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 โ 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.
I think a potential solution or workaround could be to opt for cooperatively owned large solar installations, but this would require buy-in from a community to get it started, and is something those subsidies would've made easier.
Still, it could be that only a portion of your power bill is covered by the solar coop, making the initial price from each member lower. Then more panels could be added slowly as members choose to invest small amounts each month, until over time all of their power usage is from solar.