Which Solar Companies Are Going Bankrupt in 2026 — The Watch List

Five major residential solar companies have filed bankruptcy in the last 24 months. The pattern is now visible enough to predict, and homeowners with active contracts at companies showing the same warning signs need to know what is coming and what to do about it.

This article does two things. First, it documents the bankruptcies that have already happened — Sunnova (2024), SunPower (2024), Sunlight Financial (2024), Solar Mosaic (2025), Freedom Forever (April 15, 2026). Second, it identifies the companies showing the same financial distress signals as those that have already filed, with honest analysis of which look most at risk and why.

This is not financial advice. It is consumer protection content based on public filings, industry reports, and customer complaint data. If your installer is on the watch list, the message is not "panic" — it is "document, prepare, and understand your legal options before you need them." Stick with me.

The Five Bankruptcies Already Filed

Sunnova Energy International (March 2024)

Sunnova was one of the largest residential solar service providers in the country, focused primarily on third-party-owned systems (leases and PPAs) rather than direct sales. Filed for Chapter 11 in March 2024 under pressure from tightening financing markets, declining new installations, and accumulating service obligations on its installed base.

The Sunnova bankruptcy is consequential because of what came after. SunStrong Management took over Sunnova's customer accounts and explicitly refused to honor the original Sunnova production guarantees and warranty obligations, stating in writing that SunStrong did not assume those obligations. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong opened a formal investigation of SunStrong on March 26, 2026. (Read the full SunStrong breakdown.)

SunPower Corporation (August 2024)

SunPower was a household name in residential solar, dating back to 1985, with high-end equipment and premium pricing. Filed Chapter 11 in August 2024 after years of declining margins, leadership turmoil, and the broader residential solar contraction.

SunPower customer warranty obligations also flowed to SunStrong Management — and SunStrong refused to honor those too. SunPower customers face the same warranty crisis as Sunnova customers, with the same CT AG investigation in progress.

Sunlight Financial (Late 2024)

Sunlight Financial was one of the largest dedicated solar lenders, funding deals through enrolled-installer networks. Filed bankruptcy in late 2024 after rising interest rates compressed margins and a consumer protection enforcement environment increased liability exposure.

Sunlight customers' loans typically continue to be serviced by entities that acquired the portfolio, but the bankruptcy creates strong FTC Holder Rule attack opportunities for borrowers whose installers also failed to perform. (Read the FTC Holder Rule breakdown.)

Solar Mosaic (2025)

Solar Mosaic was a $15 billion solar fintech lender at its peak. Filed Chapter 11 in 2025 amid mounting consumer protection pressure — nearly 160 CFPB complaints since 2019, the active Minnesota Attorney General lawsuit (Hennepin County 27-CV-24-3558), and stacking California and Tennessee cases. Forbright Bank acquired Mosaic's $8 billion-plus servicing portfolio in a 91-day liquidation.

For homeowners with Mosaic loans, the bankruptcy creates additional FTC Holder Rule and dealer fee misrepresentation claim opportunities. (Read the complete dealer fee breakdown.)

Freedom Forever (April 15, 2026)

Freedom Forever was one of the largest residential solar installers in the U.S., with heavy presence in Texas, California, Arizona, and the Mid-Atlantic. Filed Chapter 11 on April 15, 2026 — just nine days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into Freedom Forever and Sunrun for deceptive sales practices.

The Freedom Forever bankruptcy is the most recent and most actively unfolding. Customers have a 90-day window in which individual settlements receive the most favorable terms before the bankruptcy estate consolidates positions. (Read the complete Freedom Forever cancellation playbook.)

The Watch List — Companies Showing the Same Signals

The companies below are NOT in bankruptcy as of April 2026. The analysis here is based on public financial signals — SEC filings where applicable, customer complaint volume, layoff announcements, executive departures, debt covenant pressure, and industry trade press coverage. None of this is a prediction of imminent bankruptcy. It is a documentation of which companies show the same warning pattern as those that have already filed.

If your installer is on this list, the right response is to prepare — pull your documents now, understand your legal options, and be ready to act quickly if circumstances change.

