SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWRA) Thursday announced a definitive agreement to form a joint venture with AU Optronics Corporation (NYSE: AUO), an enormous manufacturer of thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays (TFT-LCD) based in Taiwan.
The JV will own and operate SunPower’s 1.4 gigawatt third solar cell fabrication facility (Fab 3), now under construction in Malaysia. SunPower and AUO will equally own the JV and contribute equal capital funding.
Tom Werner, SunPower’s CEO, said the deal with AUO will push down
manufacturing costs. "We expect this JV will reduce our effective Fab 3
capital expense per watt by more than 35% while capitalizing on AUO’s
world-class manufacturing expertise to reduce solar cell manufacturing
costs."
This is just the latest move by SunPower to reorganize its business plan and lower expenditures to compete with Chinese rivals.
Last month the company announced it would team with Singapore manufacturing company Flextronics (Nasdaq: FLEX) to begin manufacturing solar panels in Milpitas, Calif. by the end of the year.
This year SunPower also began contracting third-party manufacturing for a lower-efficiency solar module to meet increased demand in the market.
And in February the company acquired European project developer SunRay Renewable Energy for $277 million to ensure downstream demand in that market.
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