Hoku Scientific Inc announced Thursday that its Hoku Materials Division, which manufacturers polysilicon for the solar market, signed a contract with Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. for sale and delivery of polysilicon to Sanyo over a seven-year period beginning January 2009.
The contract could be worth $370 million.
“This is a major step forward in our plan to launch Hoku Materials and execute our polysilicon business strategy,” said Dustin Shindo, CEO of Hoku Scientific.
Hoku’s next step is to build a plant with a 2,000 metric ton per year capacity for polysilicon. The company estimates that the plant will cost $260 million. In the agreement, both Sanyo and Hoku have the right to terminate the agreement if Hoku cannot raise the funding for the new plant within six months.
Hoku Scientific is a clean energy technologies company that develops and manufactures fuel cell membranes and membrane electrode assemblies for stationary and automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cells.
