fromport
Solar Addict
Residential Solar Is In Trouble
Complicated financial products helped the U.S. rooftop-solar-power industry grow, but now put it at risk of implosion.
time.com
A decade ago, someone knocking on your door to sell you solar panels would have been selling you solar panels. Now, they are probably selling you a financial product—likely a lease or a loan.
In late 2023 alone, more than 100 residential solar dealers and installers in the U.S. declared bankruptcy, according to Roth Capital Partners—six times the number in the previous three years combined.
The two largest companies in the industry, SunRun and Sunnova, both posted big losses in their most recent quarterly reports, and their shares are down 86% and 81% respectively from their peaks in January 2021.
SunRun itself has disclosed in investor filings that it is in the midst of an IRS audit. One Wall Street analyst, Gordon Johnson, alleges that SunRun has claimed $40 billion in tax subsidies it didn’t deserve, and calls this “the biggest tax fraud in the history of the U.S.” (SunRun says that the independent appraisers who estimate the values of SunRun systems do so consistent with industry best practices, and investors and lenders have “closely diligenced” its tax and valuation procedures.)