SunPower is an American provider of
photovoltaic solar energy generation systems and
battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company, headquartered in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
, was founded in 1985 by
Richard Swanson
Richard Swanson (born 1945) is an American electrical engineer and businessman, retired founder of SunPower, a solar photovoltaic cell manufacturer.
Biography
Swanson was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1945.
He graduated in 1969 with Bachelor ...
, an electrical engineering professor from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
.
Cypress Semiconductor bought a majority interest in the company in 2002, growing it quickly until SunPower went public in 2005.
TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies SE is a French Multinational corporation, multinational integrated energy and List of oil exploration and production companies, petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven Big Oil, supermajor oil companies. Its businesses ...
, a French energy and oil company purchased a controlling interest in SunPower for billion in 2011.
The company previously developed and manufactured
photovoltaic panels
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...
, before
spinning off that part of its business off in 2020 as
Maxeon Solar Technologies. The company was also previously marketed its products to commercial and industrial customers before agreeing to sell that business line to TotalEnergies in February 2022.
History
Early history
SunPower was founded on April 24, 1985, by
Richard Swanson
Richard Swanson (born 1945) is an American electrical engineer and businessman, retired founder of SunPower, a solar photovoltaic cell manufacturer.
Biography
Swanson was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1945.
He graduated in 1969 with Bachelor ...
,
who was a
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
professor focused on electrical engineering.
Swanson studied solar power efficiency in the Stanford Electronics Laboratory with funding from research grants.
After breaking a record for solar power efficiency in lab conditions, he took a sabbatical to start SunPower and commercialize the technology.
Initially, the company was called Eos and was funded with $2,000 in savings between Swanson and his friend Richard Crane.
In 1989, Robert Lorenzini invested in the company, became its chairman, and changed the name to SunPower.
Some of SunPower's early revenues were from research grants
and using its manufacturing facilities to create
silicon wafers for semiconductor companies.
Interest grew as SunPower completed prototype installations
and portable electronics that use solar power became more popular.
Swanson resigned from his academic position at Stanford in 1991, in order to focus on SunPower full-time.
The company's revenues grew from $600,000 in 1989 to $1.4 million in 1995, and $6 million in 1996.
However, by 2001 the company was anticipating having to lay off half of its employees.
Growth
SunPower founder Richard Swanson's former classmate,
T.J. Rodgers
Thurman John "T. J." Rodgers (born March 15, 1948) is an American billionaire scientist and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Cypress Semiconductor and holds patents ranging from semiconductors to energy to winemaking. Rodgers is known for his p ...
, was the CEO of
Cypress Semiconductor and took an interest in investing in the company.
At first, the Cypress board wasn't willing to invest, so Rodgers invested $750,000 of his own money.
Starting with an investment of $8 million, Cypress eventually invested about $150 million,
acquiring a controlling interest in SunPower in 2002.
Cypress appointed Tom Werner as the new CEO the following year.
Demand for SunPower's products increased in the early 2000s, due to rising utility costs, government subsidies, and its new A-300 solar cell.
In particular, SunPower grew in Germany and California, where new government subsidies were being introduced.
By 2005, SunPower was not yet profitable,
but had $200 million in backlogged orders.
Revenues increased from $5 million in 2003 to $78.7 million in 2005.
As the company was getting closer to profitability, it filed an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
.
The 2005 offering raised $138.6 million in funding.
The following year, SunPower was profitable for the first time with $236.5 million in revenues.
SunPower moved into a larger corporate headquarters location in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...
and secured several contracts with major retailers for solar panel installations.
In 2007, SunPower announced plans to expand its manufacturing facility five-fold and build a second factory.
SunPower collaborated with PowerLight to develop its roofing-tile solar product called SunTile.
In order to combine their R&D efforts, SunPower acquired PowerLight for $265 million, in January 2007.
Analysts estimated the acquisition doubled SunPower's size.
Shortly afterwards, PowerLight secured a $330 million contract, the largest SunPower had ever done.
By 2007, half of Cypress' revenues, or $775 million, was coming from its investment in SunPower.
