Last year, SunPower had bought SolarWorld America's plant in Hillsboro for $26 million as part of its acquisition. It is now seeking to lease out a significant portion of the plant and sell the old cell-manufacturing equipment used by SolarWorld. While SunPower will continue manufacturing photovoltaic modules, this certainly forewarns a permanent downsizing of the factory. Patent data further show that the company may be innovating less as well. It only filed a single patent application in 2017, whereas it had filed 5 back in 2016. Does this mean that the company is nearing its downfall, or is it just a temporary setback?
