What happened
Shares of solar power stock SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR) are up a strong 9% in afternoon trading here at the 2:40 p.m. minute mark, EDT, after the company announced a planned partnership between its Maxeon Solar Technologies subsidiary and solar power microinverter manufacturer Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH).
So what
In today's announcement, SunPower said that Maxeon -- its solar panel manufacturing subsidiary that will be spun off later this quarter --will partner with Enphase to develop a new Enphase Energized Maxeon AC Module.
SunPower's "Maxeon" will soon have a new solar module to offer residential customers. Image source: Getty Images.
Incorporating both companies' names, the new module will incorporate both "a factory-integrated seventh-generation Enphase IQ microinverter" (which converts direct current generated from the solar modules solar panels into usable alternating current) and solar panels manufactured by Maxeon.
Now what
Maxeon will be responsible for commercializing and selling the new module to residential solar rooftop customers "through authorized installer networks and distributors." The new module is scheduled to go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2020 after Maxeon has officially spun off from SunPower Corporation.
The subsidiary that will become Maxeon, incidentally, is the more profitable of SunPower's two major business groups, generating about 94% of the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) despite accounting for less than half of SunPower's annual sales, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Judging from investors' reaction to today's news, this new deal is expected to make Maxeon even more profitable in the quarters and years to come.
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