California cuts funding for nation’s largest virtual power plant
With California facing a $12 billion budget shortfall, the state’s lawmakers opted not only against a boost in funding for its flagship virtual power plant program as initially planned, but to not renew its funding all together.
California’s virtual power plant program helped prevent blackouts and reliance on fossil fuels. Now its future is in jeopardy.
Gov. Newsom pushed off making a decision over the fate of a program to prevent California’s blackouts and lower costs, but now his time to make a decision is running out — and so is the program’s funding.
Revised solar stock investment risks
The Invesco Solar ETF (TAN) underperformed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) in April 2025. Jesse Pichel of Roth Capital Partners attributes this to concern over proposals included in the U.S. administration’s budget reconciliation bill that could be detrimental to the solar industry.
Sunrun to close $431 million securitization
The company priced an oversubscribed securitization for a portfolio of over 63,318 solar and energy storage systems across 12 states and Washington D.C.
U.S. residential solar on the brink of collapse
Residential solar is on a downturn, and things may get worse. In a shock for the industry, the latest draft of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” excludes residential solar lease providers from the Investment Tax Credit.
Sunrun posts positive cash generation, rises on Q1 earnings report
The residential solar installer reached a new high of 69% battery attachment rates in the quarter.
Sunrun supports California grid with 75,000 distributed batteries
Through a customer opt-in, batteries are coordinated in a virtual power plant that is expected to dispatch 250 MW of power over 2-hour peak demand events.
Sunrun, PG&E launch virtual power plant program to strengthen California’s grid
The partnership will support the development of new long-term programs to meet the California Energy Commission’s load-shifting goals.
Residential solar declined 31% in 2024
Despite the down year, Wood Mackenzie forecasts the market to more than triple in size by 2035.
How to leverage virtual power plants for a better grid
A panel at RE+ Northeast 2025 discussed ways to maximize the value of virtual power plants so everyone on the grid wins.
