Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLR), a manufacturer of STRING RIBBON' solar power products with its proprietary, low-cost silicon wafer manufacturing technology, announced today that its solar panels have received high ratings in two key industry performance tests.

Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLR), a manufacturer of STRING RIBBON' solar power products with its proprietary, low-cost silicon wafer manufacturing technology, announced today that its solar panels have received high ratings in two key industry performance tests.

Evergreen Solar's ES-Series String Ribbon solar panel was the top-rated panel after completing six months of a year-long test being conducted by TÜV Rheinland Group, a leading independent test institute in Germany. The test found that the Evergreen product delivered greater kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity (per measured kilowatts of panels installed) from April through September 2008, the best of 14 major panel brands tested.

In a similar test completed by PHOTON, the results of which were released in the magazine's February 2009 issue, Evergreen's ES-Series String Ribbon solar panels received high ratings as well, delivering 1038 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity (per measured kW of panels installed) for the entire year. In both tests, the Evergreen Solar panels rated higher than those tested by many of Evergreen's major competitors.

Evergreen Solar has since improved on the ES Series panels with the introduction in 2008 of its state-of-the-art ES-A Series String Ribbon solar panels that feature more power, anti-reflective treated glass and the best power tolerance in the industry (-0/+5W). The panels are guaranteed initially to deliver at least 100% of the nameplate power rating which ensures greater warranted power for the life of the system, unlike many competitors who only guarantee initially 95 to 97% of the nameplate power rating.

"These test results are significant in that they validate the fact that Evergreen Solar is among the best performing solar panels available today," said Terry Bailey, Evergreen Solar's senior vice president of sales and marketing. "Our proprietary technology also consumes the least amount of silicon giving Evergreen Solar panels the quickest energy payback and smallest carbon footprint in the industry."