By Robert Bradley Jr. — July 16, 2025
“’The [Sunnova] summit [last November] was really part of the swindle,’ said Chris Pélissié, chief executive at Senga Solar, which is owed more than $680,000 by Sunnova. ‘None of us dealers knew we were playing chess until it was just too late’…” (below)
Previous posts at MasterResource (below) have chronicled the government-enabled rooftop solar industry, which is now in distress. Bankrupt Sunnova Energy heads the list, with others either bankrupt or struggling.
- Sunnova Declares Bankruptcy June 10, 2025
- Sunnova EVP’s Exit: Self-adulation Within a Taxpayer Bubble June 4, 2025
- Sunnova Hype pre-Bankruptcy May 8, 2025
- Sunnova’s Net Zero for Stockholders (last ESG report of a ‘second-hander’ company) May 7, 2025
- John Berger: “Lifetime Achievement Award” for Sustainable Energy Future April 1, 2025
- Sunnova Going Solyndra? (Enron-ex John Berger owes taxpayers a bundle) February 12, 2025
- Sunnova’s Rooftop Solar: Selling a Bad Product Requires …. April 25, 2019
In the Wall Street Journal article last week, “Sunnova Pushed Sales as Woes Mounted” (July 3, 2025), Alicia McElhaney wrote:
Each year, hundreds of dealers for solar-panel company Sunnova Energy International gather for a summit to celebrate a year’s hard work. But this February, they came to the glitzy Town & Country resort in San Diego looking for answers.
Enron was all glitz. The game was imaging–creating a non-financial reality where political cronies (“pull peddlers,” as Ayn Rand described them in Atlas Shrugged) ruled. “It is of such pennies and smiles that the destruction of your country is made,” bringing to mind the toothy white smile of Sunnova founder and now ex-CEO John Berger.
But the reality was dire, so (Enron-ex) John Berger spun a tale.
Sunnova was months behind on its payments to dealers, who sell and install its home solar-energy systems and depend on timely reimbursements from the company to recoup upfront costs. Sunnova’s stock was tumbling, and its liquidity had worsened. But on that early February day in San Diego, Sunnova’s then-chief executive assured dealers they would get repaid as long as the dealers kept installing solar projects.
Dealers didn’t know the severity of the company’s financial problems at the time, or that it was already working with bankers to manage its debt burden and fix its rapidly eroding liquidity, several dealers told The Wall Street Journal.
Reality bats last.
Weeks after the gathering, Sunnova warned that it may not be able to operate as a going concern. By June, the company had filed for chapter 11, leaving its 175 dealers collectively owed around $347 million.
“The summit was really part of the swindle,” said Chris Pélissié, chief executive at Senga Solar, which is owed more than $680,000 by Sunnova. Dealers are facing payment challenges beyond Sunnova, with some also waiting to be paid by SunPower and Lumio, both of which filed for bankruptcy in 2024 amid a downturn in the renewables industry….
Berger gave his side of the story:
In bankruptcy court filings, Sunnova said it aims to settle dealer claims to ensure completion of 22,000 ongoing solar projects…. John Berger, Sunnova’s former CEO, separately told the Journal that he explained to dealers at the summit the company retained long-term cash flows for a rainy day. Berger said he told dealers that what Sunnova was facing was more like a hurricane than a rainy day, and that the company planned to use the cash to stabilize the company.
“I understand the frustration, but I consistently engaged with dealers openly and truthfully, even when the
news was difficult,” Berger said.
What was the reserve fund? The $2.92 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (Project Hestia)? Enron thought it had a billion dollar reserve from accounts receivables from California utilities in the aftermath of the power crisis in that state. It was only a paper asset that byzantine regulation gave and the legal system and politics took away.
Turns out Sunnova would get a $185 million loan from asset KKR in March (good money after bad)? But that money, little doubt, is long gone, feeding into the high-cost structure of an extravagant company (a la Enron).
“Sunnova didn’t respond to these allegations,” the article continues.
Sunnova stopped paying its dealers last November, and some of them stopped routing solar installation financing requests through the company. Val Berechet, co-founder and CEO at Sunsolar, said he is owed some $800,000, but that it could have been worse if he continued to sell his customers Sunnova products.
Berger was fired. He cashed in over the years, making him a rare winner amid thousands of losers. He has a lot of explaining to do. No more sermonizing about “clean” energy (solar is not ecologically blessed) and climate benefits (there are none from Sunnova or the U.S. solar industry on close inspection).
Sunnova wants to blame others for its bubble business model enabled by special government favor (graft, in retrospect). The article ends:
Around the end of March, Sunnova said in a letter to dealers reviewed by the Journal that it “will pursue all available legal remedies to seek damages for lost business and profits resulting from any intentional violation” of its policy that dealers can’t transfer their solar projects to another company after installation. “None of us dealers knew we were playing chess until it was just too late,” Senga’s Pélissié said.
