Solar-panel Installers Left Many Customers in Maintenance Limbo

Dow Jones

Jul 11

1317 ET - Residential-solar companies that have followed a misguided strategy of combining installation and maintenance services are partly responsible for the lack of assistance that owners of rooftop photovoltaic panels face today, says John Berger, the CEO of Otovo, which provides power services for homes and small businesses. Many such installers went bankrupt, leaving their customers without alternatives to fix solar panels and related equipment that are increasingly breaking after a boom of solar adoption during the past decade, Berger says. "Installation is a materially different business than service," so companies shouldn't try to mix them, he says. Focusing exclusively on services, as Otovo does, largely avoids the pitfalls that plagued many U.S. residential-solar companies in recent years, such as rollbacks of government incentives for clean energy, rising cost of capital and supply-chain bottlenecks, he adds. (luis.garcia@wsj.com; @lhvgarcia)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 10, 2026 13:17 ET (17:17 GMT)

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Many such installers went bankrupt, leaving their customers without alternatives to fix solar panels and related equipment that are increasingly breaking after a boom of solar adoption during the past decade, Berger says. \"Installation is a materially different business than service,\" so companies shouldn't try to mix them, he says. Focusing exclusively on services, as Otovo does, largely avoids the pitfalls that plagued many U.S. residential-solar companies in recent years, such as rollbacks of government incentives for clean energy, rising cost of capital and supply-chain bottlenecks, he adds. 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Many such installers went bankrupt, leaving their customers without alternatives to fix solar panels and related equipment that are increasingly breaking after a boom of solar adoption during the past decade, Berger says. \"Installation is a materially different business than service,\" so companies shouldn't try to mix them, he says. Focusing exclusively on services, as Otovo does, largely avoids the pitfalls that plagued many U.S. residential-solar companies in recent years, such as rollbacks of government incentives for clean energy, rising cost of capital and supply-chain bottlenecks, he adds. 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Many such installers went bankrupt, leaving their customers without alternatives to fix solar panels and related equipment that are increasingly breaking after a boom of solar adoption during the past decade, Berger says. \"Installation is a materially different business than service,\" so companies shouldn't try to mix them, he says. Focusing exclusively on services, as Otovo does, largely avoids the pitfalls that plagued many U.S. residential-solar companies in recent years, such as rollbacks of government incentives for clean energy, rising cost of capital and supply-chain bottlenecks, he adds. 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