Solar panel manufacturer Maxeon revealed in a company update last week that it is still maneuvering the complicated solar supply chain in order to get solar panels to U.S. customers.
The once-global company announced in November 2024 that it would shift to focus only on the U.S. market. TCL bought Maxeon’s European, Asian and Latin American sales channels and entities, while Maxeon planned to continue manufacturing out of its Mexico and Malaysia outfits and build a new module assembly site in the United States. The new 2-GW facility in New Mexico is currently in the design phase.
“Maxeon recognizes the importance of continuing the development of our U.S.-based manufacturing facilities,” said George Guo, Maxeon CEO. “We are committed to continuing to work with the Trump Administration as well as leaders in New Mexico to deliver our cutting-edge, high efficiency solar products to our residential and utility-scale partners active nationwide. Domestic manufacturing is the right thing to do, regardless of tariffs. Bringing our unique, patented technology together with a diversified and resilient supply chain is the recipe for Maxeon’s long-term success.”
The assembly site will be important to the company, as Maxeon’s panels assembled in Mexico are still not getting into the United States. Also in November 2024, Maxeon stated that Customs & Border Protection (CBP) had been holding the Mexican-assembled panels at the border since July due to reviews under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). Maxeon has provided the necessary information showing its supply chains and no documented connection to forced labor happening in China, the company says, yet the CBP continues to detain the modules.
In March 2025, CBP denied Maxeon’s protests on the detained shipments of solar panels. Maxeon says that the CBP has not cited evidence that Maxeon’s panels are not in compliance with the UFLPA, and despite Maxeon providing thousands of pages of documents demonstrating full compliance, CBP says that there was insufficient documentation.
Maxeon is now considering taking the issue to the U.S. Court of International Trade to demonstrate that Maxeon’s supply chains are fully UFLPA-compliant.
“Maxeon has been advised that CBP’s methods and procedures in connection with the Company’s protests are highly unusual,” the company said in a business update. “Several months after the CBP’s Office of Rulings and Regulations (OR&R) engaged with Maxeon on the substance of these protests, OR&R declined to issue a public ruling, instead stating that the protests did not meet the criteria for further review and returned the cases to the Electronics Center of Excellence & Expertise (CEE). The CEE then denied the protests. These inefficient and opaque actions create significant uncertainty and disruption for both Maxeon and its clients who have planned and obtained permits to include Maxeon’s cutting-edge solar products for use in industry-leading solar projects around the United States.”
In the meantime, Maxeon is exploring alternative manufacturing sites and supply chains, especially as the Trump Administration levies higher tariffs and trade barriers toward countries hosting Maxeon’s legacy facilities.
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