In this episode, John Maher talks with Brian Sadler, Vice President at Solaris Renewables, about the innovative Maxeon solar panels. They explore Maxeon’s separation from SunPower and how the company has established itself as a leader in solar technology. Brian highlights the unique features of Maxeon panels, such as their copper wiring, high efficiency, and 40-year warranty—the longest in the industry. They also discuss the panels’ minimal degradation rates, superior durability, and sleek aesthetics, making them a top choice for customers. With insights into installation costs, warranty support, and long-term savings, this podcast provides a comprehensive overview of why Maxeon solar panels are a premium choice for residential and commercial solar energy solutions.
John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher and I’m here today with Brian Sadler, vice president at Solaris Renewables, a solar company in Massachusetts providing premium solar and storage technologies with exceptional customer service, and designing, installing, and servicing solar systems in Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, and Maine. Today, we’re talking about Maxeon solar panels. Welcome, Brian.
Brian Sadler: Hi, John. Good to be with you today.
What Happened With Maxeon Solar and SunPower?
Maher: You too. Brian, talk a little bit about Maxeon Solar’s independence from SunPower. They used to sort of be a part of that company, and how in light of SunPower’s recent bankruptcy, Maxeon is moving forward with their products, and warranties, and customer support.
Sadler: Yeah, absolutely. It is a little confusing, right? They were one company being SunPower, and the cell that SunPower invented and manufactured was called Maxeon. And then SunPower had been around for, what was it, probably 35 years or so, and then had reorganization, and they decided to split off, because they got really large, and they were vertically integrated.
They did everything from manufacturing through sales support and service, and then through their channel network of vetted installers. And then they broke off and they created SunPower, kept the brand that was basically the sales and support portion of the business. And then Maxeon, which was just the manufacturer.
So, they just made panels, they R&D’d and tried to keep pushing the boundaries, and making the best product that’s available out in the market, and sold through distribution where SunPower was, you bought everything right from SunPower directly. The model was that you could be an installer or new installer and go to SunPower, learn how to do everything from design, engineering, install, service, solar, have the support, and the financing and everything in one spot with SunPower.
And they became probably a little top-heavy and decided to break it apart. And so, now SunPower ended up stopped even selling Maxeon panels. They were basically Maxeon’s biggest customer for a period of time. They moved on to a couple different panel products, different inverters, and other battery products that were white-labeled from other manufacturers with the SunPower name.
But ultimately Maxeon had split off and is doing their own thing and continues to do so. So, I think initially, obviously Maxeon was hurt and needed to spend some time explaining the history, what had happened, and where they’re at, and how they’re moving forward.
Branding for Maxeon
Maher: Because they were essentially like a new brand that people hadn’t really heard of. So, they had to start branding themselves as such.
Sadler: And they had to be careful like, “Hey, well, we’re the same thing that we used to… But we used to make it for SunPower-”
Maher: Right.
Sadler: We put a SunPower sticker on it. Now, we’re just continuing to make it under the Maxeon brand and going direct to through distribution to installers and customers.” It was a delicate dance that they had to play to kind of explain the history, the relationship, and then say, “Listen, we separated in 2020. SunPower, yes, was our biggest customer, but we have thousands of other customers of small and large installers and various other customers through the distribution networks in the United States, and we’re doing just fine.
We’re going to continue pushing the envelope of improving the wattage efficiencies, aesthetics, and robustness of our product, and carry on under the Maxeon moniker and way of going about things.” And they’ve done a nice job of that, but early on it was hard to kind of differentiate, but also say that, “Why you love SunPower so much was because of what we made.” So, it was a delicate dance to get there, but they’re carrying on and alive and well, continuing to make industry-leading products.
Key Technological Advancements from Maxeon
Maher: So, what are some of the key technological advancements in Maxeon solar panels themselves and how do they compare to other leading brands in terms of efficiency and durability?
Sadler: We kind of call them a different animal in our industry. They’ve basically taken any known failures and problems with a solar panel and engineered it out, and then they focused on making a really robust, heavy duty product that also looks really nice. It really is a different look than any other solar panel. You can see one here behind me, for those of you that are on video, there’s no wiring on the face of the cell. All the wiring is on the back.
It’s called the interdigitated back contact, and it uses copper wiring. It’s the only cell and panel in the world that uses copper in its product, which obviously is more expensive, but it’s the best conductor. It’s a reason we wire our homes with it. So, it makes it more efficient, it makes it available to collect more sunlight, because there’s no wiring on the face that is “shading” the cell itself.
And it has a really resilient, the way that the cells connect, the way that the panel is manufactured, and engineered, and available to be more shade and snow resistant, it’s more flexible. It’s why the plane that flew into space and has gone around the world on solar energy, the boat that sailed around the world, a lot of the cars that use solar energy, and a lot of the experiments, they’re all the Maxeon cell because of the resiliency to environmental conditions, its flexibility, it’s the engineering that it has the copper in the cell, and it’s just a kind of different product all the way across the board. So, those are the biggest real differences.
