SunPower Soars After Winning Contract for 250-Megawatt Plant

By Todd Zeranski

Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- SunPower Corp. rose as much as 13 percent after the solar-module marker won a contract to build a 250-megawatt power plant for PG&E Corp., owner of California's largest utility.

SunPower rose as much as $10.43 to $89 in early morning Nasdaq composite trading.

The company, based in San Jose, California, will design and build the array of solar power panels, the largest in the U.S., which would begin producing power in 2010 and ramp up to full capacity by 2012.

Merrill Lynch & Co. upgraded the stock to ``buy'' from ``neutral,'' saying SunPower is making inroads into the U.S. utility market.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Zeranski in New York at tzeranski@bloomberg.net