SunPower Corporation Optimistic About Growth of Solar Power Industry

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Executives of SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWRA) (San Jose, California), one of the leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) power technology in the U.S., spoke at two conferences last week and expressed optimism about the company's current projects as well as the boost that could potentially be given to the solar power industry in the form of federal stimulus funds and government regulation.

Speaking at the RBC Technology, Media and Communications Conference in San Francisco, California, Bob Okunski, SunPower's Senior Director of Investor Relations, said, "I see federal stimulus programs big, along with state RPSs [renewable portfolio standards]. Just to give you an example, if you look at the 26-plus states that currently have renewable portfolio standards in place, that's going to require at least 70 gigawatts of renewable power by 2025."

At the Deutsche Bank 2009 Alternative/Clean Technology Conference in Washington, D.C., Vice President of Public Policy and Corporate Communications Julie Blunden added, "Governments are getting ready to spend. The stimulus dollars haven't flowed all the way through the channels yet down to the cities and counties that will ultimately spend money on building upgrades, ...but it's in progress; it's started moving."

Speaking of the company's current projects, Okunski said, "We're in the process of completing our Florida Power and Light 25-megawatt [plant] in DeSoto County, which will be the largest [solar power plant in the U.S.], and we continue to push in Europe. ...What's driving this is essentially that PV can be installed anywhere. We don't need to have to be in a certain wind location. We can be modulated around main transmission lines. We can be put in multiple different places and connected to the grid. It's fast. It's easy to install."

Industrial Info is currently monitoring approximately $618 million of active projects being developed by SunPower. These include the 25-megawatt (MW) project for NextEra Energy Resources (North Palm Beach, Florida) (formerly FPL Energy LLC), a subsidiary of FPL Group Incorporated (NYSE:FPL) (Juno Beach, Florida), that was mentioned by Okunski. Construction of the project kicked off in December of last year in Arcadia, Florida, and is expected to take approximately one year to complete. Additionally, SunPower has contracted with NextEra to construct a 10-MW solar power plant at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Construction of the project is expected to begin in August of this year and will also take approximately one year to complete. The estimated combined investment value of both projects is $53 million. Information on these and other SunPower projects can be found in Industrial Info's North American Industrial Database.

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