Solar’s Next Act, According to Tom Werner
This week on The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon sits down with Tom Werner, who led SunPower from 2003 to 2020 and helped build it into one of the world's largest solar companies.
Tom has ridden the solar coaster through booms, busts, policy changes and technology revolutions. And his assessment of 2026? It's actually worse than he expected.
In some U.S. markets, Tom says residential solar is down 25–50% or more, as the industry deals with the loss of the residential tax credit, changing net-metering economics and a difficult transition to new financing models.
But zoom out, and the picture gets much more interesting.
Episode Highlights:
• How badly the market has fallen since the tax credit disappeared
• Why falling battery prices could change the equation
• Why exploding electricity demand could revive distributed solar
• How AI and data centers are creating enormous new grid loads
• Why Virtual Power Plants could finally become a major opportunity
• Why Tom, once skeptical of solar financing now says installers have to embrace it
• How homes are slowly becoming their own miniature utilities
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