Major PV energy provider SunPowe r has guided capital expenditure (capex) plans for 2014 that are nearly double spending in 2013.

SunPower reported in its 2013 annual report that capex would be in the range of US$150 million to US$170 million in 2014, a possible increase of 88.8% from its 2013 guidance range of US$70 million to US$90 million.

The company had noted in its recent fourth quarter 2013 conference call that capex in the first quarter of 2014 would be in a range of US$25 million to US$30 million as it started to ramp the construction of its 350MW facility in the Philipines, Fab 4.

The company is expected to be capacity constrained throughout 2014, unless further expansion is made at its JV Fab 3 in Malaysia, which was reported to have a production capacity of 800MW but a nameplate capacity over 1GW. No plans have been announced to expand Fab 3 production in 2014.

According to a recent report by NPD Solarbuzz, PV manufacturer ’s capital spending would start to rebound in 2014 and could reach US$10 billion by 2017 as end market demand increases and tier one suppliers holding around 45GW of ‘effective capacity’ need to expand or lose market share. The market research firm is forecasting as much as 49GW of global module demand in 2014.

SunPower is running existing facilities at full capacity and is expected to do so throughout the year.

R&D spending

SunPower also reported in its 2013 annual report that R&D expenditure last year was US$58,080 million, down from US$63.4 million in 2012. The company did not provide guidance on R&D spending for 2014.

However, SunPower reported employee levels dedicated to R&D activities in 2013 had increased from 230 in 2013 to 300 in 2013.

The company has already intimated that a key focus of R&D activities in 2014 would be related to technology upgrades to its Maxeon cells inline with its Fab 4 production ramp in 2015.