The US distributed solar market is changing rapidly with SolarCity gaining more than twice as much market share in third-party solar in 2016 as Sunrun, with new data released by GTM Research showing that Sunrun will replace Tesla / SolarCity in the third quarter of 2017 Leader in this field.
In terms of volume, Sunrun deployed 80 MW of third-party systems in the third quarter, compared with Tesla / SolarCity of 59 MW.
Despite the downsizing of both companies since the Tesla acquisition of SolarCity and the new company's acquisition of third-party solar space, Sunrun remains one of the 'Big Three' residential solar companies after the United States, even though the overall residential market in 2017 Shrinking trend.
Sunrun already has a third-party solar model where it owns a photovoltaic system installed at a customer's home, either selling electricity through a power contract or leasing the system to a homeowner. Third-party solar still accounts for 80% of Sunrun's deployment, according to GTMResearch %, While nearly half of Tesla / SolarCity's deployments are direct sales.
This does not mean Sunrun has outpaced Tesla / SolarCity in terms of overall deployment. Since Tesla is not interested in dismantling its deployment, it is not clear who will be the leader in the middle ground yet Tesla / SolarCity is being deployed in Q3 quarters And 109 megawatts of solar energy in commercial and industrial sectors are still above 90 megawatts of Sunrun's deployment in residential areas alone.
Given Sunrun Tesla / SolarCity's growing sales, Sunrun may become the largest distributed solar installer in 2018.