SunPower shutting solar module manufacturing plant in Oregon

• SunPower, a solar innovation as well as power providers, introduced that it will certainly close SunPower Manufacturing Oregon, its photovoltaic panel manufacturing plant in Hillsboro, Oregon.

" We made the hard yet necessary decision to shut our plant after mindful assessment and also the modification in focus of our service over recent months," claimed Tom Werner, CEO as well as chairman of the board of SunPower. "We recognize how hard this is for all the employees influenced and also are devoted to helping them via this transition."

In August 2020, SunPower completed the spin-off of Maxeon Solar Technologies, which encompassed international panel production and linked sales, which is currently run by Maxeon. Following the split, SunPower is focused on solar and also battery storage space system sales and also solutions for consumers in the United States and also Canada, in addition to developing downstream power services products like power administration software. SunPower will certainly proceed providing photovoltaic panels via a supply contract with Maxeon.

The choice to shut the plant will impact around 170 employees. SunPower will supply all impacted employees with splitting up packages, consisting of severance, work transition aid as well as 6 months of COBRA for the continuation of health insurance protection. The company will source and existing employment opportunities from various other location employers, host an online job fair to help in protecting new work as well as encourage workers to make an application for open positions at SunPower if they agree to move.

The firm is taking actions to discontinue operations by March 2021 as well as complete the wind-down of the facility in early June while at the same time checking out various other choices. These consist of selling the plant, exploring a joint endeavor choice or evaluating prospective partnerships. SunPower acquired the plant from SolarWorld Americas in October 2018, and numerous months later started assembling its high-grade 19% reliable Performance Series solar panel (P19 or P-Series) for industrial consumers. The center employed about 200 individuals at that time.

SunPower will certainly continue its distributed generation financial investments regular with its organization technique. Its U.S. workforce is about 1,200 workers in cities throughout 10 states. Furthermore, SunPower has a network of more than 700 independent property and commercial suppliers across 46 states-- each its own small business-- totaling greater than 17,000 U.S. jobs.