When the company that owns the solar on your property goes under, your agreement usually carries on with a new owner. Here's what to do in the meantime.
When the company that owns the solar on your building or land goes under, the panels usually don't become yours, and your agreement usually doesn't end. It passes to a new owner: a lender, an investor or another solar company. Until that owner reaches you, keep paying attention to your property and your records, and don't pay anyone who can't prove the agreement is now theirs.
It rarely happens all at once. A rent check for the roof arrives late, then stops. Or the solar invoices stop. The service crew that used to visit every spring hasn't been back in two years, and the phone number on the old paperwork rings through to nobody.
Your property hosts solar that someone else owns, under one of three kinds of agreement. With a PPA (power purchase agreement), you buy the electricity the panels make. With an equipment lease, you pay a set monthly amount to use the system. With a site lease, the solar company pays you rent for your roof or land, which is common with community solar. Each one works a little differently when the owner disappears, but the first steps are the same.
It has happened to big names. When SunPower went bankrupt in 2024, a separate company bought its leases and PPAs and took over servicing them. PosiGen's collapse in 2025 left thousands of customers with the same questions you have now.
The Company That Failed May Not Own the Panels
The name you know is often the installer, not the owner.
Solar installers often build a project and then sell it to an investor, or set up a separate company just to own it. If only the installer failed, the real owner still exists. It will usually hire a new company to maintain the system, and you may never notice more than a new name on the invoice.
Your Agreement Carries On
Whatever you signed usually binds whoever owns the system next.
Find the agreement and read it again with fresh eyes. Note who it's with, which way the money flows, what it says about transferring it to a new owner, who pays for repairs and insurance, and what happens when the term ends. Those answers stay the same no matter who owns the panels.
Let the New Owner Come to You
Don't pay anyone until they show you, in writing, that the agreement is now theirs.
You don't have to track anyone down. A new owner has every reason to find you, because your payments or your property are part of what it bought. When someone reaches out, ask for the written transfer before you send money or sign anything. Keep a record of every payment you make, and of every rent payment you're owed but didn't receive. For anything about what you owe or are owed in the meantime, talk to your attorney.
If you'd like to know sooner, the trail usually starts with the company named in your agreement, where your last payments went, and any notice you received about a transfer. Lenders also file public notices when they lend against equipment, usually searchable by company name on your Secretary of State's website. Our post on what to do when solar ownership is unclear goes deeper.
Protect Your Property in the Meantime
A system nobody maintains is a risk to your building, your land and the people on it.
Keep your electric bills, any monitoring data, and dated photos taken from a safe distance. Have your roofer or site manager look for leaks, loose racking, erosion, overgrown vegetation or broken fencing around the panels.
Never open, switch off or touch the equipment yourself. The wiring between the panels and the inverters can carry electricity even when the system seems to be off. And if your roof or site needs work, don't have the panels moved without written agreement from whoever owns them.
If the Panels Stop Working
What you owe depends on which agreement you have.
Under a PPA you usually pay only for the electricity the panels produce, so a dead system means no solar bill, but no savings either. Under an equipment lease you may still owe the monthly payment. Under a site lease, the rent is owed whether the panels work or not. In every case, your records are what protect you.
Your Options Once the Owner Is Known
Most building and land owners end up doing one of three things.
They keep hosting the system under the new owner, on the terms they signed. They buy it, if the agreement gives them that option or the owner is willing to sell. Or they ask for it to be removed, if the agreement allows it.
Who You Want as the Next Owner
One that keeps the system running, pays on time and answers the phone.
The lenders and investors who end up holding these systems are usually not solar operators, and they often want to sell. That's where Do Good Energy comes in. We buy aging commercial solar from whoever owns it, including systems left behind when a company fails, and we've bought projects that changed hands three to five times. When we buy, we take over every agreement that comes with the system, including yours, and we keep it maintained, insured and running for the long term.
You can help your system land with the right owner. Give whoever holds it our name, or tell us about the solar on your property and we'll reach out to them.
Own an existing commercial solar system? The solar guide answers the ones every owner has, state by state.
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