Construction began in July and is on schedule to be completed by next spring, according to Evergreen Solar.

The facility is part of an agreement between Evergreen Solar and Jiawei through which Evergreen Solar will manufacture String Ribbon wafers using Quad furnaces at a leased facility being built on Jiawei’s campus. Jiawei will convert the String Ribbon wafers into Evergreen Solar-branded panels on a contract-manufacturing basis.

“When you combine Evergreen Solar’s unique wafer technology and Jiawei’s high-quality, cost-efficient cell and panel conversion processes, we believe we have a winning formula that will produce the best-performing and lowest-cost multi-crystalline solar panels in the world,” said Evergreen Solar Chairman, President and CEO Richard Feldt. “We’re extremely pleased that construction proceeds according to schedule and look forward to beginning production of our String Ribbon solar panels in the spring of 2010.”

The complex will include two plants, according to Michael McCarthy, Evergreen Solar’s director, investor relations.

“Evergreen will operate one, which will build wafers used to convert the sun’s energy into electricity,” McCarthy explained in an e-mail. “Jaiwei will own a facility that turns the wafers into working solar collectors and then puts them into panels that are sold to customers, which include utilities, large industrial companies and residential customers.”