SunPower

SunPower Corporation is an American company specializing in solar power generation and energy storage.

This article is about a company specializing in solar power. For the 1977 album by the R&B band Sun, see Sun Power.
SunPower Corporation
TypePublic company
IndustrySolar Energy
Founded1985 (1985)
Founder
Headquarters
San Jose, California
,
U.S.
Key people
Peter Faricy (CEO)
ProductsSolar panels
Revenue US$1.864 billion (2019)
US$1.726 billion (2018)
US$-849 million (2018)
US$-900 million (2018)
Total assets US$2,353 million (2018)
Total equity US$-209 million (2018)
Number of employees
2,200 (January 2021)
ParentTotalEnergies (66%)
Websiteus.sunpower.com
Footnotes / references
Financials from SunPower Corporation [1]

History

In April 2011, Total S.A. agreed to buy 60% of SunPower for US$1.38 billion.[2] In December 2011, the company announced an agreement to acquire Tenesol SA.[3]

In April 2018, SunPower announced it would acquire SolarWorld Americas to expand domestic manufacturing capabilities.[4] The sale was concluded in October 2018, and the company took over SolarWorld's large manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, the same month.[5]

The transaction officially closed in August 2020 with SunPower’s global solar panel manufacturing capabilities and global sales operations transferring to Maxeon Solar Technologies. Maxeon continues to manufacture and sell solar panel technology under the SunPower brand outside of the US and Canada.[6]

Peter Faricy replaced Tom Werner as CEO on April 19, 2021.[7]

Cells

The Maxeon design starts with the same basic silicon cell, but changes the electrical connections and uses an n-type (phosphorus) substrate.[8] The silver wiring on the front is eliminated and both the positive and negative electrode fingers are deposited on the back of the cell, eliminating light blockage.[9] The back of the cell replaces the thin aluminum layer with a thicker copper one, which both improves electrical performance as well as offering a much more physically robust platform while eliminating corrosion that occurs in the aluminum over time.[10] However, EnergySage only rates SunPower photovoltaic cells as 22.2% efficiency at maximum, at the top of an 'efficiency range' of 16% to 22.2% - though at the top of its list of the best five solar cell production companies in America.[11]

See also

References
  1. "SunPower Corporation" (PDF). shareholder.com.
  2. Herndon, Andrew; Martin, Christopher; Goossen, Ehren (2011-04-29). "Total Agrees to Buy SunPower for $1.38 Billion in Renewable-Energy Push". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2011-04-30.
  3. Williamson, Kari (29 December 2011). "Total and SunPower bring solar business under one roof". Renewable Energy Focus.
  4. Groom, Nichola. "SunPower buys U.S. rival SolarWorld to head off Trump tariffs". U.S. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  5. Pursinger, Geoff (October 16, 2018) [online date October 15]. "SunPower takes over SolarWorld plant". Portland Tribune. p. A6. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
  6. "SunPower Completes Spinoff of Manufacturing Assets to Newly Formed Company Maxeon". www.greentechmedia.com.
  7. "SunPower Taps Amazon Veteran as CEO to Sell Solar to The Masses". www.bloomberg.com. 2021-03-25. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  8. Smith, Dave (2013). SunPower's Maxeon Gen III solar cell: High efficiency and energy yield. 39th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC). pp. 0908–0913. doi:10.1109/PVSC.2013.6744291.
  9. "Maxeon Gen II Solar Cells" (PDF). March 25, 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-25.
  10. "Performance Beyond Compare". SunPower USA. 24 July 2014.
  11. "Best Solar Panels in 2020 [Complete List] | EnergySage". July 13, 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.