No va in Spanish means doesn’t or won’t go.
For some reason, the Chevy Nova was never a big seller in Latin America.
I wonder why (sarc)
Pero ni de coña…to amplify it a bit 😉
Chess? More like poker, with the odds stacked heavily in the House’s favor.
Actually, Green Energy projects are more of a three-card monte or shell game. You have no real odds. Whether you win a bit or lose is totally in the dealer’s hands.
I agree with the thrust of you comment, but will just add that a consumer’s odds of “winning” in the
gamecharade of “green energy” is on the order of 1e-6.Story tip: from New Scientist “It is possible to make a material absorb more radiation than it has to re-emit, violating the laws of physics in a way that could make energy-harvesting devices more efficient.”
It is possible to connect an electric motor to an electric generator and get perpetual motion.
The devil’s in the details.
The devil’s detail is that I can’t be drunk enough to believe that nonsense for a split second.
The laws of physics are written by nature and not by idiots called “humans”…try to bend them (“in theory” doesn’t count)
I apologize for not including a /sarc.
I had hoped the context of the mkelly post would make that clear.
Plants do this all the time, when they use the energy of incoming photons to convert water and CO2 into sugars.
Fluorescent paints and dyes absorb across a wide spectrum, and after some internal energy transitions emit more than the incoming radiation in a smaller selected spectrum range. For example, it is possible to absorb in ultraviolet and visible, but reemit in visible, giving an object an unusually bright appearance at a certain color, making an object appear like it reflects more than it gets.
Similar tricks can be used to slightly enhance solar cell efficiency… at an extra cost.
There is no violation of Conservation of Energy.
“Plants do this all the time, . . .”
Are you suggesting that plants on Earth violate “the laws of physics”?
Perhaps a link?
Water, as ice, can absorb more radiation at 32 deg-F, than it can emit as a liquid at 32 deg-F. This DOES NOT violate the laws of physics.
Many other materials behave similarly.
But yes, violating the “laws of physics” COULD hypothetically make “energy-harvesting devices more efficient” . . . good luck with that!
The sun’ll come up, tomorrow.
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there’ll be sun.
They did and now the sun is shinning where the moon don’t.
A Ponzi scheme by any other name remains a grift. They told the installers to just keep installing to keep the con job going a little bit longer.
This has all the stink of an elaborate scam. Bondi should put a special prosecutor on it and go after Mr Berger. Lock him up.
Solyndra much?
That was who I thought the article was about when I first read it. I thought it was going to be a history lesson. Then I realized it was a new company for a new day of scamming.
With somebody of Enron fame. You would think people would have smartened up and not “invested” in another company run by a KNOWN grifter by now. But of course the Democrats run in with taxpayer money to leave the taxpayers and ratepayers holding the bag.
Again.
Renewable energy, the scam that keeps giving.
“Green energy.” The Energizer Bunny of scams.
New slogan: SUNNOVA
Powering Energy Stupidity.
Giving them too much credit…
New slogan: SUNNOVA
Repeating Energy Pyramid Schemes.
The problem started a year ago, when Sunnova did not contribute enough to the Democratic campaign.
Are the “dealers” local companies that install solar panels – supplied by Sunnova – on buildings?
What I don’t understand:
Why does Sunnova owe so much to dealers? Wouldn’t dealers be buying materials from Sunnova and, thus, the company would be receiving $$$ from the locals such as Senga Solar. Are home and business owners buying (paying) (losing)?
It sounds like money (subsidies) is floating around and vanishing like the body of the Cheshire Cat.
John – you describe a workable business model. Totally inappropriate for Sunnova.
Just a guess, but it could be that Sunnova owned the contracts with the custioners and provided the materials to the dealers. Upon completion, dealers would be paid by Sunnova for the installation, labor, and a commission for the original sale.
That sounds eerily like a pyramid scheme.
John Berger, featured in the above article, began his career in 1996 as an analyst for Enron Corporation, completing his tenure there as director for Enron Energy Services. Following that, he co-founded Sunnova Energy Corporation in November 2012, and served as its CEO up to it filing for bankruptcy.
And get this self-serving statement from Berger as attributed in the above article:
“I understand the frustration, but I consistently engaged with dealers openly and truthfully, even when the news was difficult.”
Sure, sure, John . . . just like you did when you were paid handsomely by Enron in its drive toward bankruptcy, right?
And so many investors in Sunnova, its dealers, and its creditors expected this leopard to change its spots? Caveat emptor.
He who lives by the subsidy dies by the funding cut…
What’s the status of other rooftop solar outfits? What happens to the warranties of Sunova rooftop solar? Did Sunova do lease deals where the consumer pays just a monthy fee?
Curious why Nick isn’t over on this thread telling everyone all about how the financial analysis shows the viability of renewables like he is on the thread about Milliband’s Natural Gas plants.
Better sooner than later.