Michael Noble Jr./San Francisco Chronicle via Getty ImagesThe Texas grid crisis is set to fuel demand for rooftop solar panels and batteries.
After the Texas grid operator shut off power to millions of state residents last month, web traffic to Sunrun, the nation's largest installer of rooftop solar panels and home batteries, shot up 350% in the state. In October 2019, the California utility Pacific Gas and Electric shut off electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes in the Bay Area to prevent power lines from sparking wildfires. That month, the number of Sunrun customers in the region who chose to add batteries to their solar systemsThe last three months of 2019 saw record rooftop solar installations, said Bryan White, an analyst at the research firm Wood Mackenzie.
After acquiring rival Vivint Solar in October, Sunrun is, by far, the nation's largest rooftop firm, with more than 550,000 customers, dwarfing competitors Tesla and Sunnova. It now controls about 15% of the market, White said.
Residential solar is highly competitive and sold at too low a price in TX for SunRun to compete profitably. Of course, they have access to credit to fund capex so maybe that won’t be a concern for them.
In Texas, somebody who already had solar hit ROI in three hours.