Weekly Investor Roundup

U.S. solar company SunPower Corp (Nasdaq: SPWRA, SPWRB) announced two new contracts for solar projects in the U.S. The solar panel maker, which moved into project development last year, secured the largest-ever contract to supply solar power to a school district. SunPower will design, install and maintain 11.2 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity
for the Mount Diablo Unified School District in California.
The district expects to save $192 million in electricity costs over the 30-year life of the solar systems.

SunPower also announced an agreement with
Iberdrola Renewables (IBR.MC) to design and build a 20 MW
photovoltaic solar power plant on 144 acres of former
private agricultural land in Arizona. This is the second U.S. collaboration between the two companies. Iberdrola will finance and own the power plant. Iberdrola has been active in the U.S. wind industry for quite some time, but has just recently begun developing solar power. The two SunPower projects will give the company a total capacity of 50 MW in the U.S. The Arizona project also marks the first commercial use of SunPower’s Oasis modular system.

Singapore-based electronics manufacturer Flextronics (Nasdaq: FLEX) moved farthe into the solar industry with two new high-profile contracts. The company will produce MEMC-branded solar panels that MEMC‘s (NYSE: WFR) subsidiary SunEdison will us in its solar PV projects. The move fills out the vertical integration for MEMC, which makes silicon wafers and solar cells. The manufacturing also will enable SunEdison and its project
partners to exceed the 60% domestic content requirement of Ontario’s
Feed-in Tariff Program (FIT).

In a separate agreement, Flextronics will manufacture concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar power systems in California for Amonix. Flextronics already works in California to produce panels with SunPower. Flextronics also produces solar panels for Q-Cells (QCE.DE) (in Malyasia) and upstart Petra Solar.

Germany’s Wacker Chemie AG (WCH.DE) announced it will build a new polysilicon production plant in Tennessee. The facility will have an annual capacity of 15,000 metric tons of polysilicon–the raw material used to make solar wafers and cells. With a production output of some 30,000 metric tons in 2010, Wacker is
the world’s second-largest producer of polycrystalline silicon. the new Tennessee facility, combined with a new facility in Germany, could push Wacker into the #1 position. The Tennessee site is expected to be operational at the end of 2013, creating 650 new clean energy jobs.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and Azure Dynamics (TSX: AZD) have begun
shipping the first Ford Transit Connect Electrics to early customers in
North America and to the United Kingdom for a demonstration project. The all-electric commercial vans are built on the Ford Transit Connect
vehicle body and equipped with Azure Dynamics’ Force Drive™ battery
electric powertrain. They are assembled by AM General at its facility in
Livonia, Mich. Notably, the vans are reaching the market 13 months after the
collaboration was first announced.

Energy management and demand response company EnerNOC, Inc. (NASDAQ:
ENOC) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Global Energy
Partners, a competitor that designs and implements utility energy
efficiency and demand response programs.
This is EnerNOC’s ninth acquisition, as it expands to cover the full spectrum of energy management services. Financial terms were not disclosed.