October 16, 2008

San Jose, CA, USA: SunPower Reports Third-Quarter 2008 Results

SunPower Corporation today announced financial results for the third quarter 2008, which ended September 28, 2008.

Revenue for the 2008 third quarter was $377.5 million and compares to $382.8 million in the second quarter of 2008 and $234.3 million in the third quarter of last year. The Components and Systems segments accounted for 49% and 51% of third quarter revenue, respectively.

On a GAAP basis, for the 2008 third-quarter, SunPower reported gross margin of 27.1%, total operating income of $50.2 million and diluted net income per share of $0.26. These figures include non-cash operating expenses for amortization of purchase accounting intangible assets of $4.2 million, and non-cash and stock-based compensation of $18.9 million.

On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted to exclude non-cash charges for amortization of intangible assets and stock-based compensation, SunPower reported total gross margin of 29.2%, operating income of $73.3 million and diluted net income per share of $0.60. This compares with prior-quarter non-GAAP gross margin of 26.4%, total operating income of $67.6 million and $0.61 diluted net income per share. Overall gross margin improvement reflected continued growth in Components segment gross margin. For the 2008 third quarter, Components segment gross margin reached 39.2%, benefitting from higher average conversion efficiency and better silicon utilization, continued reduction in silicon costs, higher volume, and slightly higher average selling prices. System segment gross margin was 19.7%, reflecting a shift in both geographic and product mix.

"In the third-quarter, SunPower continued to demonstrate the advantage of a multi-segment, multi-geographic, vertical integration strategy as we executed very well in an evolving policy environment," said Tom Werner, SunPower's CEO. "By leveraging our flexible model, we expanded our global footprint, opened up new markets and laid the foundation for long-term success. Overall, global industry fundamentals remain strong and demand is increasing across multiple geographies. Our cost reduction roadmap is paying dividends as we are now selling at a levelized cost of energy which is cost- effective for our customers as evidenced by our recent utility-scale announcements with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), and Florida Power & Light Co. With the recent extension of the U.S. Investment Tax Credit, we now have a national solar market in the U.S. with long-term visibility and significant additional demand potential in all three market segments - residential, commercial and utility. We also saw uncertainty removed from the Spanish market in the third quarter. These developments make us even more confident in our planned performance as we look into next year."

"In the Components business segment, during the third quarter, we grew our worldwide dealer network by more than 25 percent. This business is scaling very rapidly building on our multi-year investment in the infrastructure to serve a wide variety of markets using a core backbone of technology and services. With this channel investment, we offer our customers not only the best technology solutions but also the best customer experience which is a key platform for the SunPower brand. In addition, our Components business segment has further expanded its global footprint by delivering sales into the Middle East.'

"Our Systems business segment recorded another strong quarter in the power plant and commercial rooftop segments. To date, SunPower has installed, or has under contract, more than 165 megawatts of solar capacity in Spain including our recent dedication announcement of our 8.4 megawatt project in Isla Major, Spain. Additionally, we continued to expand our leadership position in the U.S. commercial market as Applied Materials activated a two- megawatt combination of roof and parking lot systems at their corporate campus in the third quarter, and we completed the largest single roof solar installation in the U.S. for Toyota Motor Sales. We also announced a building-integrated solar system surrounding the Living Roof at the new California Academy of Sciences, and dedicated our SunPower PowerGuard® system on the roof of the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C."

"Our cost reduction programs remain on track, enabling us to open up new markets such as the U.S. utility market where the combination of our tracking and industry leading cell technologies offer utilities a very competitive levelized cost of energy. In a watershed announcement for the industry, we were selected by PG&E to supply the California utility with 250-megawatts of solar power by 2012. This project will be the first, true utility-scale photovoltaic power plant in the world when completed, delivering an average of 550,000 megawatt-hours of clean electricity annually. The project is contracted to begin power delivery in 2010 and be fully operational in 2012. This win demonstrates that photovoltaic technology is competitive with other utility-scale generation options today. SunPower's success in the utility- scale market is a direct result of our high-efficiency solar panels paired with high-capacity SunPower tracker technology, which generates up to 30 percent more energy than fixed tilt systems.'

"Due to strong industry fundamentals, continued execution of our vertical integration strategy, expected gross margin expansion, and our progress on our cost reduction programs, we will materially meet our target operating model in the fourth quarter. We are strategically well positioned for 2009 and remain on track to realize our mission of reducing installed systems cost by 50% from 2006 to 2012."

"Based on the strong global demand trends that we are seeing, as well as our internal execution on our goal of reducing system installed costs by 50% from 2006 to 2012, we expect the following fiscal year 2008 non-GAAP results: total revenue of $1.44 billion to $1.46 billion and diluted net income per share of $2.34 to $2.41. Consistent with our practice of offering guidance for the current quarter, we expect fourth quarter 2008 non-GAAP total revenue of $405 million to $435 million, company non-GAAP gross margin of 29% to 30% and non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.73 to $0.80. We also expect our 2009 total revenue to be in of the range of $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion, production capacity of 450+ megawatts and non-GAAP diluted net income per share of at least $3.50."

"On a business segment basis, we expect the following non-GAAP results for the fourth quarter 2008: Components segment revenue of $235 million to $255 million, and gross margin of 37% to 37.5%; Systems segment revenue of $170 million to $180 million and gross margin of 18% to 19% (2). We expect the Components segment to benefit from the continued manufacturing ramp of our next-generation technology and lower silicon cost and the Systems segment to reflect a combination of changes in project and regional mix," concluded Werner.

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