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.
So to summarise the challenges the industry is facing:
- Tariffs on Aluminium - Trump
- Tariffs on Solar imports - Trump
- Sudden loss of federal grants that covered 30% of the cost for installation (was due to run til 2030 now slashed) - Trump
- Slashing of the fees owners get for selling money to the grid by 75% - Oil industry lobbying / Trump
To call this “macro economic” issues is bizarre. All of this is due to government policy and actions. It’s also notable that the rest of the world’s solar industry is not collapsing. Trump.and the republicans are selling out US consumers to prop up the oil industry and tax cuts for the rich.
Marthirial@lemmy.world 29 minutes ago
Here in Texas, leasing solar is a scam and there are no meaningful savings unless adding decent batteries often not provided by the leasing companies.
Instead, we chose a provider that offers 100% green electricity.