Nick Pope
Contributor
SunPower, a major rooftop solar company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, the company announced.
SunPower filed for bankruptcy in Delaware after a string of corporate struggles, changes to California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and high interest rates weighed down its business, according to Bloomberg News. Before it unraveled, SunPower was among the leading solar companies in the U.S.
SunPower will look to sell some of its assets to Complete Solaria while the company and some of its other subsidiaries file for bankruptcy announced, SunPower said in its Monday announcement. (RELATED: California Solar Companies Hit The Skids After Receiving Huge Handouts From Biden, Dems)
“In light of the challenges SunPower has faced, the proposed transaction offers a significant opportunity for key parts of our business to continue our legacy under new ownership,” Tom Werner, SunPower’s executive chairman, said of the bankruptcy and the Complete Solaria transaction. “We are working to secure long-term solutions for the remaining areas of our business, while maintaining our focus on supporting our valued employees, customers, dealers, builders, and partners.”
In 2023, state policymakers changed California’s rooftop solar subsidy programs and weakened the incentive for companies to push rooftop solar by reducing payments to homeowners who sell back excess power the panels generate, according to CalMatters. Those changes negatively affected SunPower’s business, culminating in its bankruptcy filing, according to Bloomberg.
Prior to its bankruptcy, SunPower showed signs of distress. In 2023, the firm defaulted on a credit deal and restated its earnings before getting a new CEO, restructuring and stopping new solar shipments and installations in 2024, according to Bloomberg.
SunPower did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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Well, it was going to happen sooner or later… Why should we be surprised? The economics never stacked up.
Unlike Australia, the subsidies are just too low. If you want net zero, you have to have mandated theft from those too poor to install solar panels to those who have the money and have their own roof.
Australia’s system is great. The retailers are the bagmen for the government organised theft. They are required to source 20% of their energy from “renewable” sources and pay a little over double the wholesale electricity price to the “renewable” owners. That is why the “renewables” can tolerate negative wholesale prices because they will still get a minimum of $46/MWh for their output.
New South Wales has introduced a solar export charge for lunchtime power because the system is often flooded with solar at lunchtime so they are looking at ways to get households to respond to negative prices. Basically it is encouraging them to install batteries.
The cumulative price threshold was just increased to $780/MWh. Once the average wholesale prices exceeds that for 7 days, there is a price clamp of $600/MWh applied unit the 7-day average is below the $780/MWh. So thee $780/MWh is deemed to be the balance between survival and profiteering for the remaining dispatchable plants. Combine the $780/MWh with the increasing transmission costs; the “renewable” theft at retail level; the cost for grid stability< all applied above the wholesale price>; the cost of AEMO. orders; the cost of system constrained caused curtailment; the bloated bureaucracy to manage the mess and Australia is not far off retail price of $1/kWh.
California needs to get real if they want net zero. Net zero is very, very, very expensive. Australia is probably the only grid in the world that can pull it off because China needs the iron ore and coal to make all the stuff the developed world wants so plenty to trade for the trinkets. (Some people were surprised that the Mercedes that blew up in Korea was using Chines made batteries). China is close to making everything that the rest of the world needs to function.
Hang on a minute, the wind and Sun are free… or so they said. Cast your mind back to 2016
“”Why energy may soon be free thanks to solar, wind, storage and big data””
Paying for energy could soon become a thing of the past if analysts at Citi, a global investment bank, are to be believed. Researchers at the bank have calculated that cheaper storage and smart data analytics may soon make solar and wind energy available to consumers in some parts of the world – completely for free.
…
Big Data and advanced analytics are developing rapidly to improve forecasting, automation, customisation, and the democratisation of energy.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/free-energy-electricity-microsoft-apple-google-renewable-solar-panel-wind-storage-big-data-a7172151.html
And in 2020
“”Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms IEA””
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/solar-energy-cheapest-in-history-iea-renewables-climate-change/
Which begs the question: How is this possible?
“”Major Solar Company Files for Bankruptcy After California Strips Subsidies””
Simply because, in reality, wind and solar are hugely expensive, intermittent and nothing more than a very grand scale virtue signal at public expense.
Somehow, I don’t think I’d bank with Citi, then…
Citi is the Costco bank?
ALL resources are free, in their raw unusable form — coal, oil, iron, wood, sun, wind.
