SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWR), a manufacturer of solar cells, today announced it achieved a first-quarter profit with nearly quadrupled revenue.
Revenue rose from $11.1 million to $42 million, exceeding company and Wall St. expectations of $39.5 million.
Net income came in at $300,000 on earnings of $2.8 million, or 4 cents a share. For Q1 2004, the company reported a loss of $7.2 million.
SunPower increased its 2006 revenue guidance from $210 million to $220 million.
Some highlights:
— Continued capacity expansion at SunPower’s SPML Philippines-based solar cell manufacturing facility with the start-up of the company’s third manufacturing line. Line 3, which runs thinner 190-micron wafers, is scheduled to be running at full capacity by the end of the second quarter and brings SunPower’s solar cell annual manufacturing capacity to 75 megawatts.
— Approval by SunPower’s Board of Directors to proceed with construction of the company’s second solar cell manufacturing plant which will have a 200 MW capacit, and is scheduled to start production in the first half of 2007.
— Manufacture of the first 22%-efficient solar cells using the company’s improved Gen 2 (second generation) manufacturing process.
— Began construction at SunPower’s first solar panel manufacturing facility in the Philippines, which will have an initial annual capacity of 30 MW, capable of expansion to 90 MW. Panel production is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2006.
— Volume shipment of the company’s new, higher-efficiency solar panels. These new models increase the power ratings of what was already the highest efficiency product line in the solar industry. — Securing a $55 million, silicon supply contract, covering a 5-year period, beginning in 2006.
Tom Werner, SunPower CEO, said, “We continue to expand SunPower’s manufacturing capacity ahead of plan,” added Werner. “Our newest production line, Line 3, was turned on during the first quarter and has already exceeded its design-yield objectives. This was an important achievement since Line 3 exclusively runs our new thinner 190-micron wafers. We expect that this incremental capacity will allow us to achieve another significant quarter-on-quarter top-line revenue increase to $50- to $52 million for Q2, with expected, diluted non-GAAP net income of share of $0.05 to $0.07.
“We are on plan to install Line 4 at SPML in the fourth quarter of this year, and are pleased to announce that we have already made 22% solar cells using the Gen 2 technology that we plan to utilize on Line 4,” continued Werner. “We expect that the 10% higher relative efficiency of Gen 2 technology together with thinner wafers will allow SunPower to further improve our silicon utilization efficiency on Line 4 to less than 7 grams of polysilicon raw material per watt of solar power.
“Early achievement of these manufacturing and technology milestones gives us the confidence to increase our 2006 top-line minimum revenue guidance from $210 million to $220 million,” Werner said.
SunPower is a majority owned subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY).
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