Solar Panels Can Last 25 Years. Will Your Installer?

EDGE Energy ranked among the nation’s Top 100 residential solar contractors in 2026. But an even more important story is hiding in the names that have disappeared from these rankings.

We recently learned that Solar Power World ranked EDGE Energy #71 nationally on its 2026 Top Residential Solar Contractors list, based on approximately 3.71 megawatts of residential solar installed during 2025.

That makes us proud. But while looking through this year’s list, and then comparing it with the rankings from just a few years ago, we noticed something that may be considerably more important to a homeowner than where any contractor ranks.

A surprising number of the biggest residential solar companies in America are already gone.

Solar panels are designed to remain on a home for decades. The company that installs them may not.

Solar Power World’s rankings are based on annual installation volume. Participating contractors submit project-level installation data, which Solar Power World says it verifies against state interconnection and utility records. The list is voluntary, so it is not a census of every solar contractor in America, and it measures installation volume, not customer satisfaction, financial strength, or the likelihood that a company will still be servicing its systems 15 years from now.

A Remarkable Amount Has Changed in Only a Few Years

Consider some of the companies that appeared near the top of Solar Power World’s recent residential rankings:

These companies did not all fail for the same reasons. Some liquidated. Some experienced regulatory or operational problems. Some encountered dramatically changing financing conditions. ADT was a strategic corporate exit rather than a conventional contractor bankruptcy.

But from the homeowner’s perspective, there is an important common denominator:

The company that was supposed to answer the phone for the next 20 or 25 years was no longer there.

ADT Solar May Be the Most Striking Example

ADT’s brief entry into residential solar shows just how quickly conditions can change, even when enormous financial resources and one of America’s most recognizable home-services brands are involved.

In November 2021, ADT announced the acquisition of Sunpro Solar at an implied enterprise value of approximately $825 million. ADT subsequently reported approximately $750 million of consideration at closing. At the time, the company said it expected the acquisition to be immediately positive to EBITDA and free cash flow.

The outcome was dramatically different.

ADT eventually recorded $712 million of cumulative goodwill impairment charges associated with its Solar business during 2022 and 2023. Its filings cited deteriorating industry conditions, rising interest rates, pressure on third-party lenders and customer demand, and solar operating results that repeatedly fell below expectations.

ADT then exited the business in 2024 and recorded another $88 million in exit charges, including approximately $29 million associated with disposing of its existing installation pipeline.

Those accounting charges should not be confused with $800 million literally leaving a bank account. But they illustrate the scale of the reversal: within only a few years, a solar acquisition announced at more than $800 million had been written down and shut down.

Then Come the “Orphaned Solar Systems”

A solar installation does not disappear when its installer does.

The panels may continue producing electricity perfectly well. Manufacturer warranties on panels, inverters, batteries, or optimizers may also continue, depending on their individual terms.

What frequently disappears is the service infrastructure surrounding the equipment:

• the installer’s workmanship warranty;
• the person monitoring system alerts;
• access to historical installation records;
• help processing equipment warranty claims;
• familiarity with exactly how the system was designed and wired;
• assistance when monitoring communications fail;
• support during a roof replacement; and
• a contractor willing to troubleshoot a system somebody else installed.

The industry increasingly calls these “orphaned solar systems.” Solar Power World reported this summer that a growing number of residential projects are losing their original installers and that established contractors are beginning to develop dedicated services for these homeowners. Even Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative has used the term in explaining the problem to its customers.

Servicing Somebody Else’s Solar System Is Often Detective Work

EDGE made a deliberate decision to remain in the solar service business, and increasingly that means helping homeowners whose systems were installed by somebody else.

That work can be much harder than it appears from the outside.

When EDGE installed the original system, we generally know the design, equipment, permits, wiring, monitoring platform, and project history.

When another installer has disappeared, sometimes we begin with almost none of that information.

A homeowner may understandably call because “my solar isn't working.” Before anything can be repaired, a technician may first have to determine what equipment is actually installed, reconstruct monitoring access, identify error histories, locate manufacturer records, determine whether a warranty is still valid, communicate with a manufacturer, and diagnose wiring or communications installed years earlier by a company we never worked with.

Sometimes the required component has been discontinued. Sometimes an inverter manufacturer requires extensive troubleshooting before approving a replacement. Sometimes monitoring credentials are still associated with the former contractor. Sometimes the solar equipment is functioning, and the problem lies elsewhere.

That is why an orphaned-system service call may require substantial diagnostic work before anyone can responsibly promise a repair.

We know that can be frustrating, particularly for a homeowner who has already spent weeks or months trying to reach a company that no longer exists.

But somebody has to do the detective work.

Why EDGE Has Continued Investing in Solar Service

EDGE Energy was founded in 2006. Twenty years later, we still install, troubleshoot, and service solar systems throughout Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, alongside our HVAC, electrification, and home-performance work.

Our solar technical-support operation works on systems from multiple manufacturers and can handle remote diagnostics as well as field repairs, including inverter problems, monitoring failures, wiring and connection issues, damaged modules, and other system problems.

A growing percentage of that work has nothing to do with an EDGE installation.

And we think that is an important part of what a mature residential-energy industry should look like.

Solar should not be treated as a one-time sale. It is a long-lived electrical system attached to a home. Over its life, it may require an inverter replacement, communications repair, roof removal and reinstallation, critter protection, electrical work, battery integration, troubleshooting, or simply someone knowledgeable enough to determine why production has changed.

The installation is the beginning of that relationship, not necessarily the end.

So Yes, We’re Proud of Being #71

Being ranked #71 nationally among residential contractors participating in Solar Power World’s 2026 list is gratifying.

But the more meaningful accomplishment, from our perspective, is still answering the phone.

Several companies that once occupied the very top of these rankings installed vastly more solar than EDGE. Some were valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Some operated in dozens of states.

And some disappeared within a few years.

Our goal isn't simply to put more solar panels on roofs.

It is to help make sure the systems already on those roofs keep working.

Is Your Original Solar Installer Gone, or Do You Have a System Nobody Seems Willing to Service?

EDGE Energy provides solar diagnostics, monitoring support, repair, and field service throughout Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, including many systems originally installed by other contractors.

Request Solar Technical Support

If you contact us, it helps to have your original contract or installation paperwork, inverter or microinverter manufacturer, monitoring information, any current error messages, and, if available, your utility Permission to Operate documentation.

Even if you don't have all of it, we'll help determine where to start.

Garrett Spangler

Garrett Spangler writes about home energy, electrification, and the renewable industry for The EDGE Journal.