EVERGREEN SOLAR TO BUILD PLANT IN MICH

It could not be more appropriate for Massachusetts-based Evergreen Solar to have chosen Michigan as the state to build a plant to produce their breakthrough solar panel String Ribbon material. Michigan is the state in which Stan and Iris Ovshinsky built the original Uni-Solar thin film plant that changed the face of solar thin film manufacturing.

With its century-old tradition of mass market manufacturing (it is the state where Henry Ford started churning out mass market cars at the beginning of the last century), Michigan is the perfect place for Evergreen Solar to take its brand new concept in solar thin film production.

Evergreen did not, however, choose Michigan because of its tradition. It chose Michigan because Dow and other chemical manufacturers are there. Those manufacturers will supply the materials for Evergreen’s manufacturing process in which wires are pulled through molten silicon to create the patented String Ribbon.

Another thin film, another manufacturing breakthrough; Iris would love it.

Schematic of the String Ribbon manufacturing process. (click to enlarge)

Solar-energy company to build $35 million plant in Midland County
Eric English, may 28, 2008 (Bay City Times via MLive)

WHO
Evergreen Solar Inc. (Michael El-Hillow, CFO); Dow Chemical Co./Dow Corning Corp.

Shiny new String Ribbon - wiring and silicon thin film. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Evergreen Solar will build a $35 million to $50 million factory in the Midland County region of Michigan so as to be near a crucial materials supplier.

WHEN
The Evergreen factory will take 3 years to build.

The Ovshinsky Uni-Solar/Ovonics plant, a Michigan landmark. (click to enlarge)

WHERE
- Evergreen will build in the Midland County region of Michigan near Dow factories.
- Dow is opening a solar energy information center in Freeland, Michigan.
- Hemlock Semiconductor Corp, a polycrystalline silicon manufacturer, is in nearby Saginaw County.

WHY
- The new factory will employ 15 to 25 full time workers and make String Ribbon, a thin, fishing-line like material incorporated into the Evergreen solar wafers that requires a chemical like that made at the nearby Dow plant.
- The String Ribbon will be shipped to the Evergreen facility in Massachusetts for final use in solar panels.
- Dow Corning’s $3 million Solar Solutions Applications Center will help manufacturers improve solar technology.
- Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. is doing a $1.5 billion expansion to meet global demand for its polycrystalline silicon product.

The Evergreen Solar String Ribbon plant in Massachusetts. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Michael El-Hillow, CFO, Evergreen Solar: ''We'd like to do something in the next two or three months and get this plant running next year… We'll be closer to our supplier…''
- Fred Hollister, president, economic development group Bay Future Inc.: "The solar industry has so many opportunities…Even though a company opens in one county or another, there are spin-off benefits. We see a benefit in this type of project for the whole region.''