Throughout 2014, SunPower has invested in integrated technology solutions to help home and business owners manage their cost of energy. According to the company, these moves aim to reinforce SunPower’s evolution to offering Smart Energy solutions for its residential, commercial and utility customers. Recent key activities include:
- Yesterday, SunPower announced an exclusive agreement with Sunverge for residential and utility energy storage solutions in the United States and Australia. SunPower and Sunverge expect to make combined solar and storage solutions commercially available in early 2015.
- Earlier this week, SunPower announced a $20 million growth capital investment in Tendril to license the company’s Energy Services Management (ESM) Platform software. Enhanced by SunPower’s vast amount of solar related data, the ESM Platform will power the development of new Smart Energy applications for a broader set of consumers and utilities.
- Last month, the company announced its acquisition of SolarBridge, a leader in integrated microinverter technologies for the solar industry. SunPower will utilize this technology to develop next generation microinverters for use with its high efficiency solar panels.
While none of these investments are as big as Google’s acquisition of Nest earlier this year, this activity by SunPower does send a strong signal that being a vertically integrated solar manufacturer is no longer good enough on it’s own and that comprehensive energy solutions on the customer end will lead to greater success for selling solar energy in the future.
