Solar installer bankruptcies strand homeowners with no warranty coverage and incomplete systems

Between 2023 and 2025, a wave of major residential solar companies filed for bankruptcy -- SunPower, Sunnova Energy, Solcius Solar, ADT Solar, Titan Solar Power, Kayo Energy -- leaving tens of thousands of homeowners stranded mid-installation or without warranty support. Homeowners who signed contracts and paid deposits found themselves with half-finished roof penetrations, disconnected wiring, and no company to call. Others had functioning systems but lost their 10-25 year workmanship warranties overnight. This matters because a residential solar system is a 25-year infrastructure commitment bolted to your roof. When an installer goes bankrupt, the workmanship warranty -- which covers the labor-intensive part like roof leak repairs, wiring fixes, and panel remounting -- vanishes. Equipment warranties from manufacturers like Enphase or REC still technically exist, but manufacturers cover parts only, not the $400-$800 labor cost to climb on your roof, remove panels, and swap a failed microinverter. Finding a new installer willing to service someone else's system is difficult because they inherit liability for work they didn't do, and most charge premium rates for orphaned system service calls. This problem persists because the residential solar industry's business model is structurally fragile. Installers operate on razor-thin margins and depend on a continuous pipeline of new installations to stay solvent. When interest rates rose in 2023-2024, consumer financing dried up, installation volume cratered 31% in 2024, and companies that had scaled aggressively on cheap debt couldn't survive the contraction. There is no industry-wide warranty insurance requirement, no bonding mandate, and no consumer protection fund. Unlike home builders who must post surety bonds in most states, solar installers can fold and leave customers with zero recourse beyond filing a claim in bankruptcy court -- where unsecured consumer claims recover pennies on the dollar.