SunPower has been designing and manufacturing high efficiency solar power systems for 30 years, and now the company unveiled its latest product line – The Performance Series for a new set of customer segments and global markets. The Performance Series panels utilize a proprietary manufacturing process to assemble conventional silicon solar cells into panels with increased efficiency and reliability compared with conventional panels. It is applicable for all three of SunPower’s residential, commercial and power plants segments and will be available later in 2016.

"Our new line of Performance Series products continue the SunPower tradition of higher efficiency, superior reliability and enhanced aesthetics compared with conventional panels, all in a lower priced product configuration," said Tom Werner, president and CEO of SunPower. "Together with our best-in-class E-Series and X-Series back-contact panels, we are expanding our product line to offer customers a wider range of product choice and increase our reach to additional markets, further enhancing company growth."

The Performance Series product line is an outgrowth of technology developed by Fremont, CA-based Cogenra Solar, which SunPower acquired earlier this year. Over the space of several years, Cogenra developed and extensively tested a novel cell interconnect technology which eliminates the need for the soldering and copper ribbons that are a major cause of power loss and degradation in conventional panels.

The Performance Series has more than 30 patents issued and pending along with the company’s solar panel intellectual property. It also has SunPower’s manufacturing experience and production scale for the most cost-efficiency products. The new products are expected to provide users with up to 15% more power than conventional panels.

Fiscal Year 2016 Guidance

For fiscal year 2016, the company expects non-GAAP revenue of $3.3 billion to $3.5 billion, gross margin of 13 percent to 15 percent, EBITDA of $515 million to $565 million, capital expenditures of $210 million to $240 million and GW deployed in the range of 1.7 GW to 2.0 GW. On a GAAP basis, the company expects revenue of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion, gross margin of 16 percent to 18 percent and net loss of $415 million to $365 million.

Fiscal year 2016 financial guidance reflects the impact of planned project sales to 8point3 Energy Partners.  On a non-GAAP basis, the company expects gross margin from these project sales to be partially deferred beyond 2016. On a GAAP basis, the company expects revenue and gross margin from the sale of these projects to be deferred beyond 2016.