Sunrun

In 2007, two Stanford Business School graduates met in a San Francisco attic with a simple but radical idea: what if homeowners could go solar without buying the panels outright? Lynn Jurich and Ed Fenster, along with co-founder Nat Kreamer, launched Sunrun that year and invented the solar-as-a-service model—a financing approach that would reshape residential solar installation across the United States. Instead of asking California homeowners to pay tens of thousands upfront, Sunrun offered to install, own, and maintain the system while customers simply paid for the power it generated. The model caught on quickly, first in communities across the Bay Area and then throughout the state. Within two years, Sunrun had raised venture capital and begun expanding beyond California into Arizona and Massachusetts. By 2015, the company went public on Nasdaq, and in 2020, it acquired Vivint Solar in a $3.2 billion deal that made Sunrun the largest residential solar company in America. Today, based in San Francisco, CA, Sunrun serves over one million homes across more than 20 states with solar panels, battery storage, and energy services. The company’s Brightbox battery storage system pairs solar energy with backup power during outages, while partnerships with Ford, Costco, and Lowe’s have brought home solar to a wider audience. Sunrun offers multiple financing paths including leases, power purchase agreements, loans, and cash purchases, giving homeowners flexibility in how they transition to solar energy. For homeowners in states like Arizona, California, and Massachusetts where electricity rates continue climbing, Sunrun’s model promises predictable energy costs over 20- or 25-year terms. The company also installs EV charging stations and is building distributed power plants—networks of home batteries that can send energy back to the grid during peak demand. While Sunrun’s scale and nearly two decades of experience position it as a household name in residential solar installation, prospective customers should know the company operates through a mix of in-house crews and third-party installation partners, which can lead to varying experiences depending on location. Customer feedback is decidedly mixed: many report smooth installations and helpful sales teams, while others cite slow service response times, communication gaps, and challenges reaching support after installation. The company holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, though review platforms show patterns of complaints related to post-installation service. Still, Sunrun’s mission—to create a planet powered by the sun—and its continued investment in battery storage and grid services reflect a company adapting to the realities of modern home energy needs as solar panels become mainstream across American rooftops.