DuPont and Yingli Energy (China) have signed a $100 million strategic agreement for photovoltaic materials aimed at accelerating the adoption of solar energy to address one of the world's biggest challenges - reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

Yingli China is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited ("Yingli"), a leading solar energy company and one of the world's largest vertically integrated photovoltaic manufacturers.

The agreement was signed in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., which was organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Ministry of Commerce People's Republic of China, and hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Under the terms of the agreement, Yingli will purchase photovoltaic materials including DuPont Solamet photovoltaic metallization pastes used in solar modules and protective backsheet for solar modules made with DuPont Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride film.

"At Yingli, we have a long-standing commitment to global social responsibility to make solar energy an affordable option for everyone," said Liansheng Miao, chairman and chief executive officer, Yingli.

"The agreement we have signed with DuPont assures our supply of critical, high-quality materials and our continued collaboration on further technological advances to optimize the performance of our solar modules, which illustrates our mission to be a cost leader and provide the best product to customers at the same time."

"This agreement expands a current commercial relationship between DuPont and Yingli into a more strategic relationship with long-term benefit to both companies, and to end users of solar energy," said David B. Miller, president, DuPont Electronics and Communications.

"Materials are key to solar module performance, and DuPont continues to advance the science behind them. They help increase efficiency, extend the lifetime of modules, and, ultimately, help reduce overall system costs to make solar increasingly more competitive with other forms of energy generation."

According to industry estimates, over the next five years, 20 percent average annual growth is expected in solar installations globally.

DuPont achieved about $1.4 billion in sales to the photovoltaic market in 2011, and has set a goal to reach $2 billion in sales by 2014, based on continued, strong demand for its products.