Tuesday, January 19, 2010

GT Solar pulls in $40M in Chinese solar tech orders

By Mass High Tech staff

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GT Solar International Inc. has landed more than $40 million in contracts with two wholly owned subsidiaries of Chinese solar firm GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd., the largest polysilicon supplier in China.

The deals were made with Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development Co. Ltd. for GT Solar’s trichlorosilane production technology and with Jiangsu GCL Silicon Material Technology Development Co. Ltd. for GT Solar’s directional solidification system furnaces and ancillary equipment.

News of the contracts follows a September announcement by Merrimack, N.H.-based GT Solar (Nasdaq: SOLR) that it had opened a China office in Shanghai to more quickly fulfill orders from Asian solar companies.

GT Solar develops the technology and manufacturing equipment associated with the production of photovoltaic wafers, cells and modules and polysilicon. Its trichlorosilane production technology, the first contract order, refers to the service and technology used to make the raw material that is then made into polysilicon. The second contract order, for directional solidification system furnaces and ancillary equipment, refers to the technology used to melt polysilicon and produce solar wafers.

GT Solar launched a presence in Asia in 2006, before going public in July of 2008 in a $500 million initial public offering. The company had initially filed papers with the SEC in April 2007 for an IPO valued at $200 million.

Founded with $1,000 in stake money as GT Equipment by Kedar Gupta and Jonathan Talbott in 1994, GT Solar has been funded by sales from the start. It reported an annual net profit of $88 million on $541 million in total revenue for fiscal year 2009.