SunPower Develops Solar Solution to Utilities Need for `Green' Electricity Production.

Business Editors

LOS ALAMOS, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 19, 2002

SunPower

Corporation (OTCBB:SNPW)

-- U.S. Dept of Energy estimates $215 Billion required in new construction for
power generation in the U.S. alone by 2020.

-- Global power generators, a leading source of greenhouse gasses, under
extreme pressure to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use.

-- SunPower believes it can produce cost competitive, consistent and
dispatchable green electricity through the use of "green" hydrogen produced by
its proprietary solar technology.

SunPower Corporation (OTCBB:SNPW)(Berlin:SJP) The world is facing an energy revolution.

Fossil fuels could be depleted within 50 years. The KYOTO Conference is forcing governments and industry to recognize a pending environmental catastrophe through global warming. CO2 emissions from electrical power generation, automobiles, and industry must be curtailed.

Renewable Energy Corp. ("RECO") a wholly owned subsidiary of SunPower, controls world leading technology which uses high intensity solar energy to produce pure hydrogen, methanol or ethanol from feed stocks such as bio-mass, CO2, low quality natural gas or coal. The RECO system employs large parabolic reflectors that focus solar energy in a specially designed collection chamber. Within this collector, temperatures above 2000 degrees C are used to dissociate CO2. The resulting CO is then used to split water into pure hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen can be reformed on-site into methanol or ethanol, or to produce electricity. The RECO solar process (SOLAREC") generates no air pollution or green house gasses, and is believed to represent a cost effective and revolutionary production method for electricity, liquid fuels and hydrogen.

Coincidentally with his appointment as SunPower's Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Finley Foster, in applying his significant knowledge of North American energy markets, has developed a new and dramatic marketing strategy aimed at helping to fulfill North America's growing requirement for "green" electrical production to reduce CO2 emissions. SunPower intends to take the lead in the production of hydrogen for its own use in SunPower electrical generating plants. In meetings held with US public utilities and energy executives, it has become clear that the opportunities for RECO are much greater than initially anticipated. There is an immediate market for renewable electricity among the grid power providers. The only other viable sources of "green" power are wind turbines and photovoltaics* ("PV").

RECO believes that it can better both of these sources, both in price and reliability. Unlike wind or PV, the SOLAREC system is capable of operating 24-hours per day, producing hydrogen to drive a turbine. It is believed to have greater flexibility and lower capital costs than competitive power generation systems. The SOLAREC process can even consume the waste CO2 emissions from coal burning power plants to produce fuels or electricity.

Dr. Reed Jensen, President of RECO, estimates that a 100 square meter dish system can produce .67 Million BTU of Hydrogen/day, which can supply a 3 Kw hydrogen turbine generating electricity for 24 hours, or approximately 72 Kw-hrs/day ("Kilowatt hours per day"). His initial calculations indicate that a plant of 10,000 dishes of 100 square meters could produce 36 Million gallons of methanol/year, or 2,420,000 Million BTU of Hydrogen/year or approximately 67 Million Kwhrs of Hydrogen fueled dispatchable electricity from gas turbines, or engines. In locations where there is infrastructure and water for steam turbines, the system could also produce an additional 71 Million Kwhrs of waste heat electricity during the daylight hours. At a current busbar price of 10 cents U.S./ Kwhr, it would make the value of electrical generation from such a station approximately $100,000,000 per year with no greenhouse gas emissions. Working prototypes of the RECO solar process have verified the ability to produce hydrogen and provide electrical production at costs around $800 per installed kilowatt.*

Wind energy currently represents the most cost competitive "green" technology to the proposed SunPower electrical power generation. Current busbar costs of wind electricity remain at levels of 14-21cents/Kwhr. While recent developments in wind energy have brought the cost of construction to below $800/kw, the estimate of daily availability of wind energy is at best 33%. With it's projected costs of production, SunPower will provide energy at approximately 5-9 cents/Kwhr, much of it a fully available, dispatchable power source. This could make the SunPower power generation technology cost competitive with all existing sources (except hydro) and provide an avenue for utilities to shift to "green power" for electric production, without significantly raising rates to customers.*

SunPower's long term plans call for the global production of green hydrogen to satisfy the demand for hydrogen produced free of CO2 emissions in order to meet the requirements of the fuel cell industry and other participants in the "hydrogen economy". However, SunPower believes that the green hydrogen market is still several years away.*

The concept of producing hydrogen for its own use as a fuel for green power generation would enable SunPower to establish profitable hydrogen production sites in the near term, with the ability to ramp up production to supply SunPower branded "green" hydrogen at the time when global demand warrants.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements," including "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this press release have been identified with an "*" and include statements regarding: (a) SunPower's opinion that it can take the lead in the production of hydrogen for its own use in its electrical generating plants; (b) SunPower's opinion that the immediate market for renewable electricity has created greater opportunities for its subsidiary Renewable Energy Corporation than originally anticipated; (c) Renewable Energy Corporation's belief that it can produce cheaper and more reliable energy than wind generation and photovoltaic technology; (d) Dr. Jensen's estimate of SOLAREC production capacities (methanol, hydrogen and dispatchable electricity; (e) SunPower's belief that Renewable Energy Corporation's power generation technology can produce energy at approximately 5-9 cents per Kw-hr and that it can be cost competitive with, and more reliable than, all existing sources except hydro; (f) SunPower's belief that it can establish profitable hydrogen production sites in the near term.

It is important to note that the company's actual results and outcomes may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this press release. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties such as changes in laws and legislation which may govern the use and production of energy, insufficient demand and market acceptance of the Sunpower's products, or any future products that Sunpower introduces, emergence of companies with competing or superior products and/or services, unforeseen changes in the technology used in producing Sunpower's products, unforeseen claims in connection with Sunpower's intellectual property rights and the overall success of the company and its subsidiaries in general. Although Sunpower believes that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable; there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should refer to the risk disclosures outlined in the Company's annual report of Form 10-K for the 2001 fiscal year, the Company's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and the Company's other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities Exchange Commission.

To find out more about SunPower Corporation (OBB: SNPW), visit our website at www.sunpowercorporation.com