Hoku Provides Update to Polysilicon Production Strategy

POCATELLO, ID, Jul 10 (MARKET WIRE) --
Hoku Materials, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hoku Scientific, Inc.
(NASDAQ: HOKU), established to manufacture and sell polysilicon for the
solar market, today announced it is in discussions with several strategic
and financial investors regarding debt and equity financing. While the
Company reported that the various sources of funding look promising, it
expects it will need a few months to work through these options. Hoku
also reported that, in addition to seeking debt and equity alternatives,
it had retained Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. as its financial advisor
to seek a possible sale of the Company.

To preserve cash and value while pursuing these opportunities, Hoku
Materials will begin issuing orders for a temporary slowdown of
construction and procurement activity at the polysilicon production
facility currently under development in Pocatello, Idaho. The Company had
previously announced a strategic delay in constructing the TCS portion of
the plant, and now plans to extend the slowdown to temporarily include the
other areas as well.

"While we would prefer to progress faster in Pocatello, we remain very
encouraged by the strong interest in our project among potential
financiers, and by the continued commitment of our vendors and customers,
as seen in recent amendments," said Dustin Shindo, chairman and chief
executive officer of Hoku Scientific, Inc. "Despite this temporary
slowdown, we remain absolutely confident that this plant will be completed
and that we can meet our customer commitments. To that end, we have no
plans to lay off any of our staff, including the first group of plant
operators that we hired in Pocatello in June."

"We are caught in the same perfect storm that many other companies are
facing: The credit crunch, a general economic downturn, pressure on
polysilicon and PV pricing, and a global decline in investment capital,"
said Mr. Shindo. "Despite these challenges, we've made great progress in
construction and we remain well-positioned to complete and operate our
plant. Further, we have no senior bank debt on the project, which gives us
flexibility in structuring our future plant financing."

"This type of curtailment is fairly common on projects of this scale and
complexity," said Mason Evans, CEO of J.H. Kelly, Hoku Materials' General
Contractor. "They've gotten a few tough breaks with the market and general
economic conditions, but having worked closely with Hoku Materials since
they broke ground in 2007, we remain very confident that they will resolve
the financing challenges and get us back to work quickly. We look forward
to completing this facility for them. In the meantime, we are maintaining
a full time staff at the Pocatello site to ensure our ability to quickly
ramp back up."

Commenting on Hoku Solar, the Company's Hawaii-based subsidiary focused on
turnkey integration of photovoltaic (PV) power systems, Mr. Shindo noted,
"The challenges in funding the polysilicon plant and the temporary
construction slowdown applies exclusively to Hoku Materials. The companies
are both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Hoku Scientific, but each operates
completely independently of the other. We remain very excited about the
opportunity to continue expanding Hoku Solar's PV installation business
and continue to actively install systems in Hawaii."

About Hoku Scientific, Inc.

Hoku Scientific (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 markets, sells, and installs
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.hokucorp.com.

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

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve many
risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to Hoku Scientific's
ability to raise debt or equity capital to finance the construction of its
polysilicon plant, or to identify a strategic partner interested in
financing, investing in or acquiring the Company; its ability to engineer
and construct a production plant for polysilicon; the timing of when Hoku
Materials will resume full-time construction and procurement activities
for its polysilicon plant, if at all; its ability to manufacture
polysilicon and to fulfill its customer commitments; the Company's plans
regarding future employee layoffs; the Company's future financial
performance; its business strategies 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 the Company'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 the Company's filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, the
Company assumes no 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.

For more information contact:

Hoku Scientific, Inc.
1288 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, Hawaii, 96814, USA
Tel: +1-808-682-7800
Email: Email Contact
www.hokucorp.com

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