SunPower Announces Executive Hires to Increase Management Depth, Lay F

SunPower Announces Executive Hires to Increase Management Depth, Lay Foundation for Continued Growth

    Business Editors/Energy Editors/High-Tech Writers

    SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 2005--

Experienced COO and VP External Affairs Will Solidify Company's Leadership In the Solar Power Industry
    SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY), today announced the appointment of two seasoned executives to strengthen the company's leadership position in the solar power industry. PM Pai has been appointed chief operating officer (COO) and Julie Blunden has joined the company as vice president of external affairs.
    PM Pai brings 30 years of mass production manufacturing experience to SunPower, including manufacturing scale-up for IBM, Tata and Xerox. Most recently he was president of Moser Baer India Ltd., where he established and ramped up annual manufacturing and distribution of more than two billion units of optical media (CDs and DVDs), recruited 6,000 employees in three years, and developed world-class raw material sourcing and logistics efforts.
    "SunPower has demonstrated global leadership in high-efficiency solar-cell technology, driving strong demand for our products," said Pai. "My role is to put in place a world-class operations and supply chain capability that will support our plans to quadruple production capacity to 100 megawatts (MW) over the next 18 months."
    Tom Werner, SunPower's CEO, said, "Global demand for solar-electric systems exceeded 1,000 MW in 2004 as we launched our new line of breakthrough products and ramped our first 25 MW line. Now that we have proven the manufacturability of our technology and stimulated a high level of product demand, SunPower is ready to aggressively ramp capacity. Pai joins a very strong team that last year brought its first production line up in just five months and has now turned out more than one million wafers, achieving yields of 90 percent. Adding Pai's globally recognized mass production manufacturing talent to our team brings highly relevant experience to help drive our future scale-up."
    Julie Blunden brings 18 years of electric utility industry experience to SunPower, where she will spearhead a broad portfolio of external affairs activities including public relations, financial relations, public policy and market development. Blunden's career began with a decade in the independent power generation business, after which she co-founded a national retail electric supplier. Most recently Blunden was a consultant to state and federal governments on renewable resources and policy. In this capacity, she supported California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration in developing the Million Solar Homes Initiative.
    "We are very pleased to have Julie's extensive electricity industry and market development experience to enhance our team at SunPower," said Werner. "She brings a powerful combination of skills to this role, including an unparalleled network of policy connections and a deep understanding of how business really gets done in the electricity industry. We are fortunate to have someone of her expertise to help us navigate this exciting course."
    "Customer demand for reliable, clean, distributed energy is driving industry growth," Blunden said. "SunPower is showing how solar technology can be integrated into the existing electric power infrastructure, creating value for solar system owners and the overall electric system."

    Photos:

    For photos or more information about SunPower's executive management team, please visit: http://www.sunpowercorp.com/html/Company/Management/management.html.

    About SunPower

    SunPower -- a majority-owned subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) -- designs and manufactures high-performance silicon solar cells and modules based on an all-back-contact design. SunPower's A-300 solar cell has been independently verified to achieve 21.5 percent efficiency, a global industry best. For more information on SunPower or solar technology, please visit the SunPower website at http://www.sunpowercorp.com.

    About Cypress

    Cypress solutions are at the heart of any system that is built to perform: consumer, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and solar power. Leveraging a strong commitment to customer service and performance-based process and manufacturing expertise, Cypress's product portfolio includes a broad selection of wired and wireless USB devices, CMOS image sensors, timing solutions, network search engines, specialty memories, high-bandwidth synchronous and micropower memory products, optical solutions, and reconfigurable mixed-signal arrays. Cypress stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CY. More information about the company is available online at www.cypress.com.

    Cypress and the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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CONTACT: SunPower Corp. Julie Blunden, 408-470-4277 Julie.blunden@sunpowercorp.com or Cypress Semiconductor Corp. Ed Rebello, 408-545-7665 ewr@cypress.com

KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA TEXAS MINNESOTA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: UTILITIES MANUFACTURING ENERGY HARDWARE SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT CHANGES SOURCE: SunPower Corp.

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