SunPower is acquiring residential solar competitor Sunder Energy, based in South Jordan, Utah. The transaction is scheduled to close this week.
Sunder Energy is expected to end 2025 with 46 MW of solar sales contracts. The cost of the acquisition is $40 million in cash, plus 10 million shares of common stock, subject to SunPower stockholder approval.
“We have been working on Sunder as our top acquisition priority for exactly six months and seven days, ever since I met with their president, Eric Nielsen, in Mexico on my birthday to get to know him and Sunder better,” said T.J. Rodgers, CEO of Sunpower. “The recent IRS announcement that the ITC subsidy would remain in place for residential systems funded by third party ownership (TPO) means that Sunder, whose order base is 93% TPO, is currently expected to continue business as usual. SunPower will help Sunder capture part of its own EPC downstream revenue. Conversely, SunPower will benefit from the new Sunder TPO-based orders that will become a new engine of growth. It’s a win-win deal.”
“Despite the SEIA industry forecast that the U.S. residential solar industry will install 9 GW (about $27 billion) in 2025 and 2026 combined, the industry is now consolidating, giving publicly traded companies like [SunPower] an opportunity to join with leading private sales companies like Sunder — not to cash the founders out, but to create bigger and more durable companies for both partners,” Sunder’s Rodgers said. “The merger will double the number of states we sell in from 22 to 45.”
Company management will host a call Monday at 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT to discuss the merger.
News item from SunPower
