SunPower to grow market share, revenues

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - SunPower Corp expects to grow both its market share and revenue in a tough market for solar power, President and Chief Technical Officer Richard Swanson said on Thursday.

"We are in pretty solid shape," Swanson said in an interview on the sidelines of an energy conference.

Swanson's projections come at a time when the solar industry is grappling with a dearth of financing for solar projects combined with a pullback in solar tax breaks in Spain have led to a flood of solar panels on the market, driving down prices and profits.

San Jose, California-based SunPower -- which provides solar cells, solar panels and systems -- saw a 22 percent drop in second quarter profit, but maintained its market share. The company is projecting 2009 revenue of $1.35 billion to $1.7 billion.

"We are pretty confident we will get to that at least," he said, adding, "We expect to gain market share."

SunPower estimates it had about 5 percent market share last year.

"Some commentators were sort of questioning whether we were just saying we were seeing improvements to drive stock prices," he said, a week after reporting earnings that were ahead of Wall Street targets. "We really are and our result this quarter shows that and we still see improvements going forward."

SunPower, in the previous quarter, had benefited from growth in its dealer network, reduced inventories and controlling costs.

Swanson said the company's inventories were in a "good" shape.

"The back end of the year is going to see an increase in pace," he said. "It is necessary to build some inventory for that. We are happy with our inventory levels."

SunPower is also seeing some signs of recovery in the U.S. solar market and expects the market to grow in 2010, Swanson said.

"This year will be a down year," he said. "We are seeing the situation improve."

The company, which has power plant-scale projects in Italy, is also interested in Greece and North African markets, Swanson said, adding that the company is closely watching the Chinese market.

"Everyone feels that China is going to be absolutely huge," he said. "The issue of exactly the timeframe for that to unfold and what the exact policies will be to help China transition from coal is going to play out."

Swanson also said SunPower is looking at acquisitions but did not give any details.

"It's a good time to look," he said.

SunPower shares closed up 6.9 percent at $33.45 in regular trading on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)