Travis Hoium: There are a lot of companies that compete in the space in different ways.
How does some power differentiate itself from competitors?
Tom Werner: Well, at our foundation, SunPower is a technology company; we're Silicon Valley
based.
[A] Stanford professor founded us 30 years ago, we're heavily influenced by semiconductors,
Cypress Semiconductor.
So, at our heart we're a technology company, we make the worlds best solar technology because
it's the highest conversion efficiency.
So, overtime we are making that solar cell, then we made panels, then we made systems,
and now we make solar energy and what our customers by solar energy.
And where were going is to be an energy company more of an energy solutions company.
So, we'll still be great at solar panels and we will advance that technology but to that
will add electronics, storage, energy management and be solutions company for our customers.
So, we'll be a technology company.
We also forward integrated in our sales channel 10 years ago and so we own the channel for
residential, commercial, and utility scale.
And we're international.
So, we're diversified across all segments, across all geographies.
At our base though we're a technology company.
Hoium: And I think that technology is key.
To put a few numbers to that, your X-Series panel is 21.5% efficient versus a commodity
panel that's 14% to 16% efficient and you highlighted that a few times that you're getting
about 50% more power from SunPower panels if you put them on your roof for example,
but that's not quite the whole story because the degradation is lower as well.
Is that correct?
Werner: Well, as you move to selling energy then what matters is the energy production
over the life of the system.
So, if you start with a 50% advantage then you're interested in how does it perform over
the life of the system?
And our advantage grows over time as our panel produces more energy per rated watt.
It also degrades more slowly because it's fundamentally a different architecture.
And it lasts longer so you might sign a PPA [power purchase agreement] or a lease for
20 years but the system is going to last 25, 30, even 40 years.
So, we have a higher residual value as well.
And so, as the industry moves to becoming an energy industry, that's to our favor because
that's what customers buy.
Hoium: And that's really highlighted in some of the changes you've made in the residential
market.
Can you go into you've really sort of vertically integrated, not quite to owning the trucks
and I think there are some reasons behind that, but you're doing more of the sales yourself,
more of the engineering, and then getting into things like batteries.
And you highlighted that a little yesterday that now we're going to be controlling our
energy with apps and things like that and solar will be a huge piece of that.
Werner: Well, you know, you look at the pace of change in solar and it took decades but
now it's rapidly changing and I think you go out a few years and we're going to look
back and say that we were just shipping these systems and it's going to look kind of archaic.
This is all about complete energy solutions because today when you pay your energy bill
you just pay it -- in fact, it's probably auto pay -- so it's something that just happens.
But people that buy solar energy want to control their own destiny.
They want freedom.
They want to make an impact on the environment.
So, what we're going to do is we're going to add storage and energy management so that
a consumer will control when they use solar energy and they're going to control load.
And when you do those two things you have total control of your energy bill.
And so what you're going to see is it's going to be incredibly exciting because as a consumer
you go from no control to freedom, no control to total control over the next near term,
within the next 10 years for sure and probably the next five years.
Hoium: And that really takes away some of those peaks and valleys that solar energy
has.
That's always one of the criticisms I hear is, "Well, it's an intermittent energy source,"
but if you can store a little of that energy and you're providing an energy solution that's
not quite the same impact it used to be on the grid.
Werner: Yeah, it used to be five years ago that solar costs too much and it's intermittent.
We're solving the "costs too much" and we hear that a lot less because it's competitive
with conventional electricity.
Now you have intermittency.
So, no you have intermittency.
Well if you can store, you can solve that and, of course, capitalism works.
If you have a problem and it's worth something it's going to be solved.
So, storage is going to be economical.
And now I essentially have my own power generation at my disposal and I can control it and of
course you add software to that and you can do amazing stuff.