SunPower files for bankruptcy, lays off more than 350 California employees

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- SunPower, the solar power giant originally based out of San Jose, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This comes just over a month after laying off more than 350 of its California employees.

SunPower leaders say they will be restructuring and selling off some of the company to Complete Solaria out of Fremont.

For nearly 40 years, SunPower has been keeping the lights on - through solar panels - in millions of homes nationwide.

"They were one of the early manufacturers of premium solar panels, they made some of the best solar panels in the business," said Dustin Mulvaney, a professor of environmental studies at San Jose State University.

But on Monday, the company announced they're filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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"As solar panels got cheaper and cheaper, it just became harder and harder for premium solar panel manufacturers that were using a little bit older technology to compete with up and rising stars from China, really," Mulvaney said.

Mulvaney says the company stopped manufacturing a few years back which didn't help.

But he says policy changes leading to fewer incentives to install solar panels also hurt the company.

"We've undermined incentives, it's not as economic for a ratepayer in PG&E territory to put solar panels in their roof, it just doesn't pencil out all the time and that has hit the rooftop solar industry pretty hard," he said.

"I think the state has actually caused harm to an industry which it essentially helped to start," said Dan Kammen, UC Berkeley professor of energy.

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With Monday's bankruptcy announcement, SunPower also said they plan to sell off some of its remaining assets to another company called Complete Solaria out of Fremont for $45 million.

"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, executive chairman at SunPower said.

A former SunPower employee tells us the last remaining San Jose location off of Mabury Road shut down in the end of June. According to data from the state's Economic Development Department, that's when 358 people were laid off across five different California locations.

"They carried a lot of debt for a long time," Kammen said.

Kammen says despite having SunPower panels on his own roof, he saw this coming.

"We now know that they've been doing what we call fire sales, selling off some divisions at low cost to raise some capital which normally you have to do if you're paying off employees," he said.