Solar: "Evergreen Solar to close U.S. module plant: US$70 million write down on Sovello JV" (ESLR)

UPDATE: "Evergreen Solar says has enough cash" and "Pacific Crest’s Bachman Downgrades Evergreen Solar to SECTOR PERFORM" (ESLR)"
Original post:
From PV-Tech:

As part of its plans to conserve cash and reduce module assembly costs to remain competitive as module prices have declined over 30% since last year, Evergreen Solar is planning to shift its Devens module assembly production to China, starting in mid-2010. When the company announced its manufacturing partnership in China with Jiawei Solar back in May, 2009 executives had said that the Deven’s module plant would continue to make modules for the expected expansion of the U.S. market. Now the company will shut-down production next year and only reopen the facility should demand dictate....MORE

From SmallCapPulse:

Cowen’s Stone Weighs in on Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq:ESLR) Q3 Results

...Stone’s Key Takeaways

· The J.V.’s bank waiver expires at the end of November, and is at risk of further write-off. Evergreen is carrying Sovello at $50MM.

· While cost/watt improved 17% sequentially to $2.40 and product GM rose to 7.1, it is above the ASP Stone estimates for Chinese competitors – cost/watt still not competitive

· Maintains NEUTRAL rating on the stock