SunPower Corp. visit--March 8, 2009

We arrived in San Francisco on Sunday, March 8, with energy and enthusiasm for the days ahead.  On Monday, we visited Better Place, Tesla Motors Dealership and SunPower Corp.

All three visits were exciting and informative.  Jason has wrote about Better Place and Tesla in his blog;  below is a photo of the group at Tesla.  Needless to say, we had a blast sitting in the speedy electric vehicles:

Our last stop of the day was at SunPower Corp., a company that designs, manufactures, and delivers high efficiency solar electric technology worldwide for residential, commercial, and utility-scale applications.  (www.sunpowercorp.com)

Greg Beardsworth began our SunPower visit by providing an overview of the company and its products, as well as specifying the components of a solar panel set up indoors for demonstrations.  Here’s a picture of one of their solar panels which rotates based on the direction of the sun.

We then met with Tali Bethune from human resources to discuss various internship and job possibilities at SunPower.

Following the welcome/overview, we toured several facilities.  The first tour, led by Ainsley Hill, was of the Ford Building (the hub of SunPower systems and operations).  It is an “open” light-filled structure with windows spanning an entire side of the building.

Next Troy Lauterbach toured us through the operations center. 

Ben Tuke then brought us to the roof of the Ford Building and demonstrated a functioning solar panel.  Here's a picture from his presentation:

Thereafter, Ali Abalos toured us through the manufacturing section of the building.  He noted the various components used in the creation of solar panels and specified the function of each component.

We considered our visit to SunPower to be one of the highlights of the trip.  SunPower was organized and well-prepared for our arrival; definitely a place to visit again.