SunPower Corp., a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high-efficiency solar cells, solar panels and solar systems, announced that the company has received a $2.5 million investment from the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) to expand operations with a major new office site in the Austin, Tex. metropolitan area. SunPower plans to create 450 jobs in the region over the next four years with this investment, which is conditioned upon the finalization of a local incentive agreement with the City of Austin.
"We applaud Gov. Perry, Mayor Leffingwell and state and city officials who are aggressively working to offer SunPower economic incentives to expand our operations to Austin and create hundreds of jobs," said SunPower CEO Tom Werner. "Texas has great potential to become a significant solar market. If policies creating a stable solar market across Texas are enacted, this commitment by SunPower could be the start of significantly more investment and job creation in the state by the rapidly growing solar industry."
State-level and Austin area officials successfully competed with other jurisdictions that SunPower considered for its North America expansion. In addition to the solar market potential in Texas and development incentives offered by the state and city, SunPower cited Austin's talented workforce, semiconductor industry expertise and a neighborhood of strong academic institutions as factors that influenced the selection.
A global company, SunPower employs approximately 5,500 people with more than 900 in the U.S. With this investment, Texas will become one of SunPower's top three office locations in the U.S. The Austin facility will house operations including marketing, legal and finance functions.