Aurora Photo voltaic has launched its fourth annual “Aurora Solar Snapshot,” a take a look at the coverage, financing, client and operational tendencies reshaping the U.S. residential photo voltaic market. This 12 months’s findings present the business getting into a brand new part outlined much less by incentives alone and extra by affordability, resilience, belief and execution.
“The previous 12 months examined the photo voltaic business in new methods,” mentioned Chris Hopper, co-founder and government chairman of Aurora Photo voltaic. “As coverage incentives shifted and rates of interest remained excessive, installers expanded financing choices, leaned into solar-plus-storage choices, and centered on delivering extra clear buyer experiences. This 12 months’s Aurora Photo voltaic Snapshot reveals demand for photo voltaic stays sturdy, however the path to adoption is altering. The businesses that win on this subsequent chapter would be the ones that make photo voltaic less complicated to purchase and simpler to know, whereas constructing companies that stay resilient even with coverage modifications.”
The 2026 Aurora Photo voltaic Snapshot attracts on greater than 4 years of year-over-year development information, Aurora Photo voltaic’s 20 million+ initiatives and surveys of 1,112 householders and greater than 600 photo voltaic professionals carried out in early 2026.
Key findings from this 12 months’s report embrace:
Pivot to new financing fashions
- 55% of installers say third-party possession (TPO) is now their hottest financing possibility, forward of loans and money, and 65% count on TPO to account for greater than half of their 2026 gross sales quantity.
- On the identical time, 82% of installers say householders prioritize month-to-month cost quantity above all different financing issues, underscoring how affordability is reshaping the gross sales dialog.
Expiration of the house owner funding tax credit score accelerated demand
- Amongst householders who put in photo voltaic previously 12 months, 68% say they moved their timeline ahead to benefit from Inflation Discount Act (IRA) tax credit earlier than expiration, and 49% of these inquisitive about photo voltaic suppose they gained’t be capable of afford photo voltaic with out the tax credit.
- Installers felt that impact in actual time: 62% reported elevated house owner curiosity because of the IRA, whereas 63% imagine the passage of the OBBB and repeal of house owner photo voltaic tax credit will negatively impression their enterprise.
“Vitality resilience” is driving photo voltaic and storage demand
- 53% of householders agree the ability grid is turning into much less dependable, and storage is more and more transferring into the core supply: 31% of installers count on greater than 75% of their 2026 initiatives to incorporate battery storage.
- Amongst gross sales professionals, 56% say backup energy and outage safety is the first motive householders buy batteries.
- 71% of installers now supply EV charging tools and set up alongside photo voltaic, and storage is increasing throughout solar-plus-storage, retrofit, and even battery-only gross sales motions. This implies the subsequent part of market progress will come from corporations that may information householders by a broader residence electrification journey over time.
Warnings of generational attitudes towards homeownership and photo voltaic
- Amongst householders who personal their houses, 27% of Gen Z and 18% of Millennials put in photo voltaic previously 12 months — the very best adoption charges of any technology. But Child Boomers, who now signify 42% of all residence patrons in keeping with the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors, present the bottom curiosity in photo voltaic adoption, concentrating homeownership within the demographic least more likely to go photo voltaic.
- Aurora Photo voltaic’s analysis identifies this as “The Actual Property Entice” — a structural mismatch between photo voltaic demand and homeownership that the business should tackle by group photo voltaic, subscriptions and different fashions.
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