Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR) announced 4Q results on Thursday that fell short of expectations, sending the companies shares down about 10% after hours.
Net loss for 4Q08 was $52.1 million, or $0.32 per share,
and includes charges of $23.1 million for the closure of the Marlboro
pilot facility, $8.0 million for the write-off of certain research and
development equipment and $9.7 million of facility start up costs for
Devens and Midland facilities.
Net loss for the third quarter of 2008 was $23.8, or $0.18 per share.
Revenues for 4Q08 were $44.2 million, including $3.1 million of fees from joint venture Sovello (formerly EverQ), compared to $22.1 million for 3Q08 and $22.2 million for 4Q07.
Gross margin for 4Q008 was 4.6%, compared to 5.7% for 3Q08. The decrease was due to lower average selling prices and higher costs associated with manufacturing inefficiencies experienced during the start up of the Devens facility, the company said.
Full-year revenues for 2008 were $112.0 million, compared to $69.9 million for 2007. The increase was due to added volume from the Devens manufacturing facility, which began during 3Q08.
“Our Devens capacity expansion remains on plan and we expect to reach full capacity of 40 megawatts (MW) per quarter by the end of 2009,” said Richard M. Feldt, Chairman, CEO and President. “With the closure of our pilot manufacturing facility in Marlboro at the end of 2008, our process and technical employees are completely focused on Devens and will help us achieve our manufacturing cost target of approximately $2 per watt as we ramp capacity and streamline factory operations during the year.”
“We continue to make substantial progress at Devens and we have almost 80 MW under sales contracts for shipment in 2009. We also believe that the long-term market prospects for the solar industry are very promising, especially given the significant commitment to renewable energy by the Obama administration. However, like all companies in the industry, we expect that demand for solar products in the first half of 2009 may be materially impacted by both the typical seasonal weakness and the difficult worldwide economic and credit environment,” Mr. Feldt concluded.
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