United Solar Ovonic LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD Ovonics) (Nasdaq: ENER), has announced that it has signed an agreement with Actus Lend Lease to supply 7MW of photovoltaic (PV) products.
The solar network will pump clean energy into the Army’s power grid and is designed to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by 30 percent for the entire complex of 7,894 new and renovated homes that Actus Lend Lease plans for Army families on Oahu. The captured energy also will help power 11 community centers and maintenance offices that will be built among the new and renovated homes.
In addition to its existing 25MW photovoltaic manufacturing plant, United Solar Ovonic broke ground in July 2005 for its second state-of-the-art solar module manufacturing plant in Auburn Hills, Mich., to double its solar cell/module manufacturing capacity. Occupancy of the new facility is scheduled for May 2006, and it is anticipated that the plant will begin manufacturing products in the fall of 2006 following optimization of the manufacturing equipment.
Compared to conventional solar technology utilizing single crystal or polycrystal silicon, United Solar Ovonic’s thin-film solar cells are 100 times thinner, do not use crystalline silicon material and, therefore, are unaffected by the worldwide scarcity of silicon. The products, unlike conventional glass-based PV products, are lightweight, flexible and rugged and can be aesthetically integrated into buildings.
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