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History

SunPower solar technology was developed by Dr. Richard Swanson and his students while he was professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University.

Financial support for Dr. Swanson's early research was provided in part by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

In 1985, Dr. Swanson founded SunPower Corporation to commercialize high-efficiency photovoltaic cell technology for use in solar concentrators.

In January 2007, SunPower acquired PowerLight Corporation, a leading global provider of large-scale solar power systems. PowerLight has designed, deployed and operates hundreds of large-scale solar systems around the world with a total capacity of more than 150 megawatts and growing.

By integrating processes and technologies across the value chain, SunPower plans to reduce the installed cost of a solar system by 50% by 2012. We believe solar systems will produce power that can compete with retail electric rates and become a mainstream energy resource.