Shares of Evergreen Solar Inc. were down 9 percent Monday afternoon, after the company's primary supplier of raw materials pulled out of a contract.

Evergreen Solar (Nasdaq: ESLR - News) relies on granular silicon to make cells for solar panels, supplied in part by MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR - News) of St. Peters, Mo. MEMC previously agreed to supply Evergreen with 90 metric tons of granular silicon, but in January said it did not intend to ship most of the remaining balance of 53 metric tons.

Evergreen indicated it expects MEMC to reimburse it on advance payments for unshipped silicon. Evergreen instead will crush chunks of silicon, but said it has not fully tested the process at commercial scale.

Evergreen Solar is based in Marlborough, Mass. Shares traded Monday afternoon at approximately $14 per share, down $3 from their opening price Friday.

Published March 20, 2006 by the Boston Business Journal