Tegal and se2quel Partners form new company in solar utility development

PETALUMA, USA: Tegal Corp. announced that it has formed, along with se2quel Partners LLC, a new company dedicated to the development and operation of large scale photovoltaic (PV)-based solar utilities in the United States, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

Over the past three years, se2quel Partners, under the leadership of Ferdinand Seemann, a solar technology expert and former Independent Director of Tegal, has developed a unique approach (with patents pending) to develop, build and operate PV-based utilities on the scale of 1,000+ megawatts (1GW), which are cost competitive with conventional energy sources.

Currently, se2quel Partners has over 10 active projects with major partners in various stages of analyzing and developing solar utilities in six different countries within the global sunbelt.

The global PV market is expected to grow between 20 percent and 36 percent annually between 2011 and 2014, with the United States accounting for only 10 percent of the forecasted total of 40 GW installed annually by 2014.

While the utility-scale segment accounted for less than 13 percent of the total PV market in the USA in 2009, it is the fastest growth segment of the PV industry and is expected to exceed 35 percent of the total by 2014.

sequel Power, a newly-formed Delaware limited liability company, will take over the existing projects, along with the technology, know-how and related infrastructure of se2quel Partners. Tegal has contributed $2 million in cash for a majority voting interest and an approximate 25 percent economic stake in the new company.

As additional consideration, Tegal has granted warrants to purchase a total of 928,884 shares of Tegal common stock at an exercise price of $0.63 per share to se2quel Partners and se2quel Management GmbH, which represents approximately 11 percent of Tegal’s total shares outstanding. Ferdinand Seemann will serve as the new company’s full-time president and CEO, while Thomas Mika, president and CEO of Tegal, will serve as its executive chairman.