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Strong start to the year for solar manufacturer Evergreen

Evergreen's largest ever solar project, at Apulia, Italy, has now come online

Massachusetts-based solar panel manufacturer Evergreen Solar, Inc., has had a positive start to the year’s trading, according to unaudited results.

Yesterday the company issued a preliminary glimpse at its financial performance for the three months up to April 3, 2010.

The firm, which has its head office in Marlboro, Massachusetts, said it shipped out a record amount of its String Ribbon solar panels – some 35.4 megawatts in the three months alone.

With strong demand predicted, expectations are that this level of shipments could even grow in the next quarter.

Headline figures for the company listed on the NASDAQ exchange (ESLR) included revenues of $78.5 million for the first quarter of 2010, an average selling price for its solar systems of $2.20 per watt and manufacturing costs of $2.05 per watt. The figures are preliminary only, and therefore subject to review.

Among highlights of the quarter, the company’s largest solar plant to date came online in Apulia, Italy, which uses 24,600 String Ribbon panels.

Demand

The Evergreen chief said discussions with customers suggested overall demand would be consistent with February’s forecast of 175MW in total sales during 2010.

Richard M Feldt, Chairman, CEO and President of Evergreen, said: “Operationally, our Devens facility is performing very well, and as a result, we expect production and sales to increase to between 37 to 38 megawatts for the second quarter of 2010.

“Overall, demand for our product in the first quarter was strong and our selling prices decreased modestly by approximately 4% from the fourth quarter of 2009, mostly due to the stronger US dollar,” explained Mr Feldt.

Evergreen Solar specializes in silicon solar photovoltaic panels, manufacturing wafers, cells and panels itself. It has a process of making silicon wafers called String Ribbon, which involves casting silicon into wafers between high-temperature filaments from its molten state, rather than casting it in blocks to be cut into wafers for solar cell production.

We expect production and sales to increase to between 37 to 38 megawatts for the second quarter” - Richard M Feldt, Evergreen Solar

As well as its manufacturing operations in Devens, Massachusetts, the company has production plants in Midland, Michigan, and in Germany. It has also opened a new facility in China.

Mr. Feldt said: “Our progress in Wuhan, China is on schedule and we expect to begin production in mid 2010. I am particularly pleased to report that we produced our first wafers from Quad furnaces initially being used for training purposes, which were installed in Wuhan in mid-March.”

Full audited figures for the first quarter will be reported after the market closes on May 4, 2010.