From the Desk of The CEO
The Case for Solar Gets Stronger Every Time Rates Rise
Scott Maskin CEO, SUNation Energy
“For all the noise around tax credits, incentives, and whatever Washington is doing this week, the long-term case for solar in high-cost markets comes back to one word: control.”
A tax credit can affect timing. It can get someone off the fence. But it does not change the underlying math, and it does not change the underlying problem. If power is already expensive and keeps getting more expensive, people are still going to look for a way to protect themselves. That is exactly why SUNation has continued to say that in markets like New York and Hawaii, the value proposition for solar and storage remains compelling.
Energy Independence Starts at Home
Where SUNation operates, on Long Island and in Hawaii, electricity prices are already high enough to make the economics of solar especially relevant. In markets like that, solar and storage aren’t luxury purchases or abstract environmental statements. They are real tools for homeowners who want more control over monthly bills, more control over energy supply, and less exposure to an essential household cost they cannot fully control. SUNation has said plainly that these are the kinds of markets where the economics work best, even as financing options evolve and federal support changes.
That matters because most Americans do not think about independence in academic terms. They think about it when the mortgage hits, when groceries cost more, when insurance goes up, and when the utility bill shows up higher again. People want the ability to make their own decisions, protect their homes, their businesses, and their budgets, and reduce exposure to systems that keep getting more expensive. Energy is one of the clearest examples of that today, and every rate increase drives home the same truth: energy independence is not just a national issue. It is a kitchen-table issue for households and small businesses alike.
Subsidies Come and Go. Expensive Power Stays.
That is why any solar conversation needs be framed less around subsidies and more around self-determination. Yes, incentives matter. They can accelerate a purchase and create urgency. But the core consumer problem is not the presence or absence of a tax credit. The core problem is that grid power in many places, especially SUNation’s core geographies, is expensive enough to make people actively look for another option. When the pain point is real, the product stays relevant.
And remember, people are not just buying panels for a roof. This isn’t maintenance cash burn on shingle and paint. Customers are buying predictability in a household budget and protection against future rate hikes. They are buying resilience. They are buying flexibility for the way people actually live now, with more devices, more batteries, more electronics, and more energy demand sitting right inside the home. For EV owners, the case gets even stronger. If gas prices rise and power prices rise with them, the ability to charge at home from your own solar system is beyond convenient – it’s the path toward lower family operating costs and a whole lot more independence.
It Only Gets More Compelling From Here
Looking ahead, this may become even more pronounced. SUNation has already pointed to AI, crypto, and data centers as major emerging power consumers that could reshape demand, and management has argued that every increase in energy prices makes the solar decision easier and more palatable in high-cost markets. If that trend continues, the appeal of controlling more of your own energy profile is only likely to grow.
That is why high-cost power markets are not abstract green-energy stories. They are affordability stories. They are kitchen-table stories. They are about helping everyday people stop being price-takers on something they cannot live without. Washington can change the rules and utilities can raise the rates, but the basic consumer instinct is not changing: people want more control, not less. In high-cost markets, that is why solar keeps making sense.
~ Scott Maskin
Think Like Energy
Scott Maskin CEO, SUNation Energy
“One of the biggest mistakes this industry has made is building too many companies around too narrow an idea of what the business actually is. For years, too many operators have acted as if being a ‘solar company’ was enough. They build around one product, one financing structure, one incentive regime, one sales motion, and assume the market will keep cooperating. Sure, that model may work in the easy years, but it doesn’t hold up when the market changes.”
And the market always changes. Administrations rotate – policies shift. Economies swing – financing tightens. Technologies advance – customer preferences evolve. Utility friction shows up when you least want it to. Equipment costs move. Demand moves. What looked like a durable business can turn out to be a tactic with a short shelf life. In more than two decades in this industry, I’ve learned that unpleasant surprises are rarely due to bad luck. They’re what happens when people ignore reality for too long.
The reality is that customers are not waking up every day thinking about solar. I do, of course, but most people are thinking about their electric bill, backup power, resiliency, maintenance, reliability, and whether the company they choose will still be around when they need service later. That means the real business we’re in isn’t selling solar panels. We’re solving energy problems at the consumer level.
