COVID 19 Effect: SunPower shuts factories as pandemic hits solar demand

One of the biggest solar panel maker SunPower Corp recently said it had temporarily stopped production at all of its factories in five countries as the coronavirus outbreak ravages demand for its products.

The company in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said that it have idled facilities in France, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines and the United States.

The firm expects to bring the facilities back online “in the coming weeks.”

According to Reuters residential and commercial solar installations have been hit hard by pandemic-related lockdown orders that have put the brakes on construction and economic fallout that has crippled consumer and business spending.

Research firm Wood Mackenzie in its report published recently  said global solar installations this year would be about 18 percent lower than it had expected before the spread of the virus.

SunPower speaking to the news agency mentioned above, said it had slashed the pay of its executive officers for the second time in a month and was reducing some of its employees to a four-day work week.