Key Takeaways
What happens to my solar warranty after my installer’s bankruptcy?
Most solar energy system warranties include at least 2 or 3 types. Manufacturer warranties on the major equipment, Installer workmanship warranties, and sometimes production warranties, and some have a Solar Insure warranty. If your installer has gone out of business, the installer’s warranties typically expire, but your manufacturer’s and Solar Insure warranties remain intact. Need more help navigating your solar installer’s bankruptcy? Check out our bankruptcy hub.
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Over the last several years, the solar industry has seen a wave of companies go out of business. Not just small local installers, but large regional and national companies that homeowners trusted with a 25 to 30-year investment. We have covered this extensively in our complete list of solar bankruptcies and business closures.
A snapshot of some of the largest solar contractors that have gone out of business:
| Sunnova | SunPower | Pink Energy | Freedom Forever | ADT Solar |
| Titan Solar | Posigen | Purelight Power | Vision Solar | Solcius |
For homeowners, a company closure raises a very practical question: How is my solar energy investment being protected?
The answer depends on which warranties you have and where they came from. Before we get into what happens when things go wrong, it helps to understand how solar warranties are structured.
Table of Contents
Where Solar Warranties Come From
Solar warranties come from two sources: the manufacturers who make the equipment and the installer who installs it on your roof. These are separate, and they cover different things.
Manufacturer Warranties
When you buy a solar system, every major component comes with its own manufacturer’s warranty. These are issued directly by the companies that make the equipment, and they cover defects in the product itself. Here is what typical manufacturer coverage looks like:
| Component | Typical Manufacturer Coverage |
| Solar Panels | ~25 years for the product~25-30 years for production |
| Inverters | ~10-25 years |
| Batteries | ~10-15 years |
The important thing to know about manufacturer warranties is that they are tied to the manufacturer, not your installer. If your installer goes out of business tomorrow, your panel warranty with the manufacturer remains valid. The equipment coverage itself does not disappear.
What changes is the process for using it. Under normal circumstances, your installer handles the legwork when something fails. They contact the manufacturer, work through the claim, receive the replacement parts, and swap out the unit.
When the installer is gone, that process falls on you. You will need to contact the manufacturer directly to initiate a warranty claim, and then hire a licensed solar professional or electrician separately to handle the physical replacement. Our recommendation is to always work with a certified professional for any equipment swap, for both safety and to protect any remaining warranties on your system.
Installer Warranties
In addition to manufacturer coverage, most solar installers offer their own warranties. There are two main types: workmanship and performance.
Workmanship Warranty
Workmanship warranties cover defects or damage caused by the installation itself. If an installer damages your roof during the process, causes a leak, improperly mounts equipment, or wires something incorrectly, that falls under workmanship. These are fairly standard across the industry, though the terms vary by company.
One thing homeowners often misunderstand: workmanship does not mean all labor is covered for the life of the warranty. If an inverter fails and the manufacturer sends a replacement unit, your installer’s workmanship warranty generally does not guarantee that they will install the new unit at no charge. Workmanship covers the quality of the original work, not ongoing service labor.
Performance Guarantees
Performance guarantees are exactly what they sound like. Some installers guarantee that your system will produce at least a certain percentage of what their original production model projected, and if it falls short, they credit you the difference. These are less common than workmanship warranties, and for good reason. Energy production is affected by a lot of variables outside the installer’s control, weather being the most obvious. Because of that, many installers simply do not offer them, and the ones that do often include enough conditions that the guarantee is harder to trigger than it sounds.
What Happens to Your Warranties When Your Installer Goes Out of Business
Manufacturer warranties, as covered above, remain intact. The coverage is still there, but you are on your own to navigate the claims process and cover any labor costs that come with it.
Installer warranties are a different story. When a company goes bankrupt, those workmanship and performance obligations effectively disappear. Homeowners can file an unsecured claim in bankruptcy proceedings, but unsecured creditors are last in line behind lenders, landlords, and other creditors. In most solar bankruptcy cases, homeowners recover little to nothing through that process. Any work that needs to be done, whether it is a roof repair from an installation issue or a performance shortfall, becomes an out-of-pocket expense. You would need to hire a new solar professional at your own expense and hope the work is covered by any remaining manufacturer warranty.
This is a real risk that most homeowners do not think about when they go solar. They see a 25-year warranty in the proposal and assume they are covered. What they are often looking at is a manufacturer’s warranty on the equipment, held together by an installer’s warranty that is only as strong as the company behind it.
Where an Independent Warranty Changes the Equation
The gaps in the standard warranty structure are exactly what an independent warranty like Solar Insure is designed to fill.
Solar Insure warranties cover panels and inverters for 30 years, which extends beyond most standard manufacturer terms. More importantly, the coverage includes labor costs to replace equipment, which is the cost that falls through the cracks in a standard manufacturer’s warranty claim.
If your installer goes out of business, Solar Insure stays in place. Homeowners are connected with another certified provider to handle maintenance and repairs at no cost to them. That continuity is the piece that the standard warranty structure lacks.
There is also the question of what happens if a manufacturer goes out of business. It has happened before in the solar industry, and it will happen again. Solar Insure warranties are financially backed for manufacturer default through a partnership with an AM Best A+ rated insurer. That means if a panel or inverter manufacturer closes, Solar Insure can source replacement parts or cover the value of those parts to get the system running again.
Going solar is a long-term investment. The equipment is designed to last 25 to 30 years, and the companies involved should ideally be around for that entire window. The reality of the last several years shows that it is not always the case. Understanding what your warranties actually cover, and where the gaps are, is one of the most important things a homeowner can do before signing anything.
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