SunPower Goes to Decathlon Europe – Analyst Blog

SunPower Corporation (SPWRA) was selected by six of the 17 university teams participating in Solar Decathlon Europe, to be held at Madrid in June 2010. The Solar Decathlon is one of the world’s most prestigious solar home-building competitions. SunPower generated 53% of its revenue from European customers in fiscal 2009.

 

The six teams will use SunPower’s solar panels to power homes the students have designed, and are building for the competition. SunPower panels were used by the teams, which stood first in the last three Solar Decathlon competitions held in the U.S.

 

The Solar Decathlon Europe, organized by the Spanish Ministry of Housing, is modeled after the Solar Decathlon that is held by the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. every two years. In this first European competition, decathletes will compete at the Solar Village, located near the River Manzanares, close to the Principe Pio station. The Decathlon, hosting 17 teams from three continents, challenges students to design, build and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive.

 

Headquartered in San Jose, California, SunPower designs, develops, manufactures, markets and sells high-performance solar electric power technology products, systems and services worldwide for residential, commercial and utility-scale power plant customers.

 

SunPower’s semiconductor-based solar cells and solar panels, which convert sunlight into electricity, are manufactured using proprietary processes and technologies.

 

The fortunes of SunPower appear strong, given the revival of the alternative energy industry, and specifically solar power energy, higher captive generation of panels, rising average conversion efficiency, declining silicon cost and assured silicon supply.

 

SunPower in fiscal 2010 expects revenues in the range of $2.00 billion to $2.25 billion with an adjusted EPS of $1.25 to $1.65. However, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2010 presently stands at 83 cents.

 

We are apprehensive of the near-term performance of the company due to oversupply of modules in the market, subsidy risk in Germany and Italy, foreign currency risk, and the volatile economic environment in Europe.

 

SunPower is also trading at a premium compared to its peers like Solarfun Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (SOLF), JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. (JASO), and China Sunergy Co. Ltd. (CSUN), based on forward earnings estimates. The above peers, we believe, are more promising in the near-term compared with the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) SunPower stock.