THIN FILM SOLAR PIONEER POSTS $7 MIL PROFIT

Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ENER) is one of the U.S. pioneers in amorphous polysilicon thin film solar materials manufacturing. The company was founded by Stanford and Dr. Iris Ovshinsky in 1960. Their collaborative achievements and distinctions (thin film solar, imaging technology, electric vehicle batteries, fuel cells, space energy technology) are too numerous to detail. Stan’s role in the company was reduced after Iris passed away in 2006.

On March 31, 2008, the company, on the strength of its growing production capacity and a hot European market driven by feed-in tariffs, posted stunning gains over its performance one year ago.

Demand is running so high the company has filled ~50% of its 2010 pipeline and ~33% of its 2011 pipeline.

Much credit is due Mark Morelli, the company’s new President/CEO, who has emphasized commercialization of Energy Conversion technologies.

Wherever she is, Iris is flashing that stunning smile about the company’s new financial health. She may not be so happy that spending on R&D dropped almost 20%. Both Iris and Stan were dedicated lifelong research scientists.

Perhaps she would be among the first to realize that, as solar energy moves into an era of greater maturity and commercialization, pure research must take a reduced role. Many energy professionals are beginning to say that the 2nd decade of the 21st century will belong to solar energy.

Footnote: Fans of the movie Who Killed The Electic Car? may recognize the Ovshinkys' Ovonics as the company caught in a curious web (conspiracy?) spun by Chevron to suppress the nickel metal hydride battery that might have saved electric personal transportation in the last half of the 1990s or the first half of this decade.

Stan and Iris. (click to enlarge)

Energy Conversion Devices posts $7M profit
Sven Gustafson, May 8, 2008 (Oakland Business Review via MLive.com)

WHO
Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (ENER) (Mark Morelli, President/CEO; Sanjeev Kumar, CFO) and subsidiary United Solar Ovonic (Uni-Solar)

Uni-Solar's thin film, packaged and ready to ship. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
ENER posted an impressive $7 million profit (17 cents/share) and revenues of $70 million.

WHEN
- FY2007 3Q: Net loss of $6.9 million, revenues $27.4 million.
- FY2008 3Q: Profits of $7 million, revenues of $70.

Stan's factory, the earliest mass production thin film plant. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- ENER is based in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
- ENER will self-finance an expansion of its Uni-Solar Greenville, Mich., plant.
Uni-Solar also has a plant in Mexico.

WHY
- The Greenville plant expansion will be an addition of 120 megawatts of capacity.
- The 1-year increase in revenues amounts to a 155% jump.
- Improved efficiencies at both the Greenville and Mexico plants allowed marginal returns to increase from 19.2% to 30.7%.
- Uni-Solar produced 21.6 megawatts in FY2008 3Q and expects to produce nearly 25 megawatts in FY2008 4Q.
- The Greenville plant expansion will put the company’s production capacity at ~300 megawatts by mid-2010 while cutting $26 million from costs.

This 2005 slide from DOE shows how far ahead of the curve Uni-Solar was. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
Mark Morelli, President/CEO, Energy Conversion Devices: "This level of solar gross margin is sustainable… At this point we're only limited by how quickly we can expand our production capacity to make more laminates…"