Having accomplished its shift to turn out to be a pure-play residential photo voltaic firm with the current sale of its industrial and industrial unit, SunPower is aiming to profit from a heightened concentrate on combining rooftop PV, dwelling storage and electrical automobile (EV) charging.
A strategic alliance introduced final 12 months with EV charging producer Wallbox has enabled SunPower prospects to put in a house EV charger concurrently a photo voltaic or storage system, permitting them to energy their autos with rooftop PV whereas decreasing payments and lowering pressure on the grid.
“Clients who’ve EVs are very engaging to us,” mentioned Shawn Fitzgerald, vice chairman of company growth at SunPower, including that there are economies of scale from including an EV charger when dwelling photo voltaic can also be being deployed.
Owners with EV chargers can also request a bigger photo voltaic system. “Clients who’ve EVs, it will increase your typical buyer’s consumption by 30% or extra. So in the event you take that right into a dimension of a photo voltaic system it provides about 3 – 4kW,” Fitzgerald mentioned.
“The opposite factor we needed to do is begin working with individuals who have an EV and possibly they don’t learn about photo voltaic, they don’t know the way a lot cash they may save. After which discovering these prospects and turning them additionally into photo voltaic prospects.”
SunPower has acted as the popular photo voltaic and storage supplier for patrons of Wallbox, which revealed this week that it’ll present EV charging options to prospects of European dwelling photo voltaic installer Svea Photo voltaic.
That deal adopted a string of comparable collaborations, with microinverter provider Enphase Power buying EV charging supplier ClipperCreek and Sunrun partnering with Ford because the installer of dwelling charging programs for its F-150 Lightning truck. The businesses mentioned on the time that the F-150 Lightning can function a dependable backup vitality supply by dispatching energy to the house throughout an outage occasion.
“I’d say the Ford F-150 cope with Sunrun might be the primary one the place the producer has agreed to do bidirectional charging,” mentioned Fitzgerald. “We’re additionally concerned with engaged on that, and within the subsequent few years that’s going to turn out to be rather more frequent.”
He mentioned that whereas a typical dwelling battery storage system has 10 – 20kWh of storage, a Tesla Mannequin Y has about 70 – 80kWh and the Ford F-150 has 110kWh. “So the aptitude to supply grid providers again simply expands exponentially after getting vehicle-to-grid functionality.”
Publishing its Q1 ends in Could, SunPower mentioned it’s investing closely to seize US householders’ rising curiosity in photo voltaic.
The corporate has carried out late-stage discussions with First Photo voltaic to turn out to be an unique supplier of a brand new residential module that might characteristic the producer’s thin-film know-how atop a layer of crystalline silicon cells. The product might be obtainable inside two years.
“We’re very enthusiastic about that product that we expect it has a functionality to be the brand new highest effectivity know-how,” mentioned Fitzgerald, including that there needs to be extra bulletins shortly.
One other product growth has seen SunPower’s SunVault battery storage system supply double the vitality of earlier iterations, with 26kWh and 52kWh configurations, to assist householders preserve home equipment similar to fridges and air conditioners working amid the specter of blackouts as excessive climate occasions put extra stress on the grid.
Having added 16,500 prospects throughout Q1 2022, SunPower mentioned in its consequence assertion that demand for cheaper, extra dependable vitality is larger than ever, but lower than 5% of the 100 million dwelling addressable market have adopted photo voltaic, presenting a “land-grab alternative for photo voltaic suppliers”. The corporate is because of publish its Q2 outcomes on 2 August.
