Maxeon And Canadian Solar Settle Shingled Solar Panel Stoush

Maxeon Solar Technologies has indicated its patent battle with Canadian Solar in Japan concerning shingled solar cell technology is now over.

First up – what’s a shingled solar panel?

Not to be confused with “solar shingles” – an entirely different beast – in shingled cell solar panels, the cells are laser-cut into strips and slightly overlap each other. The connection between the cells is made between the overlap using electrically conductive adhesive.

One of the benefits of this arrangement is greater cell area on the module, enabling more power to be generated from the panel.

Maxeon has previously stated the shingled solar cell panel architecture and associated manufacturing processes it uses were developed by Cogenra Solar. SunPower acquired Cogenra back in 2015 and Maxeon retained the related intellectual property rights following Maxeon’s spin-off from SunPower that was announced in 2019 and completed in August 2020.

Shingled cells are used with the still-SunPower branded Performance series (aka P-Series) solar panels, which continue to be available here in Australia. The SunPower website says more than 7 GW of P-Series panels have been deployed globally to date.

But it’s not just Maxeon producing shingled solar panels. The company has been a bit cranky with and challenged by some of the other manufacturers; putting significant resources into defending its IP.

A previous related case saw the firm emerge victorious after a patent invalidation action filed in China by panel manufacturing giant Longi was shown the door in December 2020. Other legal action that year included Maxeon filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Canadian Solar Japan K.K. with the Tokyo District Court in September 2020. It alleged the company was infringing on Maxeon’s Japan Patent No. JP6642841B2.

18 months on and it looks like Maxeon has a result it is satisfied with, but the company didn’t have a whole lot to say about the outcome:

“Pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreement, Canadian Solar has agreed to withdraw challenges to Maxeon’s Patent. Canadian Solar has also agreed to discontinue selling shingled solar cell solar modules in Japan until the second calendar quarter of 2025 after satisfying certain outstanding 2022 orders. Further details of the settlement are confidential.”

So, it’s not clear if a bunch of bucks will also exchange hands; but chances are pretty good they will. After all, there’s the impact on the brand, lawyers don’t come cheap, and no doubt this was a very expensive exercise.

It’s curious Canadian Solar will be able to pick up from where it left off in Japan in 2025 given patents in that country last for 20 years so far as I can tell – and it looks like this patent was filed 2014/15.

Maybe some additional cash and/or royalties/licence fees are involved going forward to allow it to do so. Or perhaps the company will return with different shingled cell tech and the three years in the wilderness provides Maxeon the opportunity of a bigger slice of the pie and a firmer foothold in this niche as a form of compensation.

At the time of writing, Canadian Solar hadn’t issued an announcement relating to the settlement.

There are many patent related lawsuits in the solar industry; so many it’s hard to keep track of them all. For all the warm and fuzzies regarding slashing emissions saving the planet, it’s certainly out a jungle out there – but at least one that’s green.