The author finally caved and got solar panels. It turned out to be a huge mistake.
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The Lede
At a time when solar is most needed to stave off the climate crisis, much of the industry is cooling. Over the past few years, high interest rates have decimated demand for residential solar, resulting in layoffs, questionable financial engineering that's been compared to the subprime-lending crisis that sparked the Great Recession, and many, many bankruptcies. As it's only getting hotter, the solar industry threatens to leave us in the dark.
Key Details
- From 2015 to 2022, residential solar installations climbed by an average of 15% a year. Often, homeowners enter into arrangements like power purchase agreements, in which there are no up-front costs.
- But the author missed several signs that SunPower, along with much of the solar industry, was in a downward spiral. The company lost $200 million in 2023, and 2024 was looking to be worse.
- "This industry is rife with fraud," Gordon Johnson, the founder and CEO of the equity-research firm GLJ Research, said.
