Sunrun Review and Profile

Sunrun was founded in San Francisco in 2007 by Lynn Jurich and Edward "Ed" Fenster, who developed a residential "solar-as-a-service" model intended to reduce the upfront cost of installing home solar equipment. The company completed its initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange in August 2015 under the symbol RUN. On October 8, 2020, Sunrun completed its acquisition of Vivint Solar, which had been announced as an all-stock transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $3.2 billion. The acquisition substantially expanded Sunrun's direct-to-home sales organization and residential solar portfolio.

Sunrun designs, installs, owns, finances and services residential solar-energy and battery-storage systems. Most customers obtain systems through long-term leases or power-purchase agreements, generally lasting 20 or 25 years, under which Sunrun owns, monitors, maintains and insures the equipment while the homeowner pays for access to the system or the electricity it generates. Customers may also purchase systems outright. Sunrun has expanded beyond rooftop solar into battery storage, home-energy management, electric-vehicle charging and grid-service programs that combine participating home batteries into distributed or virtual power plants.

Sunrun uses a commission-based direct-sales and solar-dealer partner model, not an MLM compensation plan. Its sales channels include online lead generation, telephone sales, field representatives, direct-to-home salespeople, retail teams, independent sales partners, solar-system integrators and installation contractors. Sunrun generally compensates independent sales partners on a per-customer basis and system integrators or installers on a per-system basis. Customer contracts are made directly with Sunrun at prices established by the company.