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Income Taxes (Details) (USD $)
In Thousands, unless otherwise specified
3 Months Ended
Mar. 29, 2015
Mar. 30, 2014
Dec. 28, 2014
Geographic distribution of income (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes and equity in earnings of unconsolidated investees:      
Income (loss) before income taxes and equity in earnings (loss) of unconsolidated investees $ (28,890)us-gaap_IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesMinorityInterestAndIncomeLossFromEquityMethodInvestments $ 54,871us-gaap_IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesMinorityInterestAndIncomeLossFromEquityMethodInvestments  
Provision for income taxes (2,351)us-gaap_IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit 13,620us-gaap_IncomeTaxExpenseBenefit  
Unrecognized tax benefits $ 31,069spwr_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsIncludingIncomeTaxPenaltiesAndInterestAccrued   $ 31,764spwr_UnrecognizedTaxBenefitsIncludingIncomeTaxPenaltiesAndInterestAccrued