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Evergreen Solar announces major expansion in Westborough
Metro West Daily News
By Greg Turner, Daily News Staff  |  April 18, 2007

Marlborough -
Despite being wooed by three other states and Mexico, Evergreen Solar Inc. has decided to expand in Massachusetts, announcing yesterday it will build a $150 million manufacturing plant in Westborough.

The project, expected to break ground this summer and be completed by the end of 2008, will create 350 to 375 jobs, more than doubling the publicly traded company's current Massachusetts workforce.

Evergreen had been offered "extremely attractive financial incentives" to build the factory outside Massachusetts, according to Richard Feldt, the company's chairman, president and chief executive. But Gov. Deval Patrick and other state officials stepped in with a "competitive proposal" and a keen interest in solar energy that ultimately convinced the company to grow close to home.

"Making solar a high priority was the tipping point in our deciding to build here," Feldt said during a press conference at Evergreen's Marlborough headquarters. "As I told my board, the economic incentives were very helpful but the personal support of the governor and his staff were priceless."

The state Office of Business Development put together a $44 million financing package for the Evergreen project that includes $23 million in state grants, $17.5 million in low-interest loans and $3 million in "land savings" from a low-cost, 30-year lease of state-owned land.

"We want Massachusetts to be the home of the growth of green energy technology, and we are all about getting that business done," Patrick told a cheering crowd of state and local officials, Evergreen employees, and solar panel customers.

Patrick said he wants to increase the state's solar installations from the current 2 megawatts to 250 megawatts, or enough energy to power 37,000 homes, by 2017.

Most of Evergreen Solar's growth has been in Germany, the world's largest solar power market, which benefits from strong government subsidy programs. Two years ago, Evergreen formed a joint venture with two large European solar companies to build a factory outside Berlin with a 30-megawatt production capacity. An expansion will boost the factory's output to 100 megawatts by the end of this year.

The Westborough facility would have a production capacity of 70 megawatts and provide manufacturing jobs with annual pay in the range of $25,000 to $30,000, according to Feldt.

"It's fabulous that they will expand here and not leave the commonwealth," said state Sen. Pam Resor, D-Acton. "For us, it means a lot of new jobs."

While Evergreen is not profitable because of high operating costs, the 12-year-old company has increased its annual sales fourfold to about $100 million over the last three years. A string of solar supply contracts has boosted its backlog of orders and long-term contracts to more than $1 billion.

Solar systems are still twice as expensive to install as electricity supplied by utilities. Feldt said Evergreen's goal is to cut the price in half over the next several years, through technological advances and production improvements.

Evergreen also announced it is teaming with NStar to try to lower solar installation costs and speed the adoption of sun-powered systems in Massachusetts. Officials called it a "first-in-the-nation" partnership between a manufacturer of solar products and an electricity distribution utility.

"Folks are very excited about this. We want to be the first to offer this to our customers," said Joe Nolan, NStar's senior vice president of customer and corporate relations.

Evergreen also said it is in talks with Westborough-based National Grid and Western Massachusetts Electric Co., part of Northeast Utilities, to form similar partnerships.

The company recently signed a polysilicon supply agreement with DC Chemical Co. Ltd. of South Korea to supply the "base material" for the solar wafers, cells and models that will be made at the Westborough plant.

DC Chemical officials visited Evergreen headquarters three weeks ago for contract negotiations, then went with Feldt and other company officials to a State House meeting with the governor.

"This meeting impressed our DC Chemical colleagues, and was a strong factor in their decision to supply silicon," Feldt said, "and without this contract there would be no factory announcement today."

Evergreen's new facility will be built 10 minutes from headquarters at the Massachusetts Technology Park off Rte. 135. It is expected to generate about $546,000 in annual property taxes for Westborough.

The 36-acre campus is managed by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasipublic economic development agency that administers the state's Renewable Energy Trust and invests in high-tech and clean-energy ventures. The campus is also home to a 70,000-square-foot factory where Taunton-based Kopin Corp. manufactures flat-panel displays for digital cameras, thermal weapon sights and other gadgets.

The Technology Collaborative along with MassDevelopment and Citizens Bank will provide the loans to Evergreen. The grants package includes $10.5 million from the Renewable Energy Trust, $3 million in state workforce training and infrastructure funds, and a possible $10 million from the state's new "MORE Jobs" business development initiative.

"I wasn't surprised (about Evergreen's decision) because I think we have the capability of handling an investment like this," said state Rep. Stephen LeDuc, D-Marlborough. "The governor was willing to bring people to the table."