Evergreen Solar Inc. announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2005. For the fourth quarter of 2005, product revenues increased 25 percent to $11.6 million from $9.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2004 and rose four percent from $11.1 million for the third quarter of 2005. Evergreen Solar improved product gross margin to 13.0 percent for the fourth quarter of 2005 from 10.4 percent from the third quarter of 2005.
For the twelve months ended December 31, 2005, product revenues were a record $43.6 million, nearly double the $22.2 million reported in 2004. For the year, the Company improved its product gross margin to a positive 8.4 percent compared with a negative 34 percent in 2004. Net loss attributable to common stockholders for 2005 was $17.3 million, or $0.29 per share, compared with $22.3 million, or $0.67 per share, in 2004. Approximately 59.6 million and 33.2 million weighted average shares were outstanding for the years ended December 31, 2005 and 2004, respectively.
"During the fourth quarter, Evergreen Solar continued to execute on plan as the Company delivered record financial results, began the conversion of its Marlboro factory to thin-wafer production and made significant progress with its EverQ venture," said Richard M. Feldt, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We recently obtained product certification for our thin-wafer modules and are now in the process of converting the remainder of our Marlboro facility to this next-generation String Ribbon technology platform. Also, our continued improvement of yields, cell efficiency and output enabled us to post record product revenues and gross margins in the fourth quarter.
"During the quarter, we took steps to advance our EverQ strategic partnership as it enters its production phase," Feldt continued. "In November, Renewable Energy Corp. (REC) joined Evergreen Solar and Q-Cells in this joint venture. At a time when silicon remains scarce, REC has agreed to provide Evergreen Solar and EverQ with the supply we need to facilitate our current capacity expansion. We expect to sign additional contracts to secure our longer-term supply needs.
"In Thalheim, Germany, EverQ remains on schedule as we began installing equipment at our 30MW facility in November and moved forward aggressively with our hiring plans. We currently have about 100 EverQ employees and have given start dates to about 100 more. This aggressive hiring should enable us to ramp production quickly over the next several months," Feldt concluded.