Sunrun

The largest residential solar company in the U.S. by installations. Subject to two active state Attorney General investigations as of April 2026: Texas (announced April 6, 2026, jointly with Freedom Forever) and prior actions in other states. Customer service complaints have escalated through the CFPB database. Sunrun acquired Vivint Solar in 2020, and Vivint customer service quality reportedly degraded substantially post-merger.

Sunrun's financial position is not as fragile as the companies that filed in 2024-2025, but the regulatory and litigation pressure is mounting in a pattern similar to what preceded Sunnova's filing. (Read the Texas AG Sunrun investigation breakdown and the Sunrun lease analysis.)

Vivint Solar (now part of Sunrun)

Vivint Solar customers technically have Sunrun as their counterparty post-merger, but the customer service operations have remained substantially separate, with documented degradation in responsiveness, warranty handling, and production guarantee performance. Many Vivint-era customers report being unable to reach anyone authorized to address their issues.

If Sunrun encounters financial distress, Vivint customers' positions likely deteriorate first because the Vivint customer book is already underperforming and may be deprioritized in any reorganization scenario.

Trinity Solar

Heavy New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Mid-Atlantic presence. Privately held, so financial information is limited. Customer complaint volume in BBB and CFPB databases has increased meaningfully in 2024-2025. Multiple state consumer protection investigations are reportedly in early stages, though none have produced public actions as of April 2026.

The New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (mandatory treble damages) creates particularly high liability exposure for any installer with NJ concentration. Trinity's NJ-heavy book is a financial pressure point if litigation materializes.

Lumio Solar

Lumio formed in 2022 through the merger of multiple struggling regional installers. Reorganization activity has continued since, with reports of layoffs and operational restructuring. Customer complaint volume is elevated relative to peer companies. The merged structure complicates any post-failure customer recovery scenario because customer accounts may sit in different legal entities than the entity that signed original contracts.

Vision Solar

Multiple state Attorney General actions against Vision Solar over the last 24 months — including New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The regulatory pressure pattern matches what preceded Attyx's regulatory actions in New York. Vision Solar customers should pull documents and document warranty/service failures now.

Lone Star Solar (Texas)

Texas-based installer named in Texas AG Paxton's April 6, 2026 investigation announcement (alongside Sunrun and Freedom Forever). The Texas AG investigation creates direct legal exposure that often precedes financial distress.

CAM Solar (Texas)

Also named in the Texas AG investigation announcement. Same pattern as Lone Star — direct AG enforcement attention often precedes financial restructuring or customer-impacting changes.

The Pattern: Why This Is Happening

The residential solar industry contraction is not random. Five forces are pushing installers and lenders toward financial distress:

Force 1: Residential installations declined sharply. CFPB data and SEIA industry reports show residential solar installations declined approximately 31 percent in 2024 from 2023 peak levels. New install volume is what funds existing service obligations on the legacy customer book — when new installs decline, service economics break.

Force 2: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut tax credits short by 7 years. The federal Investment Tax Credit was scheduled to remain at 30 percent through 2032. The 2025 OBBBA legislation accelerated the phase-down, removing a major economic driver of residential solar adoption. This affects both new sales (smaller addressable market) and existing customer satisfaction (some customers were sold on tax credit assumptions that turned out wrong).

Force 3: Customer service costs from prior installations are accumulating. Solar systems sold in 2018-2022 are now hitting their 5-7 year mark, when warranty claims, inverter replacements, and production guarantee shortfalls become substantial expenses. Installers who sold on aggressive savings projections are now responsible for service economics that the original deals did not fund.

Force 4: State Attorney General enforcement is accelerating. Texas, New York, Connecticut, California, Minnesota, Tennessee, and other state AGs have all opened solar-related actions in the last 18 months. Defending these cases is expensive. Settling them is more expensive. Adverse rulings can establish precedent that triggers waterfall liability across the entire customer book.

Force 5: The financing layer is collapsing. Sunlight Financial bankruptcy. Solar Mosaic bankruptcy. The lenders that funded the residential solar boom are facing their own consumer protection liability under the FTC Holder Rule and state UDAP statutes. As lenders restructure or exit, the financing options available to new customers narrow, accelerating the installation decline (Force 1) in a feedback loop.

