Applied Materials says new solar power system will replace about 10 percent of the electricity it now buys.

ENERGY
Largest corporate solar array installed in California
Applied Materials says new solar power system will replace about 10 percent of the electricity it now buys.

By Bob KeefeWEST COAST BUREAU Saturday, September 20, 2008
Semiconductor equipment maker Applied Materials Inc. has flipped the switch on what it says is the largest solar power array at any U.S. corporation.

The 2.1-megawatt system that covers parking lots and the tops of two buildings at Applied's Sunnyvale, Calif., campus bests a 1.6-megawatt array a few miles away at the headquarters of Google Inc., that previously was the nation's biggest corporate solar power array.

One megawatt is enough energy to supply power to about 1,000 average-sized houses. According to Applied, its new solar power system will replace about 10 percent of the electricity it buys for its corporate headquarters.
The system also is expected to eliminate 2,700 tons of carbon emissions annually — the equivalent of taking about 450 passenger cars off the road.
"We've converted our parking lots to power plants," Applied chief executive Mike Splinter said in a statement.

Last year, Applied installed a 24.6-kilowatt solar array at its corporate campus in Austin. Although much smaller than the California installation, the Texas array was the biggest in Austin.

Applied spokesman Dave Miller said the company is planning an expansion of its Austin system but hasn't set a timetable yet.
It's no coincidence that Applied is a big fan of solar. The company, the world's biggest maker of equipment for the semiconductor industry, expanded into the solar fabrication equipment business nearly four years ago and now gets about 10 percent of its revenue from equipment it sells to the solar panel industry.

Applied recently introduced its SunFab line of machines that are designed to make giant solar panels that are nearly 19 square feet in size.
Ironically, the new array at Applied's headquarters doesn't contain SunFab panels. That's because Applied customers just recently began using the first SunFab machines and are only now bringing the first panels made with them to market, Miller said.
"We just don't have them yet," Miller said. "We'll be adding them in the future."
That doesn't mean Applied didn't have an inside track on a good deal for its new solar power system, however.

The equipment is made by SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. Cypress is a big customer of Applied's.
SunPower also uses equipment and technology developed by Baccini SpA, an Italian company that Applied purchased in November 2007.

Energy Stocks

Energy stocks moved higher today as Tropical Storm Gustav slowly moved toward oil-and-gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Financial stocks rallied, too, and stocks overall ended the day with modest gains.

The Dow Jones industrials, once up as much as 141 points, closed with a 90-point gain, or 0.8%, at 11,503. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 10 points, 0.8%, to 1,282. And the Nasdaq Composite Index finished up 20 points, 0.9%, to 2,382.

But volume was extremely light because many investors and traders were on vacation. New York Stock Exchange volume was less than 800 million shares; 1.6 billion shares is normal. Nasdaq volume barely hit 1.57 billion shares, well below the 2.2 billion-share average.
Energy was the strongest sector of the market as crude oil rose to $118.15 a barrel, up $1.88 from Tuesday. Most weather forecasts said Gustav would intensify back into a Category 3 hurricane and make landfall Monday along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi or Louisiana.
The Gulf is home to about one-fifth of all U.S. oil production and about 16% of the nation's natural-gas output, and any disruption to operations there would push oil, natural-gas and gasoline prices higher.

The Amex Oil Index ($XOI.X) rose 1.9% to 1,343 today. The Amex Natural Gas Index ($XNG.X) was up 1.4% to 617, and the Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index ($OSX.X) was 1.1% to 303.

Oil refiner Valero (VLO, news, msgs) jumped 4.2% to $35.02. Chevron (CVX, news, msgs) rose 1% to $86.62.

Adding a little buying pressure to energy prices was the weekly supply data from the Energy Department. Oil supplies fell by 100,000 barrels last week; analysts had expected oil supplies to increase by 1 million barrels.

Gasoline supplies fell by 1.2 million barrels, and distillate supplies were unchanged.