SunPower to acquire PowerLight for $332.5 million
SunPower Corp., maker of high-efficiency solar cells and panels, has agreed to acquire PowerLight Corp., one of the world’s leading designers and installers of solar PV systems. The deal is value at $332.5 million (U.S.) — $130 million in cash and another $202.5 million in SunPower shares. The combined company would have about 1,600 employees spread across 10 global sales offices and four manufacturing facilities.
This deal makes sense on the surface. PowerLight is not only one of SunPower’s largest customers, but it’s also one of the leading installers of solar PV systems in the world. It’s currently providing systems to more than a dozen homebuilders in California, and it is designing and developing large-scale solar farms — ranging in size from 1 MW to 20 MW — in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Korea. This deal signals that more solar PV cell/module makers may get more directly involved in the development and installation side of the business as they strive to become more vertically integrated. However, one must also wonder if SunPower risks losing business from other solar “systems integrators” that feel they can’t buy SunPower products at the same competitive rate as PowerLight.
Will be interesting to see how the market reacts, but so far SunPower’s shares are up today.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
