SunPower To Shutter Hillsboro Manufacturing Facility

• SunPower is shutting down its Oregon located manufacturing facility, a decision that will impact 170 employees
• The plant will cease operations by March 2021 while complete wind down will be completed by early June 2021
• The company may choose to sell the plant, explore joint ventures or assess potential partnerships for the site

SunPower Corporation will be closing down its Hillsboro, Oregon located solar panel manufacturing factory in the US for good. Operations will be ceased by March 2021 amid change in focus for its business, the management stated.

Complete wind-down of the facility is targeted for early June 2021 while it simultaneously looks into other options including selling the plant, exploring joint ventures or assessing potential partnerships.

Around 170 employees will be impacted by the management's decision. The latter said it will be assisting the employees find jobs within or outside of the organization along with offering comprehensive compensation packages.

SunPower had acquired the Oregon facility from SolarWorld Americas in October 2018 and has been producing its Performance Series solar panels or P-Series here since February 2019 (see SunPower's Oregon Fab Starts Production). Post this, the company decided and executed on its decision to separate its manufacturing activities from the sales business leading to the birth of Singapore headquartered Maxeon Solar Technologies, Ltd. (see SunPower Officially Splits Into 2 Companies).

Now, while Maxeon Solar is completely into solar panel manufacturing and associated sales, SunPower Corp., which is owned by French energy giant Total, is focused on innovative solar and battery storage system sales as well as services for its distributed energy customers in the US and Canada under a supply agreement with Maxeon. SunPower also develops downstream energy services products as energy management software.