That is why I believe the next generation of winners will not be defined by who was best at selling one solar product in one set of market conditions. They’ll be defined by who can operate across a broader energy landscape. The companies that win will be the ones that understand generation, storage, load, service, economics, and customer behavior, and that can adapt as those variables change. In other words, they will think like energy companies, not just solar companies.
That distinction matters more now because the mono-line model has shown its limits. If your business depends too heavily on one revenue stream, one incentive structure, or one channel to market, then every policy shift or financing disruption becomes a defining event. We’ve watched that play out across the sector. By contrast, diversified operators have more levers to pull, more ways to serve customers, and more resilience when one part of the market slows down.
To me, diversification isn’t a buzzword. It‘s about having options and operating discipline. Residential matters. Commercial matters. Service matters. Roofing matters. Electrical work matters. Over time, other adjacencies may matter too. The point is not to chase everything. The point is to build a business with multiple capabilities that reinforce one another and make the whole platform more durable.
A strong energy company uses the skills it already has and applies them more broadly. Technical knowledge. Field execution. Permitting. system design. Customer trust. Service infrastructure. Local operating experience. Energy economics. Those are not narrow solar skills. Those are the building blocks of a real energy platform.
That is how I have always thought about the business, probably because that is how I came up in it. I am a master electrician. I still like being in the field, on jobs, around crews, in the details. I bend wires. I ask questions. I get involved. When you come up that way, you do not see this business as a marketing funnel. You see it as an interconnected electrical and energy system with real customers, real buildings, real loads, and real consequences if you get it wrong.
That operating mindset changes how you look at the customer.:
- A homeowner is not buying a panel for the panel itself. They are trying to lower their power costs, improve reliability, and make a smart long-term decision.
- A school district isn’t buying a solar array because it sounds good in a press release. It’s trying to manage budgets, infrastructure, and long-term exposure.
- A commercial customer isn’t looking for a slogan. It wants execution, uptime, accountability, and a partner that will still answer the phone later.
That is also why I think the industry needs to stop asking the wrong question. The wrong question is, “How do I remain a solar company?” The better question is, “How do I become more valuable in the energy ecosystem?”That’s the question that leads to better strategy, stronger customer relationships, and a more durable business model.
At SUNation, that is exactly how we think. We have been clear that we are not trying to be a mono-line national solar company. We believe the stronger model is a disciplined, diversified regional operator with multiple revenue streams, strong local trust, and the flexibility to adapt as conditions change. That is not theory for us. It is how we are building the business.
You can see it in the model. Commercial can help offset residential volatility. Service creates higher-margin revenue and deepens customer relationships. Roofing and electrical work expand the platform and create more ways to solve customer problems. Trusted local execution lowers customer-acquisition friction and improves referrals. The mix matters because not every part of the market moves the same way at the same time.
You can also see it in how we talk about the future. We have said repeatedly that this business has to be managed for what comes next, not just for the current pull-forward or the current incentive structure. That means staying flexible in financing, continuing to build service, strengthening commercial, and evaluating adjacent opportunities with discipline. It means being directionally clear without being rigid about the route.
In this kind of environment, the companies that succeed will be the ones that can pivot without panicking, course-correct without losing focus, and stay close to the customer while the market keeps shifting. They will be the ones that know how to operate, not just how to market. They will be the ones with enough breadth to adapt and enough discipline to do it profitably.
So yes, I still believe solar is an important part of the answer. Of course I do. I have spent most of my life building in this space. But I also believe the companies that define the next era of this industry will be the ones willing to evolve beyond the old labels. Good solar companies install systems. Good energy companies solve problems, build trust, adapt through change, and keep showing up. That is the standard the market should demand, and it is the standard we are building toward at SUNation.
~ Scott Maskin
Growth Means Moving
Scott Maskin CEO, SUNation Energy
“There are two ways to run a company in a changing market. You can stand there and complain that the old playbook stopped working. Or you can roll your sleeves up, adapt, and go build the next version of the business. I know which side I’m on.”
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.
