If you’re looking to upgrade your home or business with solar energy systems, you’ve probably already noticed that there are a lot of potential suppliers out there. Among the many other solar companies, one that you might consider is SunPower Solar

We’ll look at what this company has to offer and then spend some time reviewing what actual customers of this company have to say about their services. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll have a better idea of whether or not SunPower is a company that you want to consider for your solar upgrades/

What does SunPower offer, and where is it available?

SunPower is one of the early players in the solar industry; they’ve been around as a company since 1985, but seem to have kept up to speed with updates in solar panel technology. As a company, they have received over 1,000 solar power patents. 

SunPower is an established company with a lot of experience in the market. They offer “all-in-one” solar energy systems for both homes and businesses using SunPower Maxeon solar panels, a type of panel they exclusively make, which uses high-performance IBC cells. Some reviews show that these panels are the most efficient solar panels currently on the market, with an efficiency rate between 19.6% and 22.8% (compared to the market average of 14%-18%). SunPower also offers batteries for saving excess power output that your system generates. Along with their systems and panels, they also provide a comprehensive 25-year warranty for their products.

Like many solar panel manufacturers, SunPower allows local operators to become dealers and installers for their products, meaning that the quality of those operations may vary depending on location and on which dealer you are in contact with. 

SunPower offers their services in 24 states and districts of the United States:

 

  • Arizona
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • District of Columbia
  • Florida
  • Hawaii
  • Illinois
  • Iowa
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Missouri
  • Nevada
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • Oregon
  • South Carolina
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Utah
  • Virginia

 

Is SunPower better for homeowners or businesses?

SunPower offers services to both residential and commercial clients without specializing in one or the other. We’ll take a quick look at what SunPower offers both of these types of customers. 

Residential

For residential customers, SunPower’s marketing emphasizes the efficiency of their systems and the minimalist design of the solar panels. Both of these things mean that their systems will have a smaller impact on the overall appearance of a home. In short, you’ll need slightly fewer panels to get the same power since SunPower’s panels are quite efficient, and the ones that you do need will not have as large of a footprint or stick out as much as some competitor brands. They also minimize the need for external power inverters by including that part of the system behind the solar panels themselves, further reducing the footprint. These things could be important if you’re looking to upgrade to solar but are worried about the visual impact of a large and bulky solar system.

Sunpower also emphasizes the fact that their systems are all designed and put together at the same place–although they contract out to different installers, their systems are all designed in-house to make sure that the components will work together correctly. Furthermore, their reputation for quality products and a comprehensive warranty means that residential customers might be able to expect fewer problems over time with a SunPower system than they would with other conventional solar panels.

Commercial

A major perk for commercial customers is SunPower’s panel efficiency, which, as they point out, makes it easier for corporations to meet sustainability goals by relying more heavily on renewable energy. In addition, in advertising to businesses, SunPower mentions the overall durability and completeness of their solar energy solutions. They claim to have the “most predictable long-term energy savings,” which means that companies can be more confident in their new solar system’s reliability, and they only need to work with one company to get a custom system designed for them. This is obviously important to homeowners as well, but reliability might be even more necessary in commercial settings, where many people could be relying on a power source for electricity.

One other note is that Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), a system where the solar energy company still owns the solar system and panels and sells you the energy it produces, are only offered for commercial customers. These kinds of agreements can help a business be more eco-friendly and save money on electricity bills without committing to a large purchase all at once. Instead, they can agree to buy the electricity production from SolarPower’s system, and SolarPower will own (and therefore also maintain) the systems themselves. This added simplicity might be useful for small businesses in particular since PPAs rarely require a sizeable down payment (or any at all, in some cases).

 

SunPower’s corporate split

SunPower announced a recent corporate split, meaning that the company is being divided into two distinct corporations. SunPower itself will continue providing the same services when it comes to selling, installing, and maintaining clean energy systems. However, they will no longer directly produce their own solar panels. Instead, that task has been allocated to the part of the company which was split off, now called Maxeon Solar Technologies, or Maxeon Solar.

