Is this the effective trend in 2026? Small and large seller-installers both see reduced sales. But the smaller operations have less ability to withstand the shrinkage, and some of the larger ones pull more sales and service inhouse to reduce costs, making it even worse for the smaller guys.
SunRun pivots to direct sales
This isn't new, and it isn't clear if any of the buyers who were ripped off up to 4 years ago will ever be made whole, but at least these scam artists are being held accountable in the legal sense. The details of one of the owner's steady transfer of funds to personal accounts - and not apparently a salary pull - is the kind of action that makes people not trust solar installers these days. The challenge for the reputable folks just gets a little harder.
I'm curious if anyone knows of a website or a source/service that is keeping tabs on the installer departures since the start of 2026. When larger outfits like Posigen or Freedom Forever bail, it's big news and easy to find because of the financial turbulence that's involved with bigger defaults. But I'm also interested in finding the mom-and-pop or localized departures (e.g. just one state).
To be upfront, my interest is in helping clients that are interested in becoming the replacement service partner. And I've monitored some of the known insurance and legal sites that have been tracking that for a while. But all that I've followed seem to have stopped updating before the end of last year. Perhaps that means so many are failing, they no longer care to track it? Don't know.