It’s making them useful resources that has a cost.
Actually, they are a lot more than a grand scale virtue signal: they are a massive deliberate fraud, and there is a criminal merry-go-round of money and influence between big business, big government and media.
The big businesses in the fraud can’t go broke fast enough. Schadenfreude is best served in frequent large doses.
Oil, gas, and coal are also free. In all cases the price is what it costa to get the energy to you in a usable form plus any taxes from the government less any subsidies from the taxpayer.
It is interesting how we have a solar sales pitch by people who seem oblivious of the failures of solar – and that is not only the cost but through natural hail damage and the likes.
https://www.biznews.com/sponsored/2024/08/06/unlock-tax-breaks-12b-solar-boom
A while back there was a huge storm that decimated a solar farm in Nebraska. Hail the size of baseballs is not uncommon. Fast forward recently a tremendous solar farm in Texas was clobbered. It’s as though, they had no idea and dumbfounded when it happened. An utter waste. So much for “free” solar energy. I can only imagine the cost to clean-up this mess and whether these projects get restarted likely depends on subsidies.
Most go to landfills as very little can be recycled in today’s world.
We recently had our windows cleaned by a service. I was talking to the cleaner and he noticed the solar panels on the houses across the street (some on a north-facing roof!). He told me he had just done a big job cleaning someone’s rooftop solar panels, only 4 months after he had cleaned them before. Turns out the house is a short difference off the departure end of the long runway at John Wayne International Airport, and exhaust from the aircraft engines settle on the panels and “really gunk them up”.
So, in addition to losing subsidies, one has to worry about the dirty air affecting the panels output.
Since the introduction of rubber tires for cars in early 1900’s, where has the many billions of pounds rubber dust and particles generated from the wear and tear of the tires the gone? The short simple answer is: anywhere and everywhere. Asphalt road surfaces are another source of black gunk.
Could global warming really be due to these black particles?
Racist!
And nobody saw this coming.
To quote Frank Zappa’s “Central Scrutinizer”: We tried to warn them, didn’t we?
I’m tipping there is no EV in a certain garage in Canoga Park.
“Another one gone. Another one gone. Another one bites the dust. Hey! They’re gonna get you too!”
The rooftop solar market collapsed in the UK some years ago when incentives were pulled.
Whatever happened to that timeless political phrase “Lessons will be learned” – but never are.
Behavior that is rewarded, will be repeated.
Solar also collapsed in Spain when subsidies ended.
Notable absence of the usual suspects on this blog screeching about how wonderful solar and wind are……
I wonder how much the “executives” of Sunpower were paid to “lead” the company into bankruptcy.
Don’t forget their “golden parachutes” if they company was to ever go bankrupt or be sold.
It’s about time that California stopped raising electric rates for people who can’t afford homes in order to subsidize rooftop solar for people who can.
Eff the effing masses when you’re busy with destruction to create Heaven on earth for the deplorable ingrates-
‘Tolerance has to work both ways’: Paris mayor’s ‘aggressive’ comments blasted (msn.com)
Not hard to spot the Vichy French type should their National Socialist pals roll up with a brand new plan for Utopia.
Whoops! also today:
Rivian — Shares of the electric vehicle company fell 9% after a second-quarter report showed a widening net loss.
Tesla down 20% YTD.
Live by the subsidy, die by the subsidy. If only there was a field of study dedicated to predicting this phenomenon.
Economics 101. Used to be a legitimate offering at every college and university.
Yeah, today the course test questions to BEcon students would be framed along the lines of –
“Describe your feelings about supply and demand”
Much of the mess goes back to “raising a child”. We had to do chores, a couple of which we actually got paid a nickel. (that may suggest my age)Then, we hung on to it until Saturday, when we could go to the movie theatre.
As a teenager, and later, we kids had to pay 15% to Mum, in addition to trying to save 10%.
Wasn’t that “Economics 101”?
All these nanny state creations deserve similar fates. But, they have already sucked trillions of taxpayer dollars into their pockets.
‘There are trillions at stake”
So, what’s the next scam?
It is very likely to begin with “We’re from the Government and we’re here to help you . . .”
Nope, it will be the democrat convention in Chicago Aug 19-22 when someone with no votes secures the party nomination because of age, gender and skin color.
They need to rename the party to the Fascist Party and stop lying to their members.
