From the Desk of The CEO

I’ve been in this industry for more than two decades, and I’m also a master electrician. I still get into the weeds. I still walk jobs. I still look at systems, troubleshoot problems, and talk directly to customers. I am not sitting in some ivory tower reading consultant decks about what the market “might” do. I’m out in it. I can tell you plainly: this industry has changed, and any company pretending otherwise is already behind.

One of the clearest signs of that change is the growing number of orphaned solar systems across this country. When installers disappear, homeowners are left with equipment on their roofs and nobody accountable behind it. That is bad for customers, bad for confidence, and bad for the industry.

But here is where I want to be very clear: no serious company should confuse cleaning up yesterday’s mess with a real growth strategy. Yes, orphaned systems need service. Yes, somebody has to step in. But if your whole vision for the future is mopping up old maintenance projects, you are not building – you are babysitting the past. Real growth is taking the skills that still matter and applying them to what comes next.

Real growth is taking the skills that still matter – technical depth, execution, customer trust, problem-solving in the field – and applying them to the parts of the market that are growing now. That means broadening the model. It means leaning into the work we know how to do best and staying flexible enough to follow demand where it is actually going.

So to me, growth means moving and adjusting to where the market is going, not chaining yourself to where it has been. The world is not waiting for us to get sentimental about the old model. Customers are not waiting. Markets are not waiting. Policy is not waiting. Capital is not waiting. You either move with what you’ve learned, or you get run over.

For too long, parts of this industry were built around a version of solar that depended on easy financing, simple narratives, and volume for volume’s sake. Generate the lead, close the sale, move on. And that worked until it didn’t. Then financing tightened, incentives shifted, weaker players got exposed, and suddenly a lot of companies found out the hard way that momentum is not the same thing as a durable business.

That’s why I keep talking about diversification, adaptability, and execution. Not because they sound nice on an earnings call, but because those are the qualities that separate businesses that keep growing from those that stall out. Residential demand changes, sure. Commercial actually matters more. Service matters. Roofing matters. Electrical matters. Storage matters. The companies that survive and grow are the ones that build enough capability to shift with the market instead of defending an outdated identity.

Now, let me be contrarian for a minute. There are people in this market who still spend too much time looking backward. They want to recreate the exact conditions that made the old business easy. I think that is a loser’s game. I am not interested in rebuilding 2021. I am interested in building a company that wins in 2026, 2027, and beyond.

That means using what you have learned in the field and applying it to the markets and adjacencies where you are strongest. If you know how to design systems, install them correctly, wire them safely, manage customers, solve technical problems, and execute in the real world, those skills do not expire when the market shifts. They become even more valuable, but only if you are willing to move with them.

I have spent my career in the field, and one thing I have learned is that movement matters. On a jobsite, hesitation costs you. In business, it costs you too. While some people are standing on the sidewalk talking about what the market used to be, somebody else has already loaded up the truck, is building the next platform, entering the next vertical, earning the next customer, and figuring out the next revenue stream.

And that’s the real lesson in orphaned systems: when companies stop evolving, the market moves on without them. You leave behind customers, unfinished obligations, and distrust that somebody else has to clean up. That’s not leadership, it’s a warning. The smarter path is to build a business that can keep earning trust across residential, commercial, service, storage, roofing, and electrical work – wherever your skills create the most value next.

Of course service matters and of course accountability matters. If a customer needs help, a real operator shows up. I believe that deeply. But showing up is the absolute floor, not the ceiling. The real question is whether you are building a business that can solve more customer problems tomorrow than it did yesterday.

At SUNation, we are focused on what lies ahead. That means staying close to the customer, staying disciplined, and staying flexible enough to pivot when the market pivots. It means not being dependent on one product, one incentive, one financing structure, or one chapter of the industry. It means building a broader energy business that can keep moving.

Because growth is not nostalgia. Growth is not maintenance. Growth is not standing still and hoping the old days come back. Growth is movement. Growth is adjustment. Growth is taking everything you have learned, getting your hands dirty, and pushing forward anyway.

The companies that win from here will not be the ones that miss the old market. They will be the ones that are built for the next one.