Aurora Solar Snapshot Reveals Solar Enters New Era as Financing and Resilience Overtake Incentives

Aurora Solar's 2026 Snapshot: 65% of Installers Expect TPO to Drive Majority of Solar Sales as "Cost Shock" Replaces Incentives as Top Barrier

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aurora Solar, the leading global platform for solar sales and design, today announced its fourth annual Aurora Solar Snapshot, a comprehensive look at the policy, financing, consumer, and operational trends reshaping the U.S. residential solar market. This year’s findings show the industry entering a new phase: one defined less by incentives alone and more by affordability, resilience, trust, and execution.

“The past year tested the solar industry in new ways,” said Chris Hopper, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Aurora Solar. “As policy incentives shifted and interest rates remained high, installers expanded financing options, leaned into solar-plus-storage offerings, and focused on delivering more transparent customer experiences. This year’s Aurora Solar Snapshot shows demand for solar remains strong, but the path to adoption is changing. The companies that win in this next chapter will be the ones that make solar simpler to buy and easier to understand, while building businesses that remain resilient even with policy changes.”

The 2026 Aurora Solar Snapshot offers one of the most comprehensive views of the U.S. residential solar market, drawing on over four years of year-over-year trend data, Aurora Solar's 20M+ projects, and surveys of 1,112 homeowners and more than 600 solar professionals conducted in early 2026.

Key findings from this year’s report include:

The Pivot to New Financing Models Built for a Post-One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Environment

• 55% of installers say third-party ownership (TPO) is now their most popular financing option, ahead of loans and cash, and 65% expect TPO to account for more than half of their 2026 sales volume.
• At the same time, 82% of installers say homeowners prioritize monthly payment amount above all other financing considerations, underscoring how affordability is reshaping the sales conversation.

Expiration of Homeowner Tax Credits Accelerated Demand, Raising the Stakes for 2026

• Among homeowners who installed solar in the past year, 68% say they moved their timeline forward to take advantage of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits before expiration, and 49% of those interested in solar think they won’t be able to afford solar without the tax credits.
• Installers felt that effect in real time: 62% reported increased homeowner interest due to the IRA, while 63% believe the passage of the OBBB and repeal of homeowner solar tax credits will negatively impact their business.

Energy Resilience is Now a Mainstream Solar Driver, Not a Niche Add-On

• 53% of homeowners agree the power grid is becoming less reliable, and storage is increasingly moving into the core offer: 31% of installers expect more than 75% of their 2026 projects to include battery storage.
• Among sales professionals, 56% say backup power and outage protection is the primary reason homeowners purchase batteries.
• 71% of installers now offer EV charging equipment and installation alongside solar, and storage is expanding across solar-plus-storage, retrofit, and even battery-only sales motions.
• This suggests the next phase of market growth will come from companies that can guide homeowners through a broader home electrification journey over time.

AI and Automation Become Essential to Lowering Soft Costs and Preserving Demand

• 40% of installers cite permitting and regulatory delays as a top challenge, while 17% of homeowners worry the installation process will be too long or too complex.
• Meanwhile, 41% of solar shoppers say they would be more motivated to go solar if providers could quickly produce accurate system designs and costs, or confidently offer guaranteed or fixed-price quotes.
• The findings suggest that AI and automation will play a growing role in reducing friction, lowering soft costs, and improving conversion.

A Hidden Bottleneck: The Generational "Real Estate Trap"

• Among homeowners who own their homes, 27% of Gen Z and 18% of Millennials installed solar in the past year — the highest adoption rates of any generation. Yet Baby Boomers, who now represent 42% of all home buyers according to the National Association of Realtors, show the lowest interest in solar adoption, concentrating homeownership in the demographic least likely to go solar.
• Aurora Solar's research identifies this as "The Real Estate Trap" — a structural mismatch between solar demand and homeownership that the industry must address through community solar, subscriptions, and alternative models.

For all the insights from the Aurora Solar Snapshot, see: aurorasolar.com/aurora-solar-snapshot/

About Aurora Solar
Aurora Solar is creating a future of solar for all. The company puts the power of data, automation, and AI into the hands of every solar professional to make solar adoption simple and predictable. Aurora Solar's cloud-based platform has been used to design more than 20 million solar projects globally, and more than 7,000 of the industry's top organizations rely on it to streamline workflows and grow their businesses. Aurora Solar has been recognized by TIME as a 2025 Top U.S. GreenTech Company and 2025 Top World GreenTech Company, named to the Deloitte Fast 500 in 2024, and listed among Solar Power World's Top Solar Software & Monitoring Products in 2024. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, visit aurorasolar.com.