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Cypress's SunPower Subsidiary Powers Dartmouth's ``Big Green Bus''; 12 Students Making Cross-Country Trip to Promote Use of Alternative Energy

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

A group of 12 Dartmouth College students committed to promoting the use of alternative energy has embarked on a 10-week cross-country journey in "The Big Green Bus," a vehicle powered by vegetable oil and a 215-watt silicon solar panel donated by SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ:SPWR), a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY).

The bus is traveling more than 10,000 miles roundtrip between the Dartmouth campus at Hanover, New Hampshire and California, running on waste vegetable oil (WVO) the team picks up from restaurants along the way. Originally operating on diesel fuel, the vehicle was modified with a second fuel tank and filter by a group of Dartmouth engineering students.

The SunPower SPR-215 solar panel, mounted on the roof of the bus, is helping to power a fuel warming system, required to keep the oil from thickening in the fuel lines. The solar electricity is also charging the team's laptop computers and digital cameras.

"The Big Green Bus is increasing awareness about fossil fuel alternatives at a time when concerns about the pricing and supply of fossil fuels continues to rise," said Cypress founder, president and CEO, T.J. Rodgers, a Dartmouth alumnus and member of the college's Board of Trustees. "The bus project is an example of what a small group of committed individuals can do when they pool their time and expertise to solve a real-world problem."

"Our initiative combines the energy and enthusiasm of a motivated, grassroots campaign with the resources of corporations that are willing to get involved," said sophomore English major Andrew Zabel, a member of The Big Green Bus team. "A simple and plentiful resource--waste vegetable oil--fuels the bus. We reuse this waste, shaping it into social energy."

The bus team hit the road armed with interactive presentations about energy alternatives. For more information or for a list of the more than 55 stops on the bus tour, visit http://www.thebiggreenbus.org.

About SunPower's SPR-215 Solar Panel

SunPower's SPR-215 solar panel uses SunPower's industry-leading, 20 percent minimum efficiency solar cells. SunPower's solar cells and solar panels produce up to 50 percent more power per square foot compared to conventional solar panels. The SPR-215 incorporates the company's uniquely attractive, all-black design that enhances the appearance of roof-mounted solar systems. For more information on SunPower's solar technology, visit www.sunpowercorp.com.

About Cypress:

Cypress solutions perform: consumer, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and solar. Leveraging proprietary silicon processes, Cypress's product portfolio includes a broad selection of wired and wireless USB devices, CMOS image sensors, timing solutions, specialty memories, high-bandwidth synchronous and micropower memory products, optical solutions and reconfigurable mixed-signal arrays. Cypress trades on the NYSE under the ticker symbol CY. Visit us at www.cypress.com.

Source: Business Wire

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