Evergreen Day

Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR) used a late-day quarterly earnings call today to announce a new relationship with—and multi-million dollar investment from—silicon supplier DC Chemical of Korea.

And as if that wasn't enough, the company made two other significant announcements the same day.

First, it was announced that silicon maker DC Chemical agreed to purchase 3 million shares of Evergreen Solar common stock for $12.07 per share, representing the closing price of Evergreen Solar’s common stock on the Nasdaq on April 16, 2007. Evergreen plans to issue 4.5 million shares of restricted common stock and 625 shares of restricted preferred stock to DC Chemical. The transaction is expected to close later this week.

In exchange, DC Chemical is to provide Evergreen with polysilicon, beginning in late 2008 and continuing through 2014.

Given the relatively modest silicon requirements of Evergreen's "string ribbon" cell manufacturing process, this is expected to be enough silicon for Evergreen to manufacture a total of approximately 1 GW of photovoltaic solar modules through 2014, the company said.

"We believe we've got the most efficient silicon use in the industry," Evergreen CEO Richard M. Feldt told attendees on the call.

At least some of that silicon will likely be consumed at a new manufacturing plant in Massachusetts that Evergreen also announced today, its first factory in the U.S. and its first manufacturing outside of the EverQ partnership with Q-Cells.

The company is to build the facility from scratch approximately five miles from its headquarters in Marlboro, Mass. The facility is expected to be located on the campus of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) in Westborough, Massachusetts, and is to receive substantial government support, for a net cost to Evergreen of some $130 million.

Evergreen's string ribbon manufacturing process doesn't require much labor as other processes, executives said, so it was economically possible to locate the plant in the U.S.

"We're not terribly labor intensive, except for the module assembly. Wafers are semiconductor-like manufacturing. You could put semiconductor plants anywhere, as Intel and others have demonstrated," said Evergreen CFO Michael El-Hillow.

The company expects operational costs savings as well.

"Saving on plane tickets and travel time should save us some number of millions. We don't know how many, but it should be a lot," said Feldt.

Helping drive demand for Evergreen's products will be a new alliance with Boston-based utility NSTAR (NYSE: NST), an electric and gas delivery company, announced in a press conference earlier in the day.

NSTAR said it plans to increase the awareness of solar for its customers, and will promote standardized systems using Evergreen modules installed by pre-approved solar contractors. The company has experience developing and running successful energy efficiency programs and said it would serve as contact point for customers interested in installing solar equipment through this and other potential alliances.

NSTAR said it would also bring value to related efforts such as market research, marketing and promotion, lead development, sales support, and standardized system development. Customer follow-up, evaluation, and service is also be provided by NSTAR and its contractors.

“This program with Evergreen Solar will expand renewable energy choices for our customers by making solar installations more accessible and affordable,” said Thomas J. May, NSTAR Chairman, President and CEO. “Customer interest in clean energy options is growing, and we are committed to offering them an increasing number of options to choose from.”

On hand at the press conference was Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who Evergreen's Feldt credited with brokering the NSTAR relationship and coming up with an attractive incentive package to help the company decide to build its new factory in Massachusetts.

Evergreen may not be done raising money. In the call, CFO El-Hillow suggested the company may require some $300 million further over a three year period yet to realize its objectives.

Shares of Evergreen had been up about a dollar in midday trading, but closed the day at $11.90, down 1.4% from their opening.

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