Could another stalwart of the U.S. residential solar industry really be headed for that big photovoltaic field in the sky?
It seems that way, according to industry sources and The Wall Street Journal, which has reported that Sunnova Energy International skipped a bond interest payment in April and entered into a 30-day grace period that expired May 1. The missed payment was on $400 million in 11.75% senior notes maturing in 2028.
The Houston-based, publicly-traded solar installer is reportedly working with stakeholders to reduce debt and increase its financial flexibility ahead of a potential bankruptcy filing and/or a bridge loan to restructure its roughly $8.5 billion in debt outside of a courtroom.
Sunnova recently appointed 41-year-old Ryan Omohundro as chief restructuring officer. Omohundro has about two decades of experience in reworking debt. Last month, Sunnova took out a $185 million loan from KKR & Co. to continue paying independent contractors to install and maintain its solar systems.
Per multiple reports, negotiations are active and ongoing, and no final decision has been made. Sunnova was unable to be reached for comment.
The Money Pit of Residential Solar
This week, fellow residential solar giant Sunpower, which filed for bankruptcy last year before rising from the ashes as a rebranded version of Complete Solaria and a collection of other asses, posted its first profitable quarterly financial report in for years. The impetus behind SunPower’s sudden turn towards profitability isn’t tough to suss out – they laid everybody off.
When the new version of the company was launched, it boasted 3,499 employees, the combined headcounts of Complete Solar, SunPower, and Blue Raven Solar. On October 1, 2024, staffing was slashed by about two-thirds, reducing the number of employees to 1,140. SunPower executives initially set a target headcount at 1,225, then chopped it down to 980. SunPower currently has just 906 employees, just one-quarter the size of its former self.
“We are at the right headcount to be profitable at $300 million in annualized revenue,” reads part of the company’s Q1 2025 report, which deems the company is “now properly and leanly staffed.”
Continuous cost-cutting measures have increased SunPower’s operating income over the last three quarters from a $39.6 million loss in Q3 2024 (unofficial sum of losses for three companies), to a loss of $5.9 million in Q4 2024 (audited), to a $1.3 million operating profit in Q1 2025.
Now, new threats are crunching the already tight margins of the residential side of the industry: unpredictable tariffs and backpedaling renewable energy policy. Meanwhile, solar panels just keep getting cheaper and more efficient. Residential solar and storage prices have both reached new all-time lows, according to the 20th EnergySage Intel: Solar & Storage Marketplace Report released Wednesday. Solar prices dropped for a third consecutive six-month period, down to $2.50 per watt, the lowest median price since EnergySage started tracking data in 2014. Quoted storage prices also fell, setting a new record low of $999 per kilowatt-hour stored.
