Sunrun, the largest residential solar installer in the U.S., gave a preliminary first-quarter update and withdrew its 2020 guidance due to “the impact of Covid-19 on our business.”
- Sunrun deployed 97 megawatts in Q1, compared to 413 MW for all of last year.
- The firm ended the quarter with $366 million in cash, an increase of $3 million from the previous quarter.
Just a few months ago, Sunrun had guided for deployments to grow 15% year-over-year, but the high-contact residential solar installation business is facing a harrowing next few quarters.
Sunrun laid off about 100 employees last week, according to Business Insider which reported that furloughed staff will continue to receive benefits for three months. Sungevity had mass layoffs last week, as reported by GTM. SunPower withdrew its 2020 guidance and its executives took pay cuts last month.
Accelerating the move to digital sales
Tesla eliminated door-to-door sales for its energy products in 2017 in order to lower customer acquisition costs and went completely online in its sales efforts in 2018. But these decisions were not motivated by a six-foot rule.
Sunrun is aiming to make the solar installation process as contact-free as possible by streamlining online permitting and interconnection and using drones to perform rooftop surveys.
Sunrun also believes that “this situation will accelerate adoption of automated, instantaneous permitting by local jurisdictions.”
Optimism in dark times
Sunrun notes, “In our direct business, despite installing less than expected due to the Covid-19 impact we did complete more installations in the second half of March than we did in the first half.”
Sunrun suggests that even if the country enters a prolonged downturn, people will still want solar as a money-saving source of reliable power. To that end, Sunrun just launched a home energy product that includes access to rooftop solar, with or without battery storage, for zero-money down and one dollar monthly payments for the first six months.
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Sales-addicted solar installers need to wake up and adapt. Online permitting? Drone surveys? What about god forbid letting people buy your product without a salesperson in their living room.
I bought my Sunrun system in 2018 and had it installed in 2019 and never met with a sales person in person. The technical people were here of course, but mostly on the roof or working with my electrical box inside.
What about panels that are already installed and working since Nov 2019 and now need service? They won’t come out and fix which I understand. But why wouldn’t they discount my monthly bill???
Panels installed since November of 2019 and “now need service”. Could you expand on that statement? What service does this panel installation need? I had the former solar PV Sanyo panels installed on a home in 2005 and didn’t need any kind of “service” on the panels than hosing them off if a bird migration created those power destroying “bird spots” on several panels in the array. Owned that system for 13 years and replaced one inverter under warranty with a refurbished “swap out” inverter.
From what you’ve said, it looks like you signed a “lease agreement” for a “regulated” electric bill for 20 years or so. Leasing a solar PV system and basically renting your roof for its installation creates the unenviable position of three people involved if you want to sell the home before the contract runs out. What happens to the solar PV on your roof IF this company files Bankruptcy? Is there a failure to perform clause in your agreement that “gives” you the system if the company goes bankrupt? What happens if this company is sold off to another company, what happens to your current contract with the “old company”? Is it carried over or do YOU have to renegotiate a new contract with the new company? From some comments on these leased systems, the residential contract does not favor the homeowner, but the company. “Buying out” the contract doesn’t always mean you own the system to sell as your own either.
I lease the panels. They installed 10 panels only 9 are working. They won’t come out and fix the 10th one until virus is over. They won’t discount my monthly bill for the one that is not working. It’s been out one month already
Sunrun hasn’t completed my installation,the solar panels are up but they are not connected yet. Due to me needing an upgrade on my fuse box. I haven’t heard from them.
Just meet with a Sun Run representative, HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. I am in California and a PG&E customer. The Sun Run Sales guy said he would be able to custom design a solar system for me based on my electricity usage and location of my home. The turned out to be a lie.
I found Sun Run’s software doesn’t work with PG&E’s rate plans. The system Sun Run’s software designed for 27 Sun Run panels and was to 100% off set my electricity bill. While that statement was true, what I finally got out of the Sun Run rep is 20 and even 15 panels would also do the same thing.
Sun Run’s software have been created to GROSSLY over estimate the number of solar panels PG&E customers actually need. VERY DECEPTIVE and DISHONEST.
Sounds like a breach to me… Look at your contract. I believe its 90 days for repairs.
Sunrun is beyond corrupt in its sales practices and online contracts… that you can’t truly grasp without a lawyer sitting next to you. Any third party reps should be very careful as rumor has it (and advise ALL customers who’ve been Sunrun duped) customers are looking into the “Deceptive Practices” laws. While any lease contract states you can’t collectively go after them directly as a class-action, there is NOTHING stopping us from going to our governors and state legislatures as a untied group. Pressing the FTC over and over is the goal.
Don’t be surprised if a website to start collecting customers accounts for the “deceptive practices” submission against Sunrun, individual sales reps trained by Sunrun and alike may be available soon enough.
I had my system installed and turned on 30 days ago, and it has underperformed from the start due to inverter issues.The system only works at 25%. I can’t wait to see if they send me a bill. Sun Run
Has there been a solution from Sunrun in regards to your inverter problems.
HORRIBLE or should I say NO customer service. My panels have been running at about 25% performance since NOV 2019. For months they told me that they needed a tool to test the system which they needed the budget for. Why wouldn’t they have that tool already if this is their business? Fast forward to August 2020. Ive been calling SunRun to have them resolve this and got thru a few times. I finally stopped paying my monthly lease bill from them and suddenly they outsourced the job to have our system looked at. It’s amazing that within a day of me telling them I would stop paying the bill that they called me back. The team showed upon 8/24/20, arrived, did some work and left. Never giving us an update before they left. Calling and emailing customer service is pointless. They haven’t picked up the phone since the repair guys were here. I have emailed, submitted tickets, left my number for a callback – no response from Sun Run. I still call daily. I did manage to get thru to someone once because my account flagged for non-payment – but they can only transfer me to the customer service line – which, you guessed it, doesn’t return calls!
I had my system installed a week ago and still waiting for the PTO from SoCal Edison and noticed on the system design plan that the micro inverters installed have a maximum output of 240watts and the solar panels maximum output is 310watts which means it will never produce the maximum capabilities of the solar panels. The contract states that the potential power production is 8.99kw with 29 panels but the micro inverter can actually output 6.96kw. Thats a difference of more than 2kw just because of the wrong micro inverter installed. I’m trying to get in touch Sunrun to help me with what I just found out and hopefully they call me soon.
Your SunRun salesman showed up at our door unannounced and was politely asked inside by my husband who had been woken from a nap and a little confused.. When I became aware of him he was with my husband (90) in our office. I asked him to leave as we had refused his offers when we had a scheduled appt earlier in the month. He just stood there and it took harsh words, a phone call from our son who was on vacation and calling us to say he’d arrived and several minutes for me to get him to leave. Possibly he did not understand our prior refusal and how alarming it is to elders to have someone not leave their home when asked. It certainly goes without saying that SunRun will not be our choice if we decide to install solar.