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Mercury News Interview: Dick Swanson, founder and president of SunPower [San Jose Mercury News, Calif.](San Jose Mercury News (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apr. 23--Silicon Valley reveres its pioneers. And in the solar industry, Dick Swanson, the founder and president of San Jose-based SunPower, is a true technology legend. As an electrical engineering student and then a professor at Stanford, Swanson was intrigued by the potential of solar power, which was primarily being used on satellites and in space research. He was one of the first to delve into solar's "terrestrial" applications. Solar presented a perfect engineering challenge: It was scientifically proven, but wasn't cost-effective to produce. He founded SunPower on April 24, 1985, and the small company lived on research grants and small projects until a meeting with T.J. Rodgers led to a $150 million investment by Cypress Semiconductor in 2002. That changed everything, and Cypress' support came as the idea of putting solar on rooftops began to take off. SunPower, which went public in 2005, designs and manufactures high-efficiency solar cells, solar panels and solar systems for residential, commercial and utility clients in the United States and around the world. SunPower's solar systems can be seen on the roof of the Tech Museum in San Jose, at Agilent's Santa Clara headquarters and at the UC Merced campus. But like many solar companies, SunPower is increasingly working with utility clients on large-scale solar-generating projects and recently completed the 25-megawatt DeSoto power plant for Florida Power & Light, the largest operating solar power plant in the country. The company had $1.5 billion in revenue in 2009, and this week announced it will locate its first domestic manufacturing facility in Milpitas. Swanson sat down recently at the company's San Jose headquarters to discuss SunPower's history. Q "Efficiency" refers to the amount of sunlight that is converted into electricity, and SunPower's solar cells, which have a minimum efficiency of 22 percent, are the highest-efficiency solar cells on the market today. Why is efficiency so important? Isn't cost a more critical factor? A When you are putting solar on a rooftop you have limited space. There are chimneys, dormers, shading from neighboring buildings, trees. Solar is what's known as an "area-constrained application." So if you have limited space, you want to maximize the ability of the solar cells to generate electricity. Q You've characterized SunPower's 25-year-history as "BC" and "AC," as in "Before Cypress" and "After Cypress." Cypress invested in SunPower at a critical juncture, but what did you learn from Cypress about manufacturing? A Solar cells are hard to make, but they are not nearly as hard to make as a chip. Cypress had rigorous methods of quality control, and "stage-gate" reviews where new products had to progress through milestones of capability. They taught us all of that. And as the solar industry grew, it attracted more and more veterans of the chip industry. Q There's a lot of VC money riding on "thin-film" solar companies here in the valley, and everyone is waiting to see what happens with Solyndra's IPO. Do you see thin-film as a threat? A Thin-film is just another way to make a photovoltaic panel. It's not a nirvana breakthrough; it's not a disruptive technology. But it's going to be difficult for new thin-film companies to compete with First Solar (the Arizona company that leads the thin-film market), and First Solar is in a battle with established silicon players. The cost of silicon keeps coming down, so thin-film is tough, and every day that goes by, it gets tougher. Some people bought into the idea that this was a paradigm-shifting breakthrough, much to their chagrin. People also don't realize that First Solar has been working on this for years -- they had very patient investors, and they plugged away on it. The new entrants didn't appreciate all the work on thin-film that had already been done. Q A lot of young people are eager to establish careers in renewable energy. What is your advice to them? What should they study? A At the college level, the important thing is to get a firm foundation in engineering basics. We have a vast need for engineers. But the solar industry as a whole also needs people with business degrees and expertise in HR, public policy, sales, and marketing sophistication. We have internships. Q You're almost 65. Do you have any plans to retire? A I'm not ready to talk about that. Contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. Follow her at Twitter.com/danahull. Dick swanson Date of birth: May 13, 1945 Birthplace: Davenport, Iowa Residence: Los Altos Hills Position: Founder, president and chief technical officer of SunPower, which designs and manufactures high-efficiency silicon solar cells and panels Education: Bachelor"s and master"s degrees in electrical engineering from Ohio State University; Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1974; post-doctoral fellowship at IBM Family: He and his wife, Carol, have two grown children and six grandchildren Five things to know about Dick Swanson 1. Swanson"s interest in solar was first sparked by the oil embargo of 1973. 2. T.J. Rodgers, founder and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, was a classmate at Stanford. Rodgers, chairman of SunPower"s board of directors, has said Swanson is one of the smartest people he"s ever met. 3. In 1993, Honda Motor asked SunPower to help it create a solar-powered car to compete in the annual Darwin-to-Adelaide race that bisects Australia. Honda won the race "" by an entire day. Swanson and others on the team trotted alongside the car as it crossed the finish line. 4. Swanson loves to sail and races a 40-foot J/120 sailboat that he docks in Alameda. He says sailing, which features teamwork and the ever-changing challenges of wind and ocean currents, is the ideal recreational sport for an engineer. 5. In 2009, Swanson was honored with a Solar Energies Industry Association Industry Innovation Award. To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.mercurynews.com. Copyright (c) 2010, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |