What Happens When Your Solar Installer Goes Out of Business

Your solar installer promised 25 years of support. They gave you a production guarantee. They said they'd be there if anything went wrong. Then they filed for bankruptcy.

You're not alone. The residential solar industry has seen a wave of installer failures since 2022, and the pace is accelerating. Understanding what you've lost, what you still have, and what you can do about it is the first step to protecting your investment.

The Scale of the Problem

The numbers are stark. Installer bankruptcies have increased roughly sixfold since 2020. The highest-profile failures tell the story:

• SunPower — once the premium brand in residential solar, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in late 2024 after years of losses, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without installer support
• Sunnova — one of the largest residential solar financiers, entered financial distress affecting customers across dozens of states
• ADT Solar (formerly Sunpro Solar) — ADT exited the solar business entirely, leaving its customer base stranded
• Titan Solar Power, Pink Energy, SunRun dealer networks — regional and national installers that shut down, merged, or abandoned service obligations

Industry estimates suggest that over 1 million residential solar systems in the United States are now "orphaned" — installed by companies that no longer exist in any operational capacity. That number grows every quarter.

What You Lose When Your Installer Disappears

Your Production Guarantee — Probably Gone

A production guarantee is a contractual obligation between you and the installer. When the installer ceases to exist, that obligation generally becomes an unsecured claim in bankruptcy proceedings. In practical terms, you will almost certainly never collect on it. Production guarantees are not backed by bonds or insurance in the vast majority of residential solar contracts.

Your Workmanship Warranty — Gone

The installer's workmanship warranty — covering roof penetrations, wiring, racking, and installation quality — dies with the company. If your roof starts leaking around a penetration five years from now, the installer won't be there to fix it. You'll pay out of pocket, and your homeowner's insurance may or may not cover it depending on your policy.

Your Ongoing Monitoring and Service — Gone

Many installers provided monitoring through their own platforms or managed your equipment monitoring accounts on your behalf. When they go under, those platforms may shut down, and you may lose access to your own production data. If you don't have direct access to your Enphase Enlighten or SolarEdge account — separate from the installer's portal — establish that immediately.

What You Keep

Equipment Manufacturer Warranties — Usually Intact

This is the good news. Your panel manufacturer's warranty (typically 25 years for defects, 25-30 years for production) and your inverter manufacturer's warranty (25 years for Enphase microinverters, 12-25 years for SolarEdge) survive your installer's bankruptcy. These warranties are between you and the manufacturer, not the installer.

However, there's a catch: the manufacturer will replace the defective equipment, but who installs it? You'll need to hire and pay another contractor for the labor. The original installer would have handled that. Now you're on your own.

Your Equipment — Yours

If you purchased your system outright (not a lease or PPA), the equipment is yours. No creditor can come take your panels. If you have a lease or PPA, the situation is more complicated — the leasing company (which may or may not be the same as the installer) still owns the equipment, and their financial obligations transfer to whoever acquires their portfolio.

What You Should Do Right Now

If your installer has already gone under — or if you're concerned they might — take these steps:

1. Secure Your Monitoring Access

Make sure you have your own login credentials for your inverter manufacturer's monitoring platform (Enphase Enlighten, SolarEdge Monitoring, etc.) that are not tied to the installer's account. If your system is registered under the installer's company account, contact the manufacturer to transfer ownership to your personal account. Do this now — before the installer's records disappear entirely.

2. Gather Your Documentation

Collect and store copies of:

• Your original contract (including production guarantee terms)
• System design documents and engineering plans
• Permit documentation and inspection certificates
• Equipment serial numbers for every panel and inverter
• Interconnection agreement with your utility
• Any correspondence about system performance or service

3. Register Your Equipment Warranties Directly

Contact Enphase, SolarEdge, or your panel manufacturer and verify that your equipment warranties are registered in your name with your correct address. Some installers register warranties under their company name. If the company disappears, proving warranty coverage becomes harder.

4. Get an Independent Performance Assessment

Without the installer to monitor and maintain your system, you need to know if it's performing correctly right now. A baseline assessment while your system is still under any remaining warranty coverage is valuable — if something is wrong, you can still make a manufacturer warranty claim before issues compound.

5. Find a Local Service Provider

Identify a local solar electrician or installer who services existing systems. Establish that relationship before you have an emergency. Not all installers do service work on systems they didn't install, so finding one now — when you're not desperate — gives you better options.

Why Independent Monitoring Matters More Than Ever

When your installer was in business, they had at least some incentive to keep your system performing — their reputation, their guarantee liability, their service contracts. With the installer gone, nobody is watching your system but you.

Silent failures — a microinverter that stops working, a circuit breaker that trips, a monitoring gateway that goes offline — can go undetected for months or years. Each month of undetected underperformance is money lost that you'll never recover.

And without the production guarantee as a safety net, every kilowatt-hour your system fails to produce comes directly out of your pocket. The guarantee would have compensated you for shortfalls. Now, the only protection you have is catching problems early and fixing them fast.

How OwlWatt Helps Orphaned Systems

OwlWatt was designed for exactly this situation. It connects to your existing monitoring hardware — Enphase, SolarEdge, or other platforms — and provides the independent oversight that your installer used to provide:

• Continuous performance verification against weather-adjusted baselines, so you know immediately when something is wrong
• Equipment failure alerts that catch silent microinverter or optimizer failures before they cost you months of lost production
• Production documentation that establishes a verified performance record — useful for manufacturer warranty claims, home sales, or future guarantee enforcement if your installer's obligations transfer to an acquiring company
• Bill verification to ensure your utility is correctly crediting your solar production under net metering

Your installer may be gone, but your solar system still has 15-20 years of productive life ahead of it. Protecting that investment doesn't require a new installer relationship. It requires independent monitoring that works regardless of who installed your system.