SunPower and Maxeon both plan to use this as an opportunity to focus more closely on the specific tasks that they will now handle for customers. For example, SunPower intends to expand into the solar battery market, and Maxeon Solar is developing a new and more efficient solar panel.

All in all, this looks like it will be a good thing for customers in many ways and is probably not something to cause worry for consumers. And no, SunPower is not going out of business, just shifting their focus away from manufacturing and leaving that to the newly-formed Maxeon Solar. 

 

Looking at reviews: What do SunPower’s customers have to say?

One of the most important things when working with a large business like this (and for a large purchase, as well!) is obviously to review what others have been saying about the company and its products. So we’ll take a look at some customer reviews regarding SunPower. Please note that all reviews in italics have been copied verbatim from the original, except where indicated by an ellipsis (…) to show that irrelevant sections were removed to save space or by brackets ([]) to indicate that a clarifying word was added.

 

General Impressions of SunPower from Reviews

SunPower has generally positive reviews, with an average of 4.4 stars out of 5 on BestCompany.com. The overall impression from reviews is that SunPower’s materials are of excellent quality, their solar installation is generally fast and professional, and the systems themselves work very efficiently. 

There are noted issues with customer service in some cases, with some reviewers noting that it can take a long time to get help with replacement parts or needed servicing. Others noted that their particular installer (SunPower contracts installation out to local companies, in many cases) was not up to the standards they hoped for. Many reviewers who left otherwise positive reviews of SunPower noted that their app, used for monitoring energy production and other things, is not particularly intuitive or useful in some cases. 

We’ll look in some more detail at what people are saying about SunPower.

 

Issues With Customer Service

Although SunPower is generally considered to have good products, purchase options, and performance warranty, one type of complaint stands out: customer service. BestCompany.com said the following about SunPower’s customer service:

“Common complaints include difficulty to reach a representative, delays in returning phone calls and inability to resolve issues.”

Some customer reviews noted that SunPower’s customer service was somewhat (or significantly) lacking. For example, one customer said that although they believed “There is no argument that SunPower has some of the best products available,” they also found that “Customer Service, communication, and coordination leave a lot to be desired.” A similar review mentioned that they found the installation process for their solar system very efficient and professional, but that “Frankly, their customer service is abysmal” after the system was installed.

Other, more irritated complaints around customer service from the comment thread on EnergySage include the following:

“Their actual follow thru on customer service after installation is TERRIBLE!”

“Avoid sunpower if you can […] worst customer service i have ever had.”

On the other hand, some customers had good experiences with customer service from SunPower. Many positive reviews on GoodCompany.com also noted that they had experienced issues with their systems and received quick and helpful service. 

 

Issues with Licensed Installers

It is also noteworthy that some reviewers said the issues they were experiencing were more with the licensed installers or dealers than with SunPower itself: 

“Although Sunpower has been fine the company that represents them Eclipse Energy has not.”

From BestCompany:

“[I’ve] read very good reviews on the panels but the installation company (seabright solar) is one of the worst companies [I’ve] ever dealt with absolute[ly] horrible customer service where if you dont keep calling you will never hear back from them.”

“After having a SunPower technician visit to correct what he called Comcast’s problem, I called Comcast. Their technician told me it was SunPower’s problem.”

These kinds of frustrations are not universal, but it does seem like they’re common enough to mention even among people who were otherwise satisfied with SunPower’s products and overall service as a solar company. Because of these kinds of complaints, it seems reasonable to make sure that you not only check out what people are saying about SunPower, but that you also look up what’s been said about the particular solar installer or dealer who services your area for them. These installers can vary greatly in quality, which is a common situation for this kind of system. You might also need to deal with the installers in the future as well, which could be one reason some of the customer service is lacking. 

