Hoku Scientific: Collaboration with Great Western Malting

Hoku Materials, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Hoku Scientific, Inc., established to manufacture and sell polysilicon for the solar market, and Great Western Malting Company, a subsidiary of United Malt Holdings and a supplier of high quality specialty malts to brewers throughout the United States and the world, announced today that they have entered into a collaborative agreement regarding the use and distribution of waste heat in the form of process water from Hoku's planned polysilicon manufacturing plant. Great Western owns and operates a malting facility on the parcel adjacent to the land leased by Hoku from the City of Pocatello.

According to the agreement, Hoku will supply Great Western with heated process water, a byproduct of polysilicon manufacturing. Great Western will use the water as an indirect heat source in its malt production line and then return the cooled water to Hoku for re-use. This closed-loop arrangement will reduce natural gas requirements and resulting emissions and carbon footprint for Great Western, while providing Hoku with a simple, lower-cost option to cool and recycle its process water.

"We are pleased to collaborate with Great Western Malting," said Dustin Shindo, chairman and chief executive officer of Hoku Scientific. "The agreement is mutually beneficial because it offers Hoku an opportunity to reduce our in-house cooling requirements while fulfilling an essential need for Great Western. It also gives us a chance to be good neighbors and business partners."

The companies also announced a joint agreement with the City of Pocatello and the Pocatello Development Authority to construct a public road, Hoku Way, connecting Kraft Road and Highway 30 via Batiste Road. The new road will run along the southwestern boundaries of their respective properties and will be open for public use. Hoku Way will provide ready access to both Hoku's polysilicon manufacturing facility and Great Western Malting's production plant. The City of Pocatello announced plans to fund construction by issuing special purpose revenue bonds.

Work is scheduled to begin on the new road in 2009. In the meantime, both Hoku and Great Western will continue accessing their properties via Kraft Road.

"As long-time members of the Pocatello community, Great Western Malting is very pleased to be working closely with Hoku Scientific and the City of Pocatello," said James Anderson, CEO of United Malt Holdings. "We maintain our high product standards, use less natural gas to generate heat for our malting processes, while saving money and taking solid action to help the environment."

Pocatello Mayor, Roger Chase, added, "The City of Pocatello is excited to partner with Hoku and Great Western Malting on this effort. We remain committed to do everything we can to advance sustainable, diverse economic development for our community."

About Hoku Scientific, Inc.

Hoku Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOKU) is a diversified, clean energy technologies company with three business units: Hoku Materials, Hoku Solar and Hoku Fuel Cells. Hoku Materials plans to manufacture, market, and sell polysilicon for the solar market from its plant currently under construction in Pocatello, Idaho. Hoku Solar is a provider of turnkey photovoltaic systems in Hawaii. Hoku Fuel Cells has developed proprietary fuel cell membranes and membrane electrode assemblies for stationary and automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cells. For more information visit www.hokuscientific.com

Hoku(R) and Hoku Scientific(R) are registered trademarks and Hoku Solar(TM) and Hoku Fuel Cells(TM) are trademarks of Hoku Scientific, Inc. Hoku Materials(TM) is a trademark of Hoku Materials, Inc. All rights reserved.

About Great Western Malting Company

Great Western Malting supplies brewers throughout the United States and the world from malt houses in Pocatello, ID and Vancouver, WA. In addition to direct shipments from its facilities, it conducts trans-loading operations in Stockton and Riverside, CA. The company's Vancouver facility produces an array of specialty malts including Crystal, Munich and Wheat malts. Warehouse locations in Vancouver, WA, Denver, CO and San Francisco, CA inventory a wide range of bagged products produced by Great Western Malting and Bairds Malt. www.northamericanmalt.com

About United Malt Holdings

United Malt Holdings ("UMH") is a leader in its industry, serving many of the world's largest brewers and distillers. UMH has revenues in excess of $400 million and has approximately one million tons of annual malt production capacity from 14 plants in four countries. It operates in the United States, trading as Great Western Malting; Canada, trading as Canada Malting Company; Australia, trading as Barrett Burston Malting and the United Kingdom, operating as Bairds Malt. www.castleharlan.com/profiles/malt.html

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve many risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to Hoku Material's completion of its polysilicon production facility and its ability to successfully supply waste heat in the form of process water; Great Western Malting's ability to return process water for re-use; successful completion of financing and road construction by the City of Pocatello; Hoku Scientific's future financial performance; Hoku Scientific's business strategy and plans; and objectives of management for future operations. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "can," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Hoku Scientific's actual results, performance, time frames or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, time frames or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Given these risks, uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. In evaluating these statements, you should specifically consider the risks described in Hoku Scientific's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as applicable. Except as required by law, neither Hoku Scientific nor Great Western Malting assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Contact:
Hoku Scientific
Tel: 808-682-7800
Email: Email Contact
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