Renewable energy company SPI Energy Co. Ltd. plans to double its solar panel production at McClellan Park in the first quarter of 2023.
The Sacramento-based company is currently sold out of the 650 megawatts of panels it can currently produce, and it is adding a second manufacturing line, which will bring it to 1.3 gigawatts of panel production by early next year, said SPI Energy CEO Denton Peng on a recent conference call with investors and analysts.
“We have built-in marketing with Made-in-USA and Made-in-Sacramento,” said Andrew Hughan, director of government relations with SPI (Nasdaq: SPI) subsidiary SolarJuice USA Inc.
The Sacramento panel-manufacturing line now runs six days a week with two shifts. The company plans to complete a second line in months, and, if possible, add third shifts, he said. The company wants to hire about 200 more people in Sacramento for the manufacturing effort, Hughan said.
The company now produces 400 panels a day with more than 100 employees. It's planning to more than double that by early next year, and then to drive solar module manufacturing capacity to 2.4 gigawatts in 2023 and 5 gigawatts in 2024, Peng said.
Starting in the new year, the Sacramento operation will receive $0.07 per watt of solar modules produced from the state of California. The panels the Sacramento factory builds are 410 watts per panel.
SPI sells its panels to distributers and large-scale installers, Hughan said.
The company currently sources about 40% of its material domestically, and it's working to get more domestic suppliers, including building solar wafers itself domestically next year.
In addition to the state subsidies in California, the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 creates incentives for companies to produce solar modules in the U.S., though the exact details of those incentives are still being finalized, Hughan said.
The U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy calculates that 1 gigawatt is equal to 3.1 million solar panels.
SPI had revenue of $43.2 million in the third quarter, up 10.9% from $39 million the year-earlier period. It lost $13.5 million in the third quarter, compared to a loss of $16.6 in the third quarter 2021.
SPI at the end of last year took over the lease of Sunergy America LLC, which had a 140,000-square-foot solar panel manufacturing plant at McClellan Park. In its earnings release, the company said it had secured more space at McClellan Park.
Ken Giannotti, senior vice president of leasing and marketing with McClellan Park, said SPI added 56,000 square feet of space in an adjacent building.
SPI said the new facilities are expected to drive solar module manufacturing capacity to 2.4 gigawatts in 2023 and 5 gigawatts in 2024.
SPI Energy is a global company focused on solar, storage and electric vehicle products for business, residential and utility customers. It moved its headquarters from the Bay Area to Sacramento earlier this year.
SPI started in Roseville in 2006 as Solar Power Inc., manufacturing solar panels in China and installing solar-power systems in the U.S., Europe and Asia. A majority interest in the company was acquired by a Chinese company in 2011, which moved the headquarters to the Bay Area. SPI Energy took over the rest of SPI in 2016.
