Never put any trust in operations where government handouts are the first source of funding.
Sungevity is laying off workers, auctioning off some assets, and agreeing to hand over control investors in exchange for $20 million in financing to keep the company’s operations going.
Sungevity was one of seven residential solar power companies, which Congress announced in September it would formally investigate for wrongfully receiving billions in tax credits from the government. The federal government likely handed out roughly $25 billion in cash grants and tax credits to these companies.
Another solar company called Beamreach went bust in January after it received $3 million in Department of Energy funding in 2008. The major solar company SunEdison also recently declared bankruptcy. Roughly five major solar companies closed up shop in 2015, which follows the historic tendency that solar power companies tend to go bankrupt as soon as the subsidies are cut off.