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Sunnova, a commercial and residential solar and storage company, saw its shares fall 71% after the company cast doubt on its ability to stay in business, and as political tides turn the United States back toward fossil fuels.
In its Q4 2024 financial results, Sunnova revealed that customer agreements and incentives rose by 43% ($163 million) but solar system and product sales revenue fell by 13% ($441 million), PV Magazine reports. This reveal followed the announcement from last month that Sunnova would cut around 15% of its workforce, nearly 300 positions, in an effort to focus on efficiency and cash generation.
The financial report released by Sunnova reads: “Our unrestricted cash, cash flows from operating activities and availability and commitments under existing financing agreements are not sufficient to meet obligations and fund operations for a period of at least one year from the date we issue our consolidated financial statements without implementing additional measures to manage our working capital, secure additional tax equity investment commitments or waivers of conditions to access existing tax equity commitments, and refinance certain of our obligations.”
The report also noted that “substantial doubt exists regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year from the date we issue our consolidated financial statements,” adding that the company can offer no assurances that it will be able to successfully implement any of these plans or obtain financing.
The news came just after First Solar announced it was experiencing more customer delays, and Sunrun said it was expecting few installations this year, Bloomberg reports. With solar PV lingering in the Trump administration’s crosshairs, such instability (even from top-tier cleantech companies) may be a sign of what’s to come.
WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO SOLAR IN THE U.S.?
It’s no secret that President Trump isn’t a fan of renewables, including solar. In January, in his first sit-down interview after being sworn in, Trump beat a familiar-sounding drum when discussing wind power, before steering his sights toward another renewable energy mainstay: solar photovoltaics.
“I don’t like wind. The wind blows, then it doesn’t blow. The things cost a fortune, they’re made in China, they kill the birds,” Trump told Sean Hannity on Fox News. “They’re horrible. We don’t want windmills in this country.”
“You know what else people don’t like?,” the President continued, uninterrupted. “Those massive solar fields built over land that covers 10 miles by 10 miles. I mean, they’re ridiculous, the whole thing.”
“By the way, you know where the panels come from?” he added. “100% of the solar panels come from China.”
There are certainly pockets of anti-utility-scale solar sentiment across the United States, particularly in agricultural communities worried about right-of-ways infringing upon workable land. But not all farmers are opposed to the projects, many are staunch supporters, and dual-use initiatives (agrivoltaics) are becoming more commonplace to assuage some concerns about maintaining the heritage of farmland co-opted for clean energy generation.
Solar industry analyst Wood Mackenzie is already predicting the trend of scorching solar growth will simmer in 2025, assessing new global installations this year to total approximately 493 gigawatts (GW), down slightly from the 495 GW added in 2024.
China has a global stranglehold on solar panel manufacturing due in part to unfairly low prices enabled by questionable labor tactics, but not all panels are made there. Plenty of other countries make them, including the United States. There are several robust solar panel manufacturing facilities under construction in the U.S. right now, promising to pump out domestically-made products in the coming years, and homemade capacity for modules is already adequate. A September 2024 report showed solar module manufacturing capacity in the United States now exceeds 31 GW, a nearly four-fold increase since the Inflation Reduction Act became law in 2022.
