In a major strategic shift, US solar company SunPower has announced its plan to split the company in two, creating two independent businesses to focus separately on the technology and project development sides of the solar industry. With uncertainty mounting around tariffs and subsidies in the US’s renewables sector, SunPower will hope that this move will reassure shareholders and provide protection from Chinese solar manufacturing competition. To some extent US shareholder perception was at the heart of this change – losses last year perhaps showed that SunPower is not large enough to mix it with the global solar panel manufacturers, but is better off working purely at home in the US market, emulating the successes of SunRun, Vivint and SunOver…