Key things you need to know about Sunrun

In 2007, Sunrun launched in San Francisco, CA, with their core business model centered around providing power purchase agreements – meaning they own the panels installed on your roof and sell you the power your panels generate. Today, they've shifted their strategy and are currently the largest solar installer in the U.S., with about 13 percent of the residential solar market – a feat they reached mainly due to their acquisition of Vivint Solar in 2020, formerly the second largest installer after Tesla. As the solar industry continues to grow, so does the demand for solar-plus-storage systems, and Sunrun has stepped up to meet this opportunity, now offering these systems in most areas of the country.

Sunrun is the largest solar installer by market share in the U.S. As of Q4 2021, Sunrun had an annual recurring revenue of $1.6 billion, primarily from customer agreements and incentives from their power purchase agreements at $826.6 million. They also generated a large portion of revenue from their solar energy systems and product sales at $783.4 million.

Sunrun's primary service (and source of revenue) is residential solar installations. However, they differentiate themselves from the growing number of solar installers by offering "solar as a service," which involves installation services, continuing maintenance, and panels as one package. Under Sunrun's lease model, you'll purchase the solar power produced by Sunrun's panels but won't own the system. Sunrun also offers the option to fully purchase your solar energy system through a standard loan model if you'd prefer.

Sunrun provides solar-plus-storage for most states in its service area, including adding a Sunrun Brightbox to your solar energy system. Importantly, if you want to install solar-plus-storage through Sunrun, you're limited in your battery options: their Brightbox systems only use Tesla Powerwalls for entire home backup and LG Chem batteries for partial home backup.

In August of 2022, Sunrun also launched EV charging as part of their whole-home energy offering, with the option to combine this with a solar-plus-storage system. Their 40-amp Level 2 EV charger is compatible with all EV models.

As of 2022, Sunrun's market cap was $6.59 billion. Sunrun has been a publicly traded company since 2015, using the symbol RUN on the NASDAQ. Their stock price peaked in January 2021 at $96.50, but they've seen some shortfalls this year: the lowest price they had reached in 2022 was in April at $19.98, and as of October 2022, their stock price sits right around $23.

Though they continue to diversify into different markets in the solar industry, Sunrun sets itself apart by installing the most solar energy systems of any company in the U.S. residential solar industry. As of Q2 2022, Sunrun had installed over 37,000 solar and solar-plus-storage systems and over 5.136 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy capacity. To put this into perspective, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), cumulative U.S. solar installations (including residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar) reached 130.9 GW as of Q2 2022, meaning Sunrun has installed almost four percent of total solar capacity in the U.S.

Sunrun is active in 20 states, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Sunrun installs solar and solar-plus-storage systems in all of these locations except Wisconsin, where they don't offer storage. Check out the complete list below, where we also provide resources on the average cost of solar in each of these states:  

• Arizona

• California

• Colorado

• Connecticut 

• Florida

• Hawaii

• Illinois

• Maryland

• Massachusetts

• Nevada

• New Hampshire

• New Jersey

• New Mexico

• New York

• Pennsylvania

• Puerto Rico

• Rhode Island

• South Carolina

• Texas

• Vermont

• Washington, D.C.

• Wisconsin (solar only)

Sunrun offers various products and installation services with different warranties to match. Solar panels installed by Sunrun are covered under their manufacturer warranty which is about ten years on average but can be as high as 25 years (most solar panels installed through the EnergySage Marketplace have 25-year warranties). Their monthly and prepaid solar leases come with proactive monitoring, allowing Sunrun to monitor your system for possible issues in real time. Sunrun also offers a "bumper-to-bumper" warranty on their system installations, which includes free equipment replacement and system repairs.

Sign up for a free account on the EnergySage Marketplace to start getting quotes for solar or solar-plus-storage systems. By comparing multiple quotes, you'll be able to find the right system for you at a great price! Not quite ready to receive quotes? Use our Solar Calculator to get an estimate of how much you'll save by going solar.