Solar manufacturer SunPower said Thursday that it has begun making its more advanced solar panels in its new Hillsboro factory, four months after it purchased the facility.
California-based SunPower paid $26 million for the old SolarWorld factory, according to financial filings, a fraction of the nearly $500 million SolarWorld spent to buy and equip the Hillsboro facility. The factory's future was in doubt after SolarWorld's German parent company declared itself insolvent in 2017. SolarWorld blamed cheap Chinese solar panels for undercutting its prices.
SunPower hopes it will fare better by making advanced "P-Series" solar panels in Hillsboro, which it says are more efficient, and with trade protections that make Chinese panels more costly but exempt products SunPower imports from other countries.
"As a leading solar technology and energy services provider, we pride ourselves on offering the industry's most efficient solar panels available today that we design, engineer and manufacture ourselves," SunPower chief executive Tom Werner said in a written statement. "With strong U.S. solar demand expected to continue, we are committed to offering our customers the option to buy industry-leading SunPower solar panels assembled right here at home."
SunPower says it stopped making the old SolarWorld panels at the end of last year as it readied production of its own models. The factory employs 200, down from 800 at the peak of SolarWorld's operations, but SunPower has indicated it hopes to add workers as production of the new panels ramps up.
-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699