"The signing of this LOI further strengthens the long-term future of both companies," stated Leo Cheng, Chairman and President of Motech Industries. "For Motech, this agreement means a stable and competitive source of supply for solar wafers, from a company that has been making wafers for over four decades. A supply agreement of this size in a constrained market will help Motech achieve significant growth in revenue and market share," said Cheng.

The deal also sees MEMC purchase a 5 percent stake in Motech as well as take control and expand production of solar wafers at Motech's two manufacturing sites, based in Taiwan. Full capacity of the two facilities when fully utilized provide for around 120 megawatts of solar wafer energy.

"We are pleased at the prospect of partnering with such a fast growing and respected solar cell manufacturer as Motech," stated Nabeel Gareeb, MEMC's Chief Executive Officer. "This arrangement sets us up to be one of the leading suppliers of solar wafers, by solidly establishing our direct participation in this 30%+ CAGR industry. We believe we will be able to add significant value to the evolution of the solar wafer market by leveraging our technical and operational core competencies developed through 40 years of supplying wafers to the highly demanding semiconductor industry."

The deal provides Motech with a stable, pre-determined pricing structure in a period of rising prices due to the worldwide shortage of polysilicon, while significantly growing market share from its current ninth largest producer to one of the top three suppliers in the world over the course of the contract.