Generally, they have one of the highest power densities, so they’re high watts, high efficient. They have no light induced degradation, which is basically faltering or kind of decreasing power over time due to having light on them.
So, a lot of these pieces, they spec at the top of the market for, and because they have no failures in their product, they also have the longest warranty at 40 years. So, 25 years was kind of standard for part of the warranty, but the products were usually a lot less. And they’ve stepped up and said, “Not only are we doing the performance and the product at 25 years, but we’re going to just go to 40 years, because we have sold such a low failure rate and our products are now 40 years old and have proven that out.”
How Does Maxeon Solar Handle Warranty Coverage?
Maher: Excellent. How does Maxeon Solar handle warranty coverage and customer service, things like that?
Sadler: So, they have basically through the installer, so us as a preferred partner of Maxeon, and a vetted installer, which we and our customers are able to get better warranties and more support from Maxeon due to our relationship. So, typically a customer has an issue, they reach out to us, and then we take care of any warranty claims with Maxeon directly.
But I can say that we haven’t had any, so that’s the good sign. But if there were something, typically it’d be a manufacturing defect, which like I said, they have the lowest failure rate in the industry, so it’d be a rare occurrence, but we would handle that. We’d reach out to Maxeon, Maxeon would provide us with another panel, and then we would go install it for the customer at no cost to them.
Long-Term Performance of Maxeon Solar
Maher: What are the estimated long-term performance and degradation rates for Maxeon solar panels? And you talked about this 40-year warranty. Is it the fact that know these Maxeon solar panels just last a lot longer than other types of solar panels?
Sadler: Yes, so there’s a lot of testing. Every panel goes through a certain set of standard testing, but then Maxeon also has now 40 years of field use and field testing to show that our panels just don’t fail. We’ve had a tremendous amount of success. They also don’t lose a lot of power. So they warrant 25 years, they’re at over 92% capacity of their day one capacity, and after 40 years, it’s still at 88%.
So, 40 years from now, these panels are going to make 88% of what they did in their first year, which is mind-blowing to me to think that they’re that resilient, and they lose so little power through having the lowest degradation rate in the industry as well. So, they really are at the tip of the mountain for performance and warranty as well.
Light Induced Degradation
Maher: And you said with other types of solar panels, the fact that the sun is actually on the panels actually degrades them over time. It’s kind of ironic that the sun itself, which is what you’re putting the solar panel there for, that that over time will actually degrade your panels.
Sadler: It’s part of what degrades them and then all the other environmental conditions, but they have light-induced degradation, which basically says that these were manufactured in a building, and they were put on a crate with a bunch of other panels, and put into a container, and shipped to distribution where they’re inside again, and then you’re going to take them out and put them on a roof or a ground somewhere.
And the first time the light is really hitting them, there is a degradation that occurs, and Maxeon has none of that. They have zero light-induced degradation. And then yeah, over time sun beating on them is also part of what their degradation rate is. And one of the biggest failures of solar panels in general are hot spots from basically the electric architecture shorting out or just getting too hot in certain places due to glass thickness, the cells, how they’re interacting, and the wiring, and all that.
And again, Maxeon has no hot spots. They’ve kind of engineered that failure out. So, they just keep ticking along. And that’s what we tell a lot of our potential customers is like we love our Maxeon customers, because we don’t hear from them unless they’re just sending us referrals, because they’re just happy, they’re getting what they expected and more. They have no service calls and things are just humming along, which is the story that we want to tell for sure.
Aesthetics of Maxeon Solar
Maher: And then from an aesthetic point of view, as you pointed out, if you’re watching on video, you can see that panel behind you, it’s all just black, and you don’t get any of those little hexagon-shaped boxes or whatever in it. So seeing it on the roof, it’s just like a nice black panel. It kind of blends in with your roof and your shingles. So, is that one of the things that you find that really attracts customers and that they like the look of the Maxeon panels?
Sadler: Yeah, they do, and a lot of times when it is on front of the house and curb appeal or folks are a little bit wary about what… “I saw my neighbor’s solar and I see what’s going on over there and I don’t love it. And I see this one over there, and I’m not loving that.” And we show them some of our work, especially with Maxeon like, “Oh, well, that looks nice and I can deal with that,” so that’s one piece. And the one that we’re looking at behind me is what’s called a black back sheet. It’s an all black panel.
If it had a white back sheet, you would see the cell outlines themselves and kind of the diamonds in between the cells, but it’s a very clean look and you don’t have the wiring on the face. So when the sun’s reflecting on it, you don’t see a sheen and a shine of different things going on in the panels, which folks seem to appreciate. The white back sheets actually run cooler, so they’re typically a little bit higher wattage, and a little bit more efficient.
