Maxeon executive Mark Babcock joined Photovoltaic Magazine to talk about Maxeon's Air solar panels and the company's possible manufacturing expansion in the United States.
Maxeon Air is located on a flat commercial roof.
SunPower's international spin-off company Maxeon said it plans to launch its Air series panels in Europe. The company's chief revenue officer Mark Babcock recently accepted an interview with pv magazine to talk about the Air series and Maxeon's vision for American manufacturing.
The company's production line includes two types of solar photovoltaic modules, Performance series, shingled double-sided panels, suitable for utility scale and large-scale commercial projects, and a series of interdigital back contact (IBC) panels, Maxeon Air is just one of them.
The Air series to be launched in Europe is a pencil-thin IBC module that can reduce the weight of the roof.
Babcock said that considering the number of low-load commercial and industrial roofs on older buildings in the area, the company chose Europe to launch the panel.
The sticky back contact eliminates the need to place shelves and other balance of system (BOS) components on the roof. This opens the door for many roofs, otherwise these roofs will lack proper structural support to use photovoltaic power generation, because the load of the panels is 6 kg per square meter.
Babcock said that unlike most panels, the module can be bent and broken without significant degradation or hot spots, enabling more flexible applications. Babcock said that he believes it is possible to integrate IBC panels into transportation and off-grid solutions, but in any case, the current focus will be on commercial rooftops.
Babcock said that through the module's ability to share the load with adjacent panels, thermal runaway and hot spots can be suppressed. Air panels can also reduce installation defects that can cause fires, such as installing wires on sharp edges of racks or mounting brackets.
Although Maxeon has no firm plans to launch Air in the United States, its performance series of panels are already operating under the SunPower brand. The 690 MW Gemini solar and storage project in Nevada supported by Primergy and Quinbrook Infrastructure will be powered by Maxeon performance 5 and 6 series panels, which are manufactured in Malaysia and assembled in Mexico.
Babcock said that he is exploring future expansion into the US manufacturing industry, but the plan depends on federal policy. He said that a 3 gigawatt battery manufacturing plant in the United States is waiting for a loan from the US Department of Energy; it may also depend on the success of Senator Jon Osoff's (D-GA) "US Solar Manufacturing Act." Babcock said that the passage of the bill will make the expansion of the United States more attractive to Maxeon, and may also attract other industry participants.
Before the U.S. Department of Energy loan and the Ossoff Act, Maxeon stated that it may start producing batteries in the United States as early as 2023.
Babcock also said that the "Rebuild Better" bill approved by the House of Representatives by the Biden administration by a narrow margin contains direct incentives for battery and component manufacturing. He said that providing incentives for both will greatly help establish a manufacturing base in the United States.
In October, Maxeon stated that it plans to transform its production facility in Mexicali, Mexico to produce shingled modules specifically for the US market.
Babcock said in an interview with Photovoltaic Magazine during the Intersolar event held in Munich, Germany, that the capacity of these two facilities should reach about 2.6 GW. He said at the time that the facility in Ensenada was being increased to 800 MW, and the planned capacity of the facility in Mexicali was 1.8 GW.
These two factories will only produce products based on the company's single crystal PERC shingled technology.
These two factories should start production at the end of the first quarter of 2022.
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