SunPower, which is majority owned by French energy giant Total, is planning to launch a new shingled module series with 625 watts of power output.
Group spinoff Maxeon Solar Technologies will commercialize the Performance 5 line in the fourth quarter. The high-efficiency, bifacial mono-PERC solar panels will be made with large format eight-inch G12 wafers and will have an efficiency of 21.2%.
“Our release of the new SunPower Performance 5 panels comes along with a renewed commitment to large-scale installations supported by significant manufacturing capacity scale-up of shingled cell panel technology by our Huansheng Photovoltaic (HSPV) joint venture in China,” SunPower said.
Maxeon Solar Technologies is also owned by Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor, which was recently acquired by TCL , one of China’s biggest electronics manufacturers. SunPower’ss HSPV joint venture with Zhonghuan will increase production capacity at its three factories in China from around 2 GW to 8 GW by 2021. The first of the three manufacturing facilities will be fully ramped up by the end of this year.
SunPower announced plans to spin off its manufacturing business into a new company last November. It also recently decided to sell its solar O&M business to Canadian mid-market private equity firm Clairvest Group for an undisclosed sum.
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Sun Power, a leader in high efficiency Solar panels, that used to be made in California, USA is now going off-shore to China and America loses more jobs after Total bought them out a few years back. What will happen when we no longer trade with China when we go to War over the South China Sea? Who will warrenty the panels we already installed from Sun Power? A warrenty is only as good as the manufacturer is willing to commit to their promises to “repair or replace”. Buyer Beware.