 

The App

Several customers also noted in their SunPower reviews that the app provided for them to use in monitoring and adjusting their system was disappointing to them, either because it was not adequately integrated with their system or because it was difficult to use and understand. Complaints about the app are seen even in otherwise positive reviews, so this issue seems to be more prevalent than the occasional complaints in other areas.

 

The Positive Reviews

However, as mentioned above, reviews for SunPower are generally positive! For example, 74% of reviewers on GoodCompany gave SunPower 5/5 stars, and another 11% gave them 4/5 stars, meaning that 85% of customers are mostly or very satisfied with the company’s services. 

Here is some of the praise offered for SunPower by these more positive reviews:

“Sunpower has one of the best panels on the market today. The panels i had put on my roof are working great.”

“Good and reliable company. The technicians who installed the system were knowledgeable and respected me and my home. Generally a nice group of people to work with from sales to completion of my solar system.”

“They called me the day before installation and told us they’d be here in the morning. They came as promised and did it all in one day. Overall, it was a clean and efficient installation process. The panels look really good and I’m happy with the service we’ve been provided.”

Positive SunPower reviews show a theme of reliability when it comes to SunPower’s products, knowledgeability on the part of the salespeople and others who work with customers to get their systems designed and set up, and availability to answer questions and help customers understand their options and what is being done with their systems. 

Positive SunPower reviews also often mention the good rates of energy production and the savings that customers can see. Again, this is a prevalent theme, showing that SunPower’s claims about the efficiency of the SunPower solar panel seem to be accurate in most people’s experience!

 

Positives of Customer Service

In contrast to the above-listed complaints, many positive notes about SunPower’s customer service show that there is not just one side to that coin.

“Any time I reach out to them for help someone responds back pretty quickly and is knowledgeable about my questions. They have good customer service and offer the best quality product. I appreciate that they work hard and get everything installed within a day. I’ve had neighbors where it took multiple days.”

“They made the process so easy. They explained everything and were very helpful. We had an issue and they came and took care [of] it immediately.”

“I really appreciate their customer service team. If someone can’t answer my question, they find someone who can quickly. The installation was very smooth and everything is up and running well. I’ve had a very positive experience with them.”

 

Some of these positive reviews are more recent than some of the very negative ones, so it’s possible that SunPower has responded to feedback and is working on improving their customer service now. But, of course, customer service is hard to measure, and any company will likely have a range of how helpful their employees are. So, it’s good to take both positive and negative reviews on this aspect into consideration.

 

Knowledge and Understanding

Another positive often noted about SunPower is their helpfulness and ability to explain things to customers who might otherwise not know too much about solar as a clean energy system. Here are just a couple of reviews that mention this aspect: 

“They were available all through the process to answer questions. The work was done very efficiently, on time, and on budget. The staff was friendly and made the whole effort work seamlessly.”

“They explained everything in plain sense and all the numbers came out even. NO hidden costs!!”

It seems like SunPower’s sales and design people are reasonably good at taking the time to connect with customers and help them understand their options, the results they can expect, and even the costs that will be associated with their system. This final point, in particular, is especially valuable when working with a company that installs big-ticket items like solar panels since the prices will vary greatly depending on each customer’s needs.

 

Conclusion

Although there have been some customers with negative experiences regarding SunPower’s customer service or their contracted installers, virtually none of them complained about the quality of the system itself, and there are also always positives on the other side of those negative reviews. They are widely regarded as having some of the best solar panels, which makes their systems more reliable and more efficient than many competitors. Overall, SunPower seems to be a fairly stable, reliable player in the field of solar energy, and a company that generally excels at helping their customers through the planning and installation process. 

So, is SunPower worth it? That’s a question that you’ll have to answer for yourself, but whether you’re a homeowner or a business owner, SunPower is undoubtedly one of the options you should consider for your upgrade to a solar energy system.

Interested in learning more? Read about Vivint Solar or check out our EnergySage solar guide to get even more help and information on your journey to go solar.