So, a lot of people like those or they like the aesthetic of that. It’s still a cleaner aesthetic than having any wire in the face, but of course when it’s all black, and it basically looks like an LED TV, or our cell phone, it’s just all black, and it’s a pretty slick look. And like you pointed out, it looks much more cohesive on our roofs as well, and people seem to appreciate that.
Costs for Installing Maxeon Solar Panels
Maher: What are the typical installation costs for Maxeon solar panels? And then what are some of the potential energy savings that you might be expected to get to help offset that?
Sadler: It’s hard to peg, because I guess I have to talk about averages a little bit, because every solar system that we do is custom to that home and that situation. And back in the day, roofs, we have a lot of old home stock here, and it’s typically a little bit more straightforward. You have a gable roof or a hip roof, and it’s pretty straightforward. The newer homes have a lot more architectural details, dormers, and hip roofs, and funky valleys, and things like that where it’s harder to make a cohesive design and to fit the panels the customer might want.
But I would say our average, we tend to be… It keeps seemingly going up and up where we used to average seven kilowatt systems, then it was eight, then it was nine, then it was 10. And so, I would say our average system right now is over 10 kilowatt, which is pretty significant. It’s a pretty sizable system. Maxeon is an ultra premium product, I would say, and it is more expensive than the rest of the panels out there in the market. A lot has to do with how they build it, the technology, the quality. I mean, having copper in it alone, it’s just much more expensive.
So, I’d say a typical installation cost for a 10 kilowatt system is around $40,000, and then it qualifies for the 30% federal tax credit. There’s other local incentives depending upon which state and utility you’re in that you could take advantage of as well. And then in most of New England, we’re able to take advantage of what’s called renewable energy credits, which is a performance based program.
So, basically think of it as every kilowatt hour your system produces, you’re going to get a cash incentive paid to you for that production. So, obviously the better the site, there’s more offset, there’s more income to be gained, and that also offsets the cost. But we see right now the average payback time for customers that want to pay cash to be seven years or less. I just had one the other day that was five years, which shocked me.
I hadn’t seen that in a while, but it was a really good site. So, there’s definitely the opportunity to have significant savings. And then if you’re looking at a loan product, in all cases that your site is good, your home is good for solar, you’re going to pay less money per month than you did to just pay the utility. And we all know the utility continues to go up every year, or this is the opportunity to fix your costs. So, save money year one, and then save more year over year over year.
So, when we’re talking about annual savings, it’s kind of site dependent on the quality of the site, but we’re talking thousands of dollars a year. It could be several hundred to thousands of dollars a year in electricity savings and over… We usually look at things in a 30-year chunk, and Maxeon’s going to outlive that, even the warranty outlives that.
Maher: Right.
Sadler: But we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, I would say typically what we see in the 30-year period is $300,000 of savings, something to that effect. I mean, obviously a significant reduction in your carbon footprint and environmental impact that you’re making, as well as keeping dollars in your pockets. And that’s what a lot of folks get hung up on now with depending on… The economy’s been a little challenged, right?
And some folks, the upper, upper 1%, that’s not changing their behavior at all. But the rest of us, we’re a little more mindful of how much things cost. And if we’re able to save thousands of dollars a year by installing solar on our roof, and offset the cost of other things with a lot of people… I got other construction projects, I want to do a new deck, I need a new kitchen, you’re never going to get that money back. That’s nice to have things.
Why don’t you go solar and free up money for that? Or just other folks are like, “Hey, maybe saving 30, 50, 100, $200…” I mean, life-changing to some families, and that’s groceries that you’re able to set aside by going solar. So, I think the cost savings are unique to each site, but I would say in all cases, when we look at a home with a customer, and we’re guiding them like, “You’re really good, or you’re good, or you might need to cut a tree, it’s going to make sense now even with that tree there, but this is where you’re going. You can save a lot more.” So I think in all cases, if your site’s good, it’s an absolute no-brainer to do it. And there’s a variety of financing mechanisms and local installers like us out there to help guide customers through the process.
Long-Term Savings From Maxeon Solar
Maher: And then by choosing the Maxeon solar panels, like you said, you might be paying a little bit more upfront now, but because of how long they last, and how little they degrade over time, the long-term implications of how much money you’re going to be saving over the long haul is much greater than with other solar panel manufacturers.
Sadler: Yeah, absolutely. Great point is that we see that the short-term savings might be similar to other similar wattage products, but if you’re looking at the long-term savings, Maxeon is going to outperform because of their specifications and characteristics.
About Maxeon Solar
Maher: All right, well, that’s really great information. Thanks again for speaking with me today, Brian.
Sadler: Awesome, John. Thanks for having me.
Maher: And for more information, you can visit the website at solarisrenewables.com or call (781) 270-6555.