SunPower goes bankrupt

From a high in the $85.00 per share range. Now around .69 cents a share. Thanks Obama.

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The residential solar installer has filed for bankruptcy, among the largest in a series of major bankruptcies in the industry.

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Residential solar company SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) has filed for bankruptcy.

“SunPower has faced a severe liquidity crisis caused by a sharp decline in demand in the solar market and SunPower’s inability to obtain new capital,” said Matthew Henry, chief transformation officer, SunPower.

The residential solar industry in the United States has been struggling over the past two years as rising interest rates and regulatory changes have squeezed the value offered to customers. As demand fell, rising excess inventory posed further challenges for installers.

Industry-wide, installations are down roughly 20% nationwide in 2024. SunPower joins Titan Solar Power and Sunworks as publicly-traded residential solar installers that have gone under this year, along with many smaller installers, particularly in California. However, analysts have cautioned that the industry is not in a tailspin as it may appear.

“SunPower’s travails are emphatically a company-specific issue and should not be seen as a comment on the underlying demand for U.S. residential solar,” Pavel Molchanov, an analyst with Raymond James.

SunPower’s struggles continued through persistent high interest rates. In December 2023 the company defaulted on its debt and issued a warning that it had “going concerns” about remaining in business. In April, the company announced it would close numerous installation service centers across the country and cut about 26% of its workforce.

This July, SunPower communicated to its employees that it will pause several core operations. The company announced it will deactivate its lease and power purchase agreement offerings and will discontinue new product shipments.

SunPower will now sell its assets, including installation company Blue Raven Solar and its new homes unit to Complete Solaria, Inc. for $45 million. The company requested courts approve the deal by late September.

SunPower was one of the longest-running solar businesses in the United States, formed in 1985. The company spun off its manufacturing business in 2020 to focus more squarely on rooftop solar as demand surged. Since then, demand cooled considerably, and, under a high interest rate environment, the strategy proved fatal for the company.

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