Here in MT there are a large number of new residents from CA. A newby from CA down
the lane from me just reroofed his house and yes put up a row of solar panels.
The house has some nice mature trees around it and I’m wondering if he’s going
to take out the ones that shade his panels or leave them..I say he leaves them.
The real estate boom these newby’s have created has pushed RE prices off
the charts. The local working class can’t afford rent let alone purchasing
anything. I was chatting with a new cashier gal before the 4th and noting that
a local forest river area was packed for the weekend. She replied that she was living
in a tent with her kids…A little further she mentioned she was from CA..It took
a couple of moments for that to sink in…crazy times..
Misallocation. There are enough empty houses and empty apartments in the US for everybody to have somewhere indoors to live.
So true. Here in Baltimore city you can buy a house from the city for one dollar. Not many takers. Instead, Baltimore city residents are moving to the county and paying more for housing than they would in the city. Crime or something. The Democrats have ruined that city, just like they are ruining other cities.
And, support themselves how & where? Ever heard of “food, shelter, safety”?
From the above article:
“In light of the challenges SunPower has faced, the proposed transaction offers a significant opportunity for key parts of our business to continue our legacy under new ownership, . . .”
Yeah, right, the “opportunity” for a legacy of business failure without government subsidies . . . no matter how you want to spin it!
Sunpower never made good on my 60,000 free air miles from Hawaiian Airlines that they promised me as an incentive to purchase solar panels from them. Repeated requests for correction of the oversight fell on deaf ears.
Businesses that ignore customers and renege on promises are always destined for failure. I’m not the least bit surprised. I’m 10 years into their 20 year warrantee. I’ll bet they renege on that too.
I propose that you blame the purchaser, not the supplier. lol
A couple of my neighbors fell for the SunPower lease pitch and regret it. Savings were based on usage far below their need with payback for unused electricity generated and returned to the grid going down and the way it’s calculated favors SCE. Now they’re stuck with it and worried about how it will affect their home sale.
I don’t see why the presence of a solar system, even if it isn’t working, would negatively impact a potential sale.
If it on your roof, the roof takes a beating and will need to be treated and replaced more often. When replaced, those arrays must be removed and replaced – at no small cost.
A lot of heat is generated under the arrays, which reduces the lifetime of tar and fiberglass components. If you’re in windy country, there is additional stress placed on the roof in both directions. And in case of a fire, they become a contributor to the problem.
The new owners would have to continue paying for the lease or you pay to break the lease and have it removed.
Any business based on a product that needs to be subsidised is doomed to fail.
Hang on Ed, what about all the government subsidies to entice people to change up from horse & buggy conveyances to motorized horseless carriages?
Oh wait . . . 🙁
Lets be clear. “State Policymakers” as referred to in the article in California are democrat assembly members.
California’s legislature has been wholly one party, the democrat party, since 1958. All policy originates from them. Therefore, all failures in policy also originate from them.
Own it. Stop putting lipstick on a pig.
What might have happened is…
When Newsome assumed the Governor’s Chair CA had a budget surplus of $100B
Now the state has a budget deficit of $79B.
The state likely gave that money out as solar subsidies and ran out of subsidy $$$.
So subsidies had to be curtailed
California State stopped providing solar subsidies as tax credits before Newsom was elected.
That was Jerry Brown who did that.
Jerry Brown also signed legislation that stopped Californians who installed solar from selling their earned carbon credits and gave them to the power companies instead.
I’ve saved 50 tons of carbon on my installation so far. That means the state of California stole $5000 from me at $100 a ton auction prices, which was advertised as a cost savings when I purchased my solar installation.
It’s bait and switch with the stroke of a pen all the time under the one party system of government in California. Experience shows you cannot trust them to keep their word.
“I’ve saved 50 tons of carbon on my installation so far.”
BS. Add in the rotating reserve necessary to back up your solar system, and the inefficiency of baseload systems which have to run intermittantly because of the existence of solar, and you are most likely net CO2 positive.
“I’ve saved 50 tons of carbon on my installation so far” Can I blame you for my plants wilting?
Next!
More good news, it is a fake business.
Great image at the top!
Consulting a recent electricity bill (from Azusa Light and Power) I see a line that says “POWER COST ADJUSTMENT 19.20” Can some informed person tell me who gets this money?
“In light of” Love it!