Panasonic announced today that it will cease the production of solar products at its Malaysian and Japanese factories, exiting the solar panel and wafer manufacturing market by March 2022. Panasonic will continue selling Panasonic-branded modules but through a subcontracted manufacturer.
While the Malaysian factory will be liquidated, the Japanese factory will continue to produce inverters, energy storage systems and “other products.”
Panasonic has been a leader in heterojunction technology (HJT) since acquiring the original patents from a SANYO acquisition. Panasonic’s HIT line of modules are unique, using a smaller 125-mm/5-in. wafer made in-house for 96-cell modules catered to the residential market.
The Japanese company has a robust residential installation program in North America and has more recently shifted focus to its EverVolt battery system and new EverVolt solar panels. The installer program should continue uninterrupted.
This exit from the manufacturing market comes after Panasonic ended its manufacturing partnership with Tesla in 2020 and left Tesla’s “gigafactory” in Buffalo, New York. Tesla had been using Panasonic solar cells in its Solar Roof products but has since turned to Chinese manufacturers.
Luis says
China is not a competitor I am worried about, as a professional in the industry, their panels may be cheaper, but they’re also of lesser quality with higher degradation rates and lower efficiency.
REN says
THIS IS INCORRECT INFORMATION. PANASONIC WILL OUTSOURCE THEIR SOLAR CELL MANUFACTURING, MEANING THEY WILL STILL SELL SOLAR PANELS AND ASSEMBLE THEIR OWN PANELS….WARRANTY AND EVERYTHING ELSE WILL REMAIN THE SAME.
Kelly Pickerel says
Yes, that is what the story states.
Matt E. says
Lolz. The rage.
Daniel Hughes says
Meanwhile, everyone wonders where all the good jobs which pay well, have good pensions and things like inflation linked pay rise guaranteed. Globalism is just part of the master/slave requirement for big finance and corporations to continually exploit and drain peoples energy and keep them on that hamster wheel sweating their ass off
C says
Sheesh
Louiis Bond says
I believe that China will dominate in all aspects of manufacturing because they don not adhere to western policies &n practices. If they did they would ot dominate anything but the price is all the western world can see.
Solarman says
“This complete exit from the market comes after Panasonic ended its manufacturing partnership with Tesla in 2020 and left Tesla’s “gigafactory” in Buffalo, New York. Tesla had been using Panasonic solar cells in its Solar Roof products but has since turned to Chinese manufacturers.”
This is the second time bankruptcy basically pushed the HIT panel technology out of the market place. When it was SANYO the panels were 200 watt HIT panels for sale retail at $1,100 per panel, $5.50/watt in 2005. The Panasonic HIT panels are still available today for a little over $1/watt. The problem once again, you can get Chinese panels with tariffs for $0.70/watt retail today. Once again, China eats Panasonic’s lunch.
The HIT has proven under use for the last 20 years as a robust long lasting product. It is (just) $0.40 to $0.60/watt higher in cost than from some of the Chinese offerings on the market with tariffs added right now. Things like the HIT has better temperature characteristics than many Chinese manufactured panels. Unfortunately one can add two to four Chinese panels to the roof and do the same thing with less money. This is the thing that actually ‘killed’ Solyndra. Yeah, their tubular design was the ‘most’ efficient of the day, the cost was prohibitive and once again instead of Solyndra, panels, put in two to four Chinese panels more at less cost and have a system that would do the same, for less.
Ryan Phillips says
Rec solar panels offer a better price and higher effeciency. The new evervolt line is now comparable with the rec360-380w panels and use the same technology that rec has been producing for a while now.
Truth over Fiction says
But John Kerry told 10,000 laid off pipeline workers to “Make Solar Panels”
when there are virtually No USA Solar panel manufacturers because US plants cannot compete against the chinese mfg who do not adhere to environmental laws, fair wage, medical benefits, OSHA etc that the USA companies must endure.
There is lack of Common sense in America and it will be our downfall.
Kelly Pickerel says
There are some U.S. panel manufacturers, but yes, there are few because of cheap Chinese competition. https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/u-s-solar-panel-manufacturers/
Doug Home says
I bought 10 *205W Sanyo HIT panels in 2009. I have collected Bluetooth daily data from them for most of the last 12 years. Over that period, their annualised daily yield is 8.300 kWh/day. (3.95 kWh/d/kWp) There has been no drop in yield over their lifetime.
I bought them because of their high temp operating characteristics (and efficiency) and I have not been disappointed. I’m in Sydney, Australia and we are now regularly getting 8-10 summer days with temps of +40C. The garden goes to hell but the panels keep on keeping on.
I am now looking at uprating my array and one possibility is to shift the old Sanyos to a slightly lower yielding roof and put some newer panels where the Sanyos were. I have a small roof so fitting the much smaller Sanyo is a lot easier than the newer big + 400W panels – which have a quoted efficiency not matching my 12 year old “clunkers”.
The other alternative? I would buy some 235W Panasonic HITs if I could find any in Australia and put them up. My search for them is how I landed at this site.
Tif says
Hey Doug what brand did you go with in 2021?
Also which company please. ?
Thanks
Tiff
Erik Anderson says
Bittersweet to see the end of the HIT line of solar modules from Panasonic.
These 5″ cells and 96cell modules were ahead of their time and paved the way for new HJT module manufacturers to improve on the tech.
The retirement of these factories allows Panasonic to partner with industry leaders to bring the next generation of solar modules to market with the bankability of the Panasonic brand name and warranty.
With this OEM strategy, Panasonic joins the ranks of Solaria, Enphase, Sunpower and others in the evolution of our industry that will be seen historically as the time that the solar OEM partnerships became as common as OEM partnerships in other industries (think Foxconn & Apple).
Who will be next?