None of these forces are reversing in the short term. The installers most exposed to all five — heavy customer book accumulation, sales-driven economics, regulatory exposure, lender concentration risk — are the most at risk for 2026 and 2027 bankruptcies.

What to Do If Your Installer Is on the Watch List

The single most valuable action: document everything now, before any bankruptcy filing or operational change. Documents that are easy to obtain from a functioning company become very difficult to obtain after a Chapter 11 filing.

What Bankruptcy Means for Existing Customers

Three things to understand if your installer files:

1. Your loan does NOT automatically disappear. The loan is between you and the lender, not the installer. Bankruptcy of the installer does not extinguish the loan. You remain legally obligated unless and until you successfully attack the loan through legal mechanisms (FTC Holder Rule, TILA rescission, state UDAP, common-law fraud).

2. Your warranty is functionally dead even if technically alive. Bankrupt installers can "reject" executory contracts (warranties, service agreements) under 11 U.S.C. § 365. Rejection counts as pre-petition breach. Your warranty claim becomes an unsecured creditor claim in the bankruptcy, typically paying 5-15 cents on the dollar. Practical reality: warranty calls go unanswered well before any formal rejection.

3. The 90-day window after filing is when individual settlements get most favorable. Lenders are most willing to engage with FTC Holder Rule claims early in the bankruptcy process before broader settlement frameworks consolidate. State AG investigations of installers in active bankruptcy generate discovery that supports individual cases. Customers who already have documentation in hand can act quickly; customers starting from scratch lose ground.

Here Is What Actually Happens When We Take Your Case

We are not a referral mill. We review every case before we take it. If you meet the criteria — and most homeowners reading an article like this one do — here is what typically happens:

Outcome #1: Your contract gets completely canceled. You keep the system.

Read that again. That $30,000 loan, that $80,000 loan, that $150,000 loan — gone. Wiped. And the equipment on your roof? You keep it. It is yours. Hire a local electrician or solar tech to clean it up and tie it in properly, and you have got a functioning solar system for the cost of a service call.

Not a typo. That is the best-case outcome, and it is what we push for on every case we accept.

Outcome #2: Your loan gets massively reduced. Typically 40% to 60%.

Every case is different, but the pattern is consistent:

• A $150,000 loan knocked down to around $75,000
• A $70,000 loan cut to $35,000
• A $175,000 loan restructured to something you can actually live with

If we cannot completely kill the contract, we fight like hell to get the principal slashed — and we have a track record of doing it.

If we take your case and cannot deliver either outcome?

You get 40% of your fee back after we have exhausted every angle. That is our guarantee, in writing. Nobody else in this space puts that on paper. We do — because we only take cases we believe in.

The Bottom Line

Five major residential solar bankruptcies in 24 months is a pattern, not a coincidence. The forces driving those bankruptcies — declining new installations, accelerated tax credit phase-down, accumulating service obligations, state AG enforcement, financing layer collapse — are still in motion and not reversing.

The watch list above is not a prediction. It is a documentation of which companies show the same financial and regulatory signals as those that have already filed. Sunrun, Trinity Solar, Vivint (under Sunrun), Lumio, Vision Solar, Lone Star Solar, and CAM Solar all warrant the "document now, prepare for legal action" treatment.

If your installer is on the list, the message is not panic. The legal frameworks to attack solar contracts work better when documentation is complete and timely. If your installer files Chapter 11 with you having a complete file, your case is strong and your settlement leverage is high. If your installer files with you scrambling for documents you should have pulled six months earlier, your case is harder.

The equipment on your roof works. The contract structure around it is what is breaking — and breaking faster, in more companies, than most homeowners realize. Document while you can.

Related Reading

• 14 Legal Loopholes That Can Kill a Solar Contract
• How to Cancel a Freedom Forever Contract After Bankruptcy
• Freedom Forever Files Chapter 11 — The Full Breakdown
• SunStrong Will Not Honor Sunnova & SunPower Warranties — CT AG Investigates
• FTC Holder Rule Explained — The Federal Law That Makes Your Lender Pay
• The Hidden Dealer Fee — How Lenders Added 30% to Your Loan
• Texas AG Investigates Sunrun and Freedom Forever for Solar Fraud
• Momentum Solar Complaints 2026