SunPower Corporation is an American provider of photovoltaic solar energy generation systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, was founded in 1985 by Richard Swanson, an electrical engineering professor from Stanford University. Cypress Semiconductor bought a majority interest in the company in 2002, growing it quickly until SunPower went public in 2005. TotalEnergies, a French energy and oil company purchased a controlling interest in SunPower for billion in 2011.
The company previously developed and manufactured photovoltaic panels, before spinning off that part of its business in 2020 as Maxeon Solar Technologies. The company had also previously marketed its products to commercial and industrial customers before agreeing to sell that business line to TotalEnergies in February 2022.
SunPower was founded on April 24, 1985, by Richard Swanson, who was a Stanford University professor focused on electrical engineering. Swanson studied solar power efficiency in the Stanford Electronics Laboratory with funding from research grants. After breaking a record for solar power efficiency in lab conditions, he took a sabbatical to start SunPower and commercialize the technology. Initially, the company was called Eos and was funded with 2,000insavingsbetweenSwansonandhisfriendRichardCrane.In1989,RobertLorenziniinvestedinthecompany,becameitschairman,andchangedthenametoSunPower.SomeofSunPower′searlyrevenueswerefromresearchgrantsandusingitsmanufacturingfacilitiestocreatesiliconwafersforsemiconductorcompanies.InterestgrewasSunPowercompletedprototypeinstallationsandportableelectronicsthatusesolarpowerbecamemorepopular.SwansonresignedfromhisacademicpositionatStanfordin1991,inordertofocusonSunPowerfull−time.Thecompany′srevenuesgrewfrom600,000 in 1989 to 1.4millionin1995,and6 million in 1996. However, by 2001 the company was anticipating having to lay off half of its employees.
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A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to convert the output from direct to alternating current, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical accessories to set up a working system. It may also use a solar tracking system to improve the system's overall performance and include an integrated battery.
Organic inorganic metal halide perovskites (OIHPs) has emerged as promising photovoltaic materials the latest years. Many OIHPs, however, have complex material compositions with mixed cation and halide compositions, phase mixtures, as well as beneficial re ...
Elsevier Science Bv2017
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Combining a Si solar cell with a high-bandgap top cell reduces the thermalization losses in the short wavelength and enables theoretical 1-sun efficiencies far over 30%. We have investigated the fabrication and optimization of Si-based tandem solar cells w ...
Lack of proven stability has become a major obstacle on the path of metal halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs), in particular methylammonium lead triiodide (MAPbI(3)), towards commercial viability. This correlates with the intrinsic affinity of MAPbI(3) to ...