12, down more than 10 percent.

Last week, the company announced it was delaying plans to complete a a polysilicon factory with an annual capacity of 15,000 metric tons until 2010. The company also said it plans to take an inventory write-down of $210 million to $220 million because of the decline in wafer prices.

LDK expects total polysilicon capacity to hit 12,000 metric tons by the end of 2009, down from a previous target of 16,000 metric tons.

Hopefully, this piece of good news will help LDK get moving on the right track again.