Eco Ahead

Merrimack, New Hampshire, United States — (Business Wire India) — Friday, October 17, 2008 10:42:00 AM

Adds Major New Customer –
– Expands Product and Services Offerings; Sells First Integrated Support Module for Reactors and Converters –
– Secures the Company’s First Polysilicon Production Equipment and
Services Agreement in Taiwan –

GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR), a global provider of specialized equipment and technology for the solar power industry,announced that its subsidiary, GT Solar Incorporated, has signed its first contract with Top Green Energy Technologies, Inc., a Taiwan-based producer of high-quality solar cells. The agreement, valued at $46.8 million, is GT Solar’s most comprehensive polysilicon production equipment and services agreement to-date, and the company’s first sale of its products to a customer based in Taiwan.

The solutions being provided to Top Green Energy Technologies include CVD reactors, STC converters, and an integrated support module, which is a new product offering for GT Solar. This integrated support module includes instrumentation, piping and controls for all gases and water entering and exiting the reactors.

“We are pleased to announce this contract and new relationship with Top Green Energy Technologies for a number of important reasons,” said Dave Keck, GT Solar’s vice president of polysilicon. “Top Green Energy Technologies is an exciting new customer that is helping us enter a new geographic market with our reactors and converters. They are also the first company to purchase our newly available Integrated Gas Feed System and Off Gas Heat Exchanger Module, which we believe is the only offering of its kind in the marketplace today.

“By expanding our products and services offerings to include this essential support module, we are now able to deliver a comprehensive, fully-integrated suite of solutions that provides nearly everything our customers need to quickly and cost-effectively set up their facilities and begin manufacturing high-quality silicon.”

Custom-designed by GT Solar, the Integrated Gas Feed System and Off Gas Heat Exchanger Module marries GT Solar’s in-depth process design expertise with essential reactor and converter support equipment.

“We chose GT Solar for this important project because of their in-depth process design expertise, high-quality equipment, and ability to provide ongoing, on-site support. GT Solar was also the only provider that demonstrated success with a large-scale polysilicon producer,” said Simon Chang, president and chief executive officer for Top Green Energy Technologies. “We look forward to partnering with GT Solar, and to becoming the first solar manufacturer in Taiwan that is entirely vertically integrated from polysilicon to solar module.”

Founded in 2006, Top Green Energy Technologies is a solar system integrator and the solar cell subsidiary of Powercom Co., Ltd. Powercom is Taiwan’s leading manufacturer of solar module and inverter solutions, and the country’s largest provider of power protection products including uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).

GT Solar is expected to begin delivering equipment to Top Green Energy Technologies in the second half of the 2009 calendar year.

About GT Solar International, Inc.

Based in Merrimack, NH, USA, GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR) is a global provider of specialized manufacturing equipment and services essential for the production of photovoltaic wafers, cells and modules and polysilicon. GT Solar’s principal products are directional solidification systems and chemical vapor deposition reactors and related equipment. For additional information about GT Solar, please visit www.gtsolar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in this press release are forward looking in nature, including our statements regarding an estimated contract value of $46.8 million in polysilicon reactors, converters and support equipment and services, new product offerings, expected timing of delivery, and our entry into new geographic markets. These statements are based on management’s current expectations or beliefs. These forward looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside our control, which could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements. These factors may include our inability to manage our expansion effectively, our dependence on a small number of suppliers, our limited number of products, the possibility of product liability claims, our inability to protect our intellectual property rights, increased competition from other manufacturers of equipment for PV products, changes in the PV industry, risks associated with doing business in foreign countries and various other risks as outlined in GT Solar International, Inc.’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Prospectus dated July 23, 2008 and filed pursuant to Rule 424(b) under the Securities Act, as amended, on July 24, 2008, and the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on August 27, 2008. Statements in this press release should be evaluated in light of these important factors. GT Solar International, Inc. is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Media Contact Details
CONTACT: Hill & Knowlton Jessica Anderson 212-885-0492 jessica.anderson@hillandknowlton.com

CONTACT:

Hill & Knowlton
Jessica Anderson
212-885-0492
jessica.anderson@hillandknowlton.com

Ahmedabad, Oct 15 (IANS) School students should be taught how to use natural resources so that they don’t run out, Ahmedabad-based Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC) said here Wednesday.

CERC called on the government to implement the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) guidelines on ‘Education for Sustainable Consumption in Formal Education’.

“The coordinated day of action has been organised by the global consumer movement as a means of empowering consumers to make responsible decisions from a young age,” said Pritee Shah, senior director-CERC and editor of CERC-run Insight magazine.

“Educating the young generation and pushing them into action is the challenge before us today. All-round effort needs to be made to prepare education material that would appeal to this generation, and should be easily accessible. We at CERC together with GTZ (a German technical cooperation agency) are developing fun-to-read booklets, animation films and posters for the young. We hope this material make them think and act,” Shah said.

UNEP has outlined crucial social development and environmental aspects in its Education for Sustainable Consumption programme.

Washington, Oct 15 (IANS) A flexible new approach on production of alternative fuels from solid and agricultural wastes could supply a fifth of fuels required in transportation in US annually, says a new study.

The method offers a potential solution to problems that might be created by increasing production of ethanol with conventional methods, which use corn grain as a feedstock.

Boosting ethanol output with conventional methods would require additional crops and heavy fertiliser use, increasing runoff into waterways and threatening ecosystems, said a Purdue University press release.

The new concept, however, which Purdue researchers call a flexible carbon-to-liquid fuel process, would require no additional crops and use primarily wastes as the feedstock, said Fu Zhao, a Purdue assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

“This technique is more flexible than conventional methods because we can process a wider range of very different feedstocks and, at the same time, we can generate a wider range of end products - not just gasoline and diesel but ethanol and hydrogen. Or we could generate electricity directly from the gas produced,” he said.

The method also would be immune to the market fluctuations of corn and other crops and less affected by disturbances such as feedstock supply shocks and market demand changes. The method also could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent compared with petroleum-derived gasoline.

The analysis suggested that it is possible to replace 15 percent to 20 percent of transportation fuels consumed daily in US with liquids derived from this flexible process. These estimates are based on the present consumption level, which is about 390 million gallons per day, he said.

These findings were presented during the VIth Global Conference on Sustainable Product Development and Life Cycle Engineering in Busan, South Korea.

London, Oct 15 (IANS) A British-designed electronic newspaper - made out of plastic and no larger than a table mat - is to hit the market next year as an alternative to, well, paper itself, according to a report Wednesday.

The new kind of newspaper has been conceived by Cambridge University scientists, who pioneered the idea of replacing silicon chips with plastic ones, and is being developed by Plastic Logic, a company based in Dresden, Germany.

“The device looks just like a table mat and it’s as light as a magazine. But onto it you can download hundreds of newspapers and - at the touch of a button - browse through them quite safely, without elbowing anyone ever again [in a crowded commuter train],” the BBC reported on its website.

The plastic microchips are produced in a top security ‘clean room’ at the Plastic Logic factory, which opened last month as the world’s first commercial-scale plastic electronics manufacturing plant.

With every part of the product - from the screen to the electronics - made of plastic, the newspaper is described by engineer Dean Baker as “very robust”.

Baker said the plastic newspaper could help address the problem of waste associated with traditional newspapers.

“There’s a huge amount of waste. We have paper being distributed all over the country which is consumed on that day and then discarded into the bin. This doesn’t need to be the case.

“All of that contact could be transmitted electronically and stored on a single e-reader, with the same visual appeal as paper,” Baker said.

The plastic newspaper is expected to hit the high streets next year, the BBC said.