The US residential solar installer has filed for bankruptcy, one of the largest in a series of major bankruptcies in the sector.
U.S. residential solar energy company SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWR) has filed for bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the situation does not affect the Solar panels from the SunPower brand, designed, produced and sold by Maxeon Solar Technologies in Europe and elsewhere outside the US and Canada. “Other than a product brand name, there is no existing relationship between them Maxeon and SunPower Corporation,” a spokesperson for Maxeon Solar said pv magazine. SunPower Corp. and Maxeon separated into August 2020 when Maxeonspun off as an independent company. Maxeon previously had a supply agreement to supply solar panels to SunPower Corp., “but that agreement was terminated in 2023 and Maxeon has not shipped any product to SunPower Corp. since the first quarter of 2024,” she concluded.
“SunPower has faced a severe liquidity crisis caused by a sharp decline in solar market demand and SunPower’s inability to obtain new capital,” said Matthew Henry, SunPower’s Chief Transformation Officer.
The residential solar industry in the United States has struggled over the past two years as rising interest rates and regulatory changes have squeezed the value provided to customers. As demand fell, rising excess inventory created further challenges for installers.
These are installations industry-wide nationally by about 20% by 2024. SunPower joins Titan Solar Power and Sunworks as publicly traded residential solar installers that have gone under this year, along with many smaller installers, especially in California. However, analysts have warned that the sector is not in a downward spiral as it seems.
“SunPower’s problems are emphatically a company-specific issue and should not be viewed as a commentary on the underlying demand for residential solar in the U.S.,” said Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James.
SunPower’s problems continued due to persistently high interest rates. In December 2023, the company defaulted on its debts and warned that it had “ongoing concerns” about the survival of the business. In April, the company announced it would close numerous installation service centers across the country and cut about 26% of its workforce.
In July, SunPower has informed its employees that it will discontinue a number of core activities. The company announced that it will deactivate its leasing and power purchase agreement offerings and stop supplying new products.
SunPower will now sell its assets, including installation company Blue Raven Solar and its new residential unit, to Complete Solaria, Inc. for $45 million. The company asked the courts to approve the deal in late September.
SunPower was one of the longest-running solar companies in the United States, founded in 1985. The company halted its manufacturing operations in 2020 to focus more on rooftop solar as demand soared. Since then, demand cooled significantly, and in an environment of high interest rates, the strategy proved fatal for the company.
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