Solar Installer Out of Business? What Portland Homeowners Do

What to Do When Your Solar Installer Goes Out of Business

A guide for Portland-area homeowners and businesses left without a solar company

If the company that installed your solar panels has closed its doors, you’re not alone. Over the past year, Oregon has seen a wave of solar installer shutdowns, from Purelight Power’s sudden December 2025 closure (leaving an estimated 35,000 Oregon solar installs without their original installer) to Freedom Forever’s Chapter 11 filing in April 2026, which affected its Portland branch. If you’re searching for a Portland solar company after your installer went out of business, here’s exactly what to do next.

Why so many solar installers are closing

The last few years have been particularly turbulent in Oregon solar industry. A few factors are driving it: changes to federal tax incentives under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) squeezed installer margins, rising interest rates made financed solar loans less affordable, and years of rapid, undisciplined growth left many companies overextended. As the market has tightened, the installers with thin operations and weak local support were forced to fold, often abruptly, with little notice to customers.

The result: thousands of Oregon homeowners now have a solar system on their roof and no one to call when something goes wrong.

First, don’t panic! Your system still works.

A defunct installer does not mean a defunct solar system. Solar panels and inverters are built to run for 20-25+ years with minimal intervention. The real risk isn’t that your system stops working overnight, it’s that you have no one to call for monitoring alerts, warranty claims, repairs, or troubleshooting when an issue eventually comes up.

Step-by-step: what to do when your installer closes

1. Gather your paperwork

Locate your original contract, permit records, interconnection agreement with your utility company, and any warranty documents you can access. If you can’t find them, your county building department or the Oregon Construction Contractors Board (CCB) may have permit records on file.

2. Check your manufacturer warranties separately

Your panel and inverter warranties usually come from the manufacturer (Enphase, SolarEdge, REC, Qcells, Silfab, etc.), not the installer. These remain valid even after the installer shuts down. The exception is often the workmanship warranty, which typically lapses if the installing company goes out of business.

3. Look for a bond or insurance claim

Oregon-licensed contractors are required to carry a surety bond. If your installer went out of business owing you money or leaving work unfinished, you may be able to file a claim against that bond through the Oregon CCB.

4. File a complaint if needed

If your installer took a deposit and never finished the job, or if you were misled about the sale, file a complaint with the Oregon Department of Justice and the CCB. This is also worth doing even if you don’t expect a payout as it helps regulators track patterns of solar company failures.

5. Find a new local team to take over monitoring and service

This is the step most homeowners miss until something actually breaks. Your system needs someone who can access production data, spot underperformance, and physically service the equipment when needed. A local, licensed Portland solar company can take over monitoring, run a full system health check, and become your point of contact going forward.

6. Get a system health check

Even if everything looks fine, it’s worth having a licensed technician inspect your system after an installer closure. A health check should cover inverter status, panel-level production data, roof penetrations and flashing, electrical connections, and rapid shutdown compliance.  

What “orphaned” solar actually means

In the industry, a system is often called “orphaned” when the company that sold, designed, permitted, or installed it no longer exists to service it. Oregon now has tens of thousands of orphaned systems following the Purelight Power/Solgen shutdown alone. Orphaned doesn’t mean broken, it just means unsupported. Left unsupported long enough, small issues (a failed micro-inverter, a loose connection, a monitoring outage) can turn into lost production, voided warranties, or safety issues.

How Power Northwest helps homeowners left behind

We didn’t install every system we service, and that’s the point. As a Portland-based, Certified Benefit Corporation solar and electrical company, Power Northwest works with homeowners and businesses across NW Oregon and SW Washington to pick up where a closed installer left off. In fact, Power Northwest has become a trusted source of solar service for former Purelight customers following their recent closure as well as for Solar City customers whose original 15-year leases are coming to an end.

The solar system services that we love to take on include:

• System troubleshooting and diagnostics for panels, inverters, and monitoring regardless of who installed them
• Remote monitoring so you actually know if your system underperforms
• Repairs and part replacement, including inverter swaps and micro-inverter failures
• Warranty claim support, helping you navigate manufacturer warranties when the installer is gone
• Re-permitting and inspection help for systems with incomplete paperwork
• Ongoing maintenance plans so you’re never without a local point of contact again

If your solar installer went out of business and you’re not sure who to call in Portland, that’s exactly the gap we exist to fill.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: National Today — Oregon solar customers lose thousands as company abruptly closes, Solar Power World — Purelight Power shutters operations, blames OBBBA, Revival Solar — Solar Companies Out of Business: 2026 List