ENER announced an agreement with Enfinity N.V. of Belgium to co-develop rooftop solar installations in the U.S. and various European countries. The plan is to sell completed projects to third-party inventors within 12 months of the start of commercial operations.
On March 29, Barron's reported that falling silicon prices have made silicon-heavy solar panels more economically feasible. Energy Conversion Devices manufactures "thin film" solar panels that use less silicon than the industry standard. Since traditional solar panels are becoming more affordable due to the falling price of silicon, they could steal market share from ENER's alternative to silicon-heavy panels.
Uni-Solar announces a multi-year supply deal with ITOCHU Corporation enhancing analyst Jim Cramer's favorable review of the company's business.
Energy Conversion Devices saw a precipitous drop in its stock price in January '08, along with many other publicly traded companies. Technology and energy stocks were among the hardest hit, and ENER has operations in both of these sectors.
Energy Conversion Device announced that its JV Ovonyx entered into a license agreement with Hynix Semiconductor for memory products, which are currently under Ovonyx' patents and intellectual property (related to Phase Change Memory – PCM technology). Further, Ovonyx agreed to support the Hynix' program to develop phase change memory products as part of the agreement. This news led to an increase in the stock price of Energy Conversion Device, as PCM is considered to be a cost-effective replacement for Flash and DRAM memories.
