SunPower solar business meltdown triggers hundreds of Bay Area layoffs

SAN JOSE — SunPower, a once high-flying pioneer of the solar energy industry, has notified state government officials of the company’s decision to slash hundreds of Bay Area jobs.

The solar energy company has decided to chop an estimated 202 jobs in the Bay Area, according to WARN letters the company sent to the state Employment Development Department.

“As a result of recent financial circumstances, the Company expects it will have to terminate the employment of certain employees,” SunPower vice president of human resources Maribelle Bostic wrote in a letter the company sent to the state EDD.

The 202 job cuts consist of 182 layoffs at the company’s headquarters in Richmond and another 20 staffing reductions at a Berkeley site, the WARN notice shows.

SunPower is also cutting 61 jobs in the Southern California cities of Anaheim, North Hollywood, Ontario and Santee and 16 positions in the Sacramento County city of Elk Grove, according to the filings with the state.

In 2023, SunPower lost $227.1 million from its ongoing operations, red ink which was a sharp setback compared to the company’s profit of $93.9 million in 2022, according to the Yahoo Finance site.

The picture for SunPower has darkened drastically over the last several months.

Problems for the installer and provide of solar energy systems and panels started to surface in December 2023, when the company warned that it might now be able to continue as a “going concern,” which is Wall Street speak that SunPower might go out of business.

“SunPower is working as hard as possible to pursue a long-term solution for the company in the coming weeks,” the company stated in the WARN letter.