Solar's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year — Now What?
- 3 hours ago
- 1 min read
With the 30% residential solar tax credit gone, the industry entered the year expecting installations to fall by as much as 20–30%. But rising electricity rates, cheaper batteries, new financing products and an increasingly unreliable grid are changing the math yet again.
This week on The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon talks with Charlie Herche, CEO of Aurora Solar, about where the residential solar and storage industry actually stands and what comes next.
Episode Highlights:
• Why residential solar installations are down in 2026
• Why batteries are becoming even more important to solar economics
• How prepaid leases and PPAs can still capture federal tax incentives
• What homeowners should look for when buying solar and storage
• Why Virtual Power Plants could become a major source of value
• How AI is changing solar design, sales and permitting
• Whether balcony solar could become the "gateway drug" to rooftop solar
• What installers need to do to survive and thrive in this market
• Why Charlie expects solar and storage growth to begin recovering in 2027
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