A teetering U.S. residential solar industry may now be on the brink of collapse. Faced by macroeconomic challenges and shifting sands of state and federal policies, an industry once defined by double-digit growth in installations is experiencing steep declines – and the latest draft of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes things far worse.
The latest draft of the bill is bad all-around for clean energy, but it is particularly damaging to residential solar, cutting federal tax credits far sooner than expected.
Residential solar installations declined 31% in 2024. Over the last year, industry titans like SunPower, Sunnova, and Mosaic Solar have filed for bankruptcy.
The industry historically has leaned on the value proposition of lowering customer electricity bills and providing predictable costs for the long-term. However, that value has been increasingly difficult to provide.
Currently living in the sunniest city in the world, but had to pass on solar panels. Choices are to either buy outright or lease. The lease option is predatory as hell, but the cost of buying and maintaining outweighs the eventual savings because the power company monopoly keeps juking credits. American fuckery strikes again.
You may want to look into installing used solar from solar farms. They have to periodically swap their panels and stuff, but they still work fine and have most of their efficiency/life left in them, but for a HUGE cost reduction over buying them new.
Have you looked into partially converting your home to off grid solar instead? Basically you have your home running solar during the day and any excess/night time energy required you can get from the power company as usual. No credit fuckery required
This generally means a small solar system. Cost per watt is higher than larger systems.
If that person lives where I do, the local power company has stupidly high rates for doing that. The only real way to save is to go completely off grid. There are two plans, one pays you almost nothing for the excess solar produced, the other charges you “high demand” rates if you exceed some arbitrary usage number at your peak even if you produced all the power yourself. It’s so freaking confusing for no reason other than to punish you for trying to offset your power bill with solar energy.
I see you’re an APS hostage, too.
SRP, but they’re pulling the same shit, protecting outdated business models.
Excuse my ignorance as someone who has not looked into getting my own solar panels, but can you tell me what the preferred option would be, since neither buying nor leasing are an option for you? Is it to purchase on credit?
The ideal would be a loan where the payments aren't terribly out of line with the electric bill reduction. With current interest rates and price increases from tariffs, the loan payments would probably be 2-3x the electric bill.
The timeline for repayment on purchase has gone from maybe 7-10 years to more like 15. YMMV based on state, local W/m², power supplier, etc.