I didn't expect to see this during a tour of Building 21 at Applied Materials, but it's interesting nonetheless.

It is the first solar module ever made by SunPower, one of the companies that helped revive the solar industry in the U.S.

What is it doing at Applied? Charlie Gay, president of Applied Solar, used to work at SunPower. He keeps this in his garage. SunPower has improved and tweaked the design since then, but this original has that sleek design associated with SunPower's panels.