
242 The Story of SunPower
cameras. We made nearly a billion of them before closing down
what became known as our opto business. The product we were
most proud of were very sophisticated detectors used in the latest
generation of GE X-ray CAT scanners. These enabled detailed images
of internal organs.
The opto business basically funded SunPower through the period
1993 to 2000 and kept our solar dream alive.
7.8 The PV Business Takes Off
Meanwhile, SunPower was being left behind in the PV business.
The concentrator market had not materialized, but the conventional
solar module business had. Early on, most PV modules were
used to power remote needs such as ...