SunPower was spun-off as a separate business from Cypress in 2008.
Recent history
SunPower acquired Sunray Renewable Energy, a solar panel company based in Italy, for $277 million in 2010, in order to expand in Europe.
The following year, SunPower cut back production due to an overall market decline in solar power purchases.
SunPower also announced the French oil and gas company
Total
Total may refer to:
Mathematics
* Total, the summation of a set of numbers
* Total order, a partial order without incomparable pairs
* Total relation, which may also mean
** connected relation (a binary relation in which any two elements are comp ...
was acquiring a majority interest in SunPower for $1.37 billion.
In 2012, SunPower founder Richard Swanson retired, though he continued to serve on the SunPower advisory board.
By 2013, SunPower's revenues rebounded and it started expanding its manufacturing facilities again.
That same year, it acquired Greenbotics, which developed automated cleaning systems for solar panels, and Dragonfly, which developed
solar micro-inverter
A solar inverter or photovoltaic (PV) inverter is a type of power inverter which converts the variable direct current (DC) output of a photovoltaic solar panel into a utility frequency alternating current (AC) that can be fed into a commercial ...
s.
This was followed by SunPower's 2014 acquisition of
SolarBridge, which developed
microinverters
A solar inverter or photovoltaic (PV) inverter is a type of power inverter which converts the variable direct current (DC) output of a photovoltaic solar panel into a utility frequency alternating current (AC) that can be fed into a commercial ...
used to improve the efficiency of solar panels.
In 2014, SunPower raised $220 million from
Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...
and
Merrill Lynch
Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...
, in order to fund customer financing options.
That same year, SunPower invested $20 million in a home energy app company called Tendril.
As part of the deal, the two companies began integrating their products, so the home automation software from Tendril could time heavy energy use for when the solar panels are generating the most power.
In 2019, SunPower announced it was going to spin-off its manufacturing division into a separate business in Singapore named Maxeon Solar Technologies.
As part of the deal, Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co invested $298 million for a 29% interest in Maxeon.
The remaining SunPower business became focused on services, installation, batteries, and other products.
In 2021, former CEO Tom Werner retired and Peter Faricy took his place as CEO of SunPower.
In February 2022, SunPower investor TotalEnergies purchased SunPower's commercial and industrial divisions for $250 million, as part of SunPower's transition to focusing on residential installations.
In May 2022, SunPower announced a partnership with
IKEA
IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...
to sell to customers in their California stores.
Products and services
SunPower designs and markets solar power-related products and services.
For example, it sells, installs, and finances panels, batteries, mounts, and software.
Its products are known for being more expensive, but producing energy more efficiently than competing products.
SunPower is often used when there is a limited amount of space for the panels, such as on rooftops.
Ordinarily, the electrical contacts are on the front of a solar panel, facing the sun.
The front of SunPower's panels channel the light to electrical contacts on the back of the panel, reducing the amount of sunlight that is reflected, rather than turned into energy.
The company first started leasing solar panels in 2011 and started a pilot project for battery products around 2014.
Most of SunPower's sales are in the United States.
In SunPower's early history it built many of the largest solar power plants in the United States.
In 2008, SunPower started building large-scale solar farms for utilities companies
PG&E
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered in the Pacific Gas & Electric Building, in San Francisco, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 milli ...
and OptiSolar in
San Luis Obispo and
Hayward respectively.
It also built other large installations, such as at the
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
.
SunPower also built the
Bavaria Solarpark
The Bavaria Solarpark is a group of three photovoltaic power stations in different locations in Germany.
Its total capacity amounts to 10 megawatts (MW) and consists of the following distinct solar farms south of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, in ...
in Germany in 2004.
The plant spans 62 acres over three locations.
At the time, it was the largest solar power plant in the world.
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Companies, Renewable Energy
Photovoltaics manufacturers
Solar energy companies of the United States
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Companies based in San Jose, California
Energy companies established in 1985
Renewable resource companies established in 1985
1985 establishments in California
TotalEnergies
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Energy in the San Francisco Bay Area
2005 initial public offerings
American companies established in 1985