Sungevity's Bankruptcy: What It Says About Residential Solar

Energy Gang

Wood Mackenzie

Tech News, Environment, Sustainability, Innovation, Renewable Energy, Technology, Alternative Energy, Energy, News, Cleantech, Wind Energy, Business, Climate Change, Solar Energy

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2017

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sungevity was founded in 2007 with a promise of revolutionize solar sales through software. It sparked a move toward the "platform" approach to customer acquisition and sales. Sungevity eventually built up its sales, procurement and financing in-house -- peaking as the number-three residential solar company in 2014. Over the years, the company's cash-burn rate increased and Sungevity started outsourcing more of its operations. This month, after failing to close bridge financing, the company declared bankruptcy and sold off its financing platform. Would Sungevity have survived if it had stuck simply to lead generation? On this week's podcast, we'll look at Sungevity's struggles. We'll compare Sungevity's problems with other residential solar companies that have failed or faced challenges. We’re joined by Nicole Litvak, a senior analyst with GTM Research’s solar team, who will provide some insight into the sustainability of the national installation and sales model. Then, Trump’s executive order on climate change is finally here. But it’s not changing the minds of any utilities. We’ll talk about what’s in it, and discuss the difference between political optics and reality. Jigar will also share his disdain for the America versus China narrative that often frames this topic. This podcast is sponsored by KACO New Energy, a leading solar inverter company with superior engineering and unmatched customer service: http://kaco-newenergy.com/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, before we get started, a quick word about some live shows we have coming up as part of GTM's most important events of the year.
0:07.0	First, we're going to be on stage at our 10th annual Solar Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona on May 18th.
0:13.2	I can't actually believe that we've been doing this for 10 years.
0:16.8	We've already got the biggest names in the solar industry confirmed to attend and
0:19.9	speak, and we've got a packed agenda of topics that include solar software, energy
0:24.6	storage, finance, community solar, corporate procurement, balance of systems, and a
0:29.7	whole lot more. And the gang will be there for a spirited conversation as always. The Solar Summit is from
0:35.2	May 17th to the 18th. Then our Expo and Conference, called the Grid Edge World Forum, is coming up on June 27th and 29th in San Jose.
0:44.3	We're also doing a live show there.
0:46.1	Last year we had over a thousand people attend with folks from 60 utilities.
0:51.0	This year we're partnering with the European Utility Week to bring in the biggest power companies from around the world.
0:57.0	And as I said, the gang will be there for a live show.
0:59.0	You can get a 10% discount right now if you sign up and use the promo code energy gang all one word energy
1:06.1	gang just go to green tech media dot com slash events for more information and use the
1:11.0	promo code energy gang on checkout to get your discount. We would love to see you there.
1:16.0	And of course the podcast is brought to you by the good folks at Kako New Energy, the fastest growing solar inverter company in the Americas.
1:23.7	Kako has been in business for more than a hundred years and has been making superior
1:28.2	German quality PV inverters since the 1990s.
1:31.3	It's been manufacturing many of them right in San Antonio, Texas since 2013.
1:36.2	With a wide range of residential, commercial, and utility scale inverters, Kako works with developers
1:40.7	and installers in every corner of the solar market, making it the preferred
1:44.4	brand in the U.S. and throughout the Americas. Learn more about Kako's superior quality
	...

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