SunPower, a solar technology and energy services provider, announced that it will close SunPower Manufacturing Oregon, its solar panel manufacturing plant in Hillsboro, Oregon.
“We made the difficult but necessary decision to close our plant after careful evaluation and the change in focus of our business over recent months,” said Tom Werner, CEO and chairman of the board of SunPower. “We recognize how hard this is for all the employees impacted and are dedicated to helping them through this transition.”
In August 2020, SunPower completed the spin-off of Maxeon Solar Technologies, which encompassed international panel manufacturing and associated sales, which is now run by Maxeon. Following the split, SunPower is focused on solar and battery storage system sales and services for customers in the United States and Canada, as well as developing downstream energy services products like energy management software. SunPower will continue providing solar panels through a supply agreement with Maxeon.
The decision to close the plant will impact approximately 170 employees. SunPower will provide all impacted employees with separation packages, including severance, work transition assistance and six months of COBRA for the continuation of health insurance coverage. The company will source and present open positions from other area employers, host a virtual job fair to assist in securing new employment and encourage employees to apply for open positions at SunPower if they are willing to relocate.
The company is taking steps to cease operations by March 2021 and complete the wind-down of the facility in early June while simultaneously looking into other options. These include selling the plant, exploring a joint venture option or assessing potential partnerships. SunPower acquired the plant from SolarWorld Americas in October 2018, and several months later began assembling its high-quality 19% efficient Performance Series solar panel (P19 or P-Series) for commercial customers. The facility employed about 200 people at that time.
SunPower will continue its distributed generation investments consistent with its business strategy. Its U.S. workforce is about 1,200 employees in cities across 10 states. Additionally, SunPower has a network of more than 700 independent residential and commercial dealers across 46 states — each its own small business — totaling more than 17,000 U.S. jobs.
News item from SunPower
“The decision to close the plant will impact approximately 170 employees. SunPower will provide all impacted employees with separation packages, including severance, work transition assistance and six months of COBRA for the continuation of health insurance coverage. The company will source and present open positions from other area employers, host a virtual job fair to assist in securing new employment and encourage employees to apply for open positions at SunPower if they are willing to relocate.”
It’s better than on some random Friday payday a ‘final paycheck’ and a pink slip. Perhaps SunPower would sell their manufacturing facility to Violet Power and have 170 trained solar PV manufacturing personnel ready to work for Violet Power.
Why not sell the plant to some willing to build panels?
What was the production capacity of the Sun power factory in Oregon per year. In other words, how many Megawatts did they produce per year.
When SunPower took the plant over, they were maybe doing 150 MW a year. SolarWorld had previously had 500 MW/year coming out of the plant.
As a solar company in the Portland/Hillsboro area, this is hard to hear. We wish the employees the best as they move forward, and we hope the strength of the solar industry will soon find their skills a much needed asset.