Evergreen Solar Chooses GE Fanuc's Proficy(TM) Plant Applications Software to Fabricate Photovoltaic Modules Used In Solar Electric Systems.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- GE Fanuc Automation, Inc.:

Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Solution Chosen For Its
 Modularity, Commercial Availability and Support of Industry Standards

 Global Service and Support A Must For Worldwide Manufacturing Company

GE Fanuc Automation, Inc, a unit of GE Industrial, today announced that Evergreen Solar, a developer and manufacturer of solar power products with its proprietary string ribbon technology, has chosen a Proficy(TM) Plant Applications Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solution for its EverQ production facility currently under construction in Thalheim, Germany. EverQ GmbH is a joint venture between Evergreen Solar, German solar cell manufacturer Q-Cells AG, and silicon and wafer manufacturer Renewable Energy Corporation ASA.

Evergreen Solar worked with GE Fanuc representative, Massachusetts-based AutomaTech, a leading expert in the field of manufacturing software and data retrieval from the plant floor.

"We were impressed with how quickly this project moved through the sales process because we had a tight timeframe and a loosely-defined project definition," said Scott Danielson, MES Project Manager for Evergreen Solar. "This system has to be ready when the factory ramps production in April."

"We had two goals for this system," according to Richard Chleboski, Vice President of World Wide Expansion for Evergreen Solar. "The first was to provide the manufacturing engineers with real-time data to improve operations and the second was to create a scaleable platform that could be implemented globally."

"Working with GE Fanuc's Proficy software platform, we are able to help businesses increase reliability, productivity and information flow throughout the enterprise," said Tom Schiller, President of AutomaTech. "And, with a proven track record in plant floor applications, we were able to offer Evergreen Solar a Plant Applications solution that could be implemented quickly and immediately meet their business needs." In addition, Evergreen Solar will be using GE Fanuc's Proficy Historian and HMI/SCADA iFIX applications as part of its automation solution.

The scope of the Evergreen Solar project is to track the entire manufacturing process from the growth of silicon wafers through production of the solar cells and finally to the assembly of the photovoltaic modules. The system then sends the final data results to an SAP system to provide data to track production and material usage.