Energy · Profile from Energy Research Companion
Sunrun
The San Francisco company that made rooftop solar a subscription. Founded in 2007 by Lynn Jurich and Ed Fenster, Sunrun owns the panels and, increasingly, the battery on a customer's house, charges a monthly lease payment or a price per kWh for 20–25 years, and pays for the hardware with tax equity, project debt and asset-backed securities sold against those payments. It listed in August 2015, bought its closest rival Vivint Solar in October 2020, and survived the 2023–25 shakeout that bankrupted SunPower (Aug 2024), Sunnova and the lender Mosaic (both Jun 2025). It ended 2025 with ~997,000 subscribers, ~$2.96bn of revenue and ~$377m of "cash generation" (company, Feb 2026), and by mid-2026 attached a battery to ~74% of new systems (company, Q2 2026). Its real product is not electricity but finance: the present value of a long stream of household payments, plus the tax credits the 2025 law kept for third-party owners after it ended the homeowner's credit.
At a glance
- Founded
- Jan 2007 (reported), San Francisco, by Lynn Jurich and Edward Fenster (Stanford GSB classmates), with Nat Kreamer as an early co-founder (reported, verify role)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California
- Ownership / structure
- Public, Nasdaq: RUN (IPO 5 Aug 2015 at $14/share, reported); widely held; Vivint Solar's former owner Blackstone received Sunrun shares in 2020 and later sold (reported, verify)
- Leadership (2026)
- Mary Powell (CEO since 31 Aug 2021; former CEO of Green Mountain Power, Vermont); Lynn Jurich and Ed Fenster (co-executive chairs) (company)
- Segment
- Residential solar, storage and grid services; third-party owner (lease/PPA) plus cash and loan sales; direct installation plus an "affiliate" partner channel
- Scale
- 997,280 subscribers at 31 Dec 2025 (+12% y/y); 2025 revenue ~$2,957m (+45%), of which customer agreements and incentives ~$1,819m (+21%); 2025 net income to common ~$450m; 2025 cash generation ~$377m vs ~−$58m in 2024 (company, 26 Feb 2026)
- 2026 to date
- Q1 revenue ~$722m (+43%), storage attachment 73%, cash generation ~−$59m (~−$31m excluding ~$28m of equipment safe-harbor spending; Q1 8-K, May 2026); Q2 revenue ~$870m (+53%), storage attachment 74% (record), subscriber additions 19,793 (−31%), aggregate subscriber value ~$1.2bn (−24%), cash generation ~$23m; full-year cash-generation guide cut to ~$200–375m (company, 5 Aug 2026). Q3 2026 results due 4 Nov 2026, after this file's coverage date
- Capital markets
- 17 public securitisations by Aug 2026, incl. ~$584m (Apr 2026, Class A coupon 6.30%) and ~$267m (Aug 2026, 6.28% coupon, ~200 bp spread) (company); one of the largest US raisers of residential tax equity (reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding on solar-as-a-service (2007); the Nevada exit (Dec 2015); IPO and the subscriber-value metric (2015); the securitisation machine (from 2015); first residential capacity award in ISO New England (2019); Vivint Solar (2020); NEM 3.0 and the ~$1.2bn goodwill impairment (2023); CalReady and the storage-first pivot (2024–26); the 2025 credit rollback and the shift to third-party ownership
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2007
Founding and Solar as a Service
Founding / business-model bet
2015
First Securitisation and the ABS Machine
Financing (non-recourse asset-backed securities)
2015
IPO and the Subscriber Value Metric
Spin-off or IPO
2015
Nevada Net Metering Exit
Regulatory or legal action / market exit (failure)
2019
ISO New England Capacity Award
Offtake or supply contract / technology bet
2020
Vivint Solar Acquisition
Acquisition or merger
2023
NEM 3 and the Goodwill Impairment
Regulatory or legal action / restructuring (write-down) — failure
2024
CalReady and the Storage First Pivot
Strategy pivot / offtake (grid-services programmes)
2025
Credit Rollback and the TPO Shift
Strategy pivot in response to policy (regulatory action)