Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ESLR]]), a solar-power-product manufacturer that Xconomist Bill Aulet calls one of the poster children for clean-energy success, got a nice bump on the stock market this morning after announcing it has inked about $1 billion worth of long-term sales deals
The Marlboro, MA-based firm, which went public in 2000, yesterday announced an agreement, which extends through 2013, to provide Germany’s Ralos Vertriebs with $750 million worth of solar panels built with Evergreen’s low-cost “string ribbon” technology. And last week Evergreen signed a contract with a U.S.-based firm that brings the total for the two deals to roughly $1 billion. The new agreements more than double the total value of the firm’s contractual backlog, which includes deals with six other customers worth a combined $850 million.
Evergreen was formed in 1994 around technology licensed from MIT’s Emanuel Sachs that dramatically changed how photovoltaics were manufactured. Sachs’ latest venture, MIT spinoff 1366 Technologies, is out to translate a suite of more subtle design and manufacturing improvements from Sachs’ lab into solar power that’s cheaper than coal power. Shares of Evergreen, meanwhile, are trading at around $10.90 as of noon, up about 20 percent from yesterday’s close of $9.10.
