United Solar To Provide Up to 25MW of UNI-SOLAR Laminates for Rooftop Installation in Italy

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich., Feb. 4 – United Solar Ovonic (United Solar), a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) (Nasdaq: ENER), today confirmed that it will supply up to 25 MW of UNI-SOLAR® brand photovoltaic laminates to Enel Green Power for installation on a number of buildings owned by CIS-Interporto di Nola in Italy. Enel Green Power is the renewable energy operating company of the Enel Group, Italy’s largest utility.
The UNI-SOLAR laminates will be fully integrated with the existing architecture and will be installed on the roofs of a number of commercial and logistic buildings, and are expected to begin producing power in 2010. Once operational, the facility will be capable of producing about 33 million kWh per year, enough to meet the consumption needs of approximately 13,000 households – more than a third of the inhabitants of Nola – while avoiding the atmospheric emission of more than 21 tons of CO2 per year.
UNI-SOLAR laminates were the obvious choice for this project because they were an ideal match to the demands of the application. The product fits perfectly with the characteristics of these buildings in terms of layout, rooftop load capacity, and waterproofing. Other climatic factors were also important, especially the ability to withstand high winds, as the buildings regularly experience gusts of up to 160 kilometers per hour. For resistance to wind uplift without roof penetrations, UNI-SOLAR laminates are unparalleled in the rooftop solar industry.
Mark Morelli, ECD’s president and CEO, said, “This announcement of this significant purchase agreement with Enel Green Power is a good indication that the evolution of our business to target large scale, multi-rooftop projects is taking shape. We look forward to working with them on similar opportunities in other countries and expanding our relationship to include many more rooftop projects in the future.”
About Enel Green Power
Enel Green Power, established in December 2008, is the Enel Group company devoted to the development and management of power generation from renewable resources at the international level, with a presence in Europe and the Americas. It is the European leader in its industry thanks to 17.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity generated from water, the sun, wind and the heat of the earth, enough to meet the consumption needs of some 6.5 million households each year and avoid 13 million tons of CO2 emissions. The company’s installed capacity totals about 4,700 MW, produced by more than 500 plants in operation around the world, with a generation mix that includes wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass.
About Energy Conversion Devices
Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. is the leader in building integrated and commercial rooftop photovoltaics, one of the fastest growing segments of the solar power industry. The company manufactures and sells thin-film solar laminates that convert sunlight to energy using proprietary technology. ECD’s UNI-SOLAR® brand products are unique because of their flexibility, light weight, ease of installation, durability, and real-world efficiency. ECD also pioneers other alternative technologies, including a new type of nonvolatile digital memory technology that is significantly faster, less expensive, and ideal for use in a variety of applications including cell phones, digital cameras and personal computers. For more information, please visit www.energyconversiondevices.com.
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning our plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events, future net sales or performance, capital expenditures, financing needs, plans or intentions relating to expansions, business trends and other information that is not historical information. All forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us on the date of this release and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Risks that could cause such results to differ include: our ability to successfully integrate the acquisition of Solar Integrated Technologies; our ability to maintain our customer relationships; the worldwide demand for electricity and the market for solar energy; the supply and price of components and raw materials for our products; and our customers’ ability to access the capital needed to finance the purchase of our products. The risk factors identified in the ECD filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, could impact any forward-looking statements contained in this release.