Vivint Solar

Vivint Solar
Public
Traded as NYSE: VSLR
Industry Energy
Founded 2011
Headquarters Lehi, Utah
Areas served
 21 states[1]
Key people
 David Bywater, CEO
Bryan Christiansen, Chief Operating Officer
Thomas Plagemann, Chief Commercial Officer
Products Solar energy system
Fully Integrated Solar
Number of employees
 4,000+[2]
Website www.vivintsolar.com

Vivint Solar, Inc. is an American solar energy company. Founded in 2011 as an offshoot of Vivint,[3] Vivint Solar went public in 2014.[4] Vivint Solar is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It was launched as a residential solar provider that designs, installs, and maintains photovoltaic systems.

Vivint Solar operates in 21 U.S. states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia).[5] It has installed over 100,000 solar panel systems as of February 2017.[6] It uses fleet vehicles carrying the traditional Vivint orange coloration.[7]

After the company's initial public offering, it encountered problems beginning in 2015, including declining sales, increased competition from other solar power companies,[8] low stock price, two class action lawsuits against the company,[9] and a failed buyout offer from SunEdison, which filed for bankruptcy in April 2016.[10]

The company is considered to be a green home technology company[11] and is the fastest growing solar energy company in the U.S. which uses the power purchase agreement (PPA) model.[12][13]

In 2016, Vivint Solar introduced a new CEO, David Bywater.[14] In 2017, the company partnered with Mercedes-Benz Energy on home batteries;[15] Vivint Smart Home to track energy consumption to save electricity;[16] and ChargePoint, which provides electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for the home.[17]

As reported in 2018, by Washington Post, CBS News and many other news groups, Vivint Solar has serious complaints regarding racial discrimination and racial harassment.[18][19]

History

In October 2011, home automation company Vivint, Inc. started and incorporated a new, solar division of the company, Vivint Solar.[20] In November 2012, the Blackstone Group acquired a controlling interest in Vivint, Vivint Solar, and 2GIG[21] Technologies for in excess of $2 billion.[22] After the Blackstone acquisition, the solar division evolved and became Vivint Solar, LLC., a separate, but related company.[23]

According to GTM Research, Vivint Solar was the number two residential solar installer in the United States in 2013, and maintaining its No. 2 position as of the end of 2016.[24]

In October 2014, Vivint Solar opened for public trading on the New York Stock Exchange.[25] A class-action lawsuit was filed against Vivint in December 2014, with allegations that the company misled investors in their Initial Public Offering by omitting data that showed the company's PPA model was falling out of favor with consumers.[9] Vivint contended that the lawsuit lacked legal merit.

In February 2015, Vivint Solar broke ground on a new corporate campus in Lehi, Utah near Thanksgiving Point, and began operating from there in May 2016. This five-story steel-construction high-rise is ultra-modern, and provides cafeteria service for its employees like its parent Vivint's corporate headquarters.

In July 2015, SunEdison announced plans to buy Vivint Solar for $2.2 billion USD.[26] In March 2016, Vivint Solar announced that the SunEdison deal had been terminated, and that the company was suing SunEdison for a "willful breach" of the planned merger. SunEdison is in bankruptcy as of January 2017, and Vivint Solar is one of many creditors.[27] A second proposed class action lawsuit was filed in May 2016, arguing that Vivint misled investors about the SunEdison buyout offer.[28]

Due to other financing arrangements after the failed SunEdison negotiations, Vivint Solar was predicted in mid-2016 to enter 2017 stronger than before,[27] but as of September 2017 their stock remains below $4 per share in comparison to a high of about $15 in 2015.[29] Analysis from early 2017 found that while Vivint Solar had greater access to capital, actual installation of home solar panels fell substantially with a drop of 21% from late 2015 to late 2016.[30] In 2017, the company expanded to 20 states.[31] Vivint Solar has installed 100,000 solar energy systems as of February 2017.[32]

Technology

Vivint Solar's customers can finance a system with a loan, purchase or lease a system, or purchase energy based on a long-term contract—a PPA. With a loan or cash sale, customers own the panels after paying for the installation outright or securing financing. In the PPA structure, customers pay a fee per kilowatt hour based on the amount of electricity the solar energy system actually produces. In the lease structure, the customer's monthly payment is fixed based on a calculation that takes into account expected solar energy generation. The lease includes a production guarantee under which Vivint Solar agrees to make a payment to the customer if the leased system does not meet the guaranteed production level.[33][34][35][36]

Most of Vivint Solar's growth as of 2013 had come from door-to-door sales.[37]

As of 2016, however, the PPA model was losing favor with consumers who increasingly preferred to buy solar power systems outright rather than lease them or engage in PPAs. This change has contributed to Vivint's financial troubles.[8] In 2016, Vivint Solar started offering cash sales and loans and recorded revenue growth.[38]

Products

In 2017, Vivint Solar expanded its products beyond solar panels to energy storage, EV charging and smart energy management. It announced partnerships with Mercedes-Benz Energy to offer home storage batteries, Vivint Smart Home to integrate energy consumption tracker and ChargePoint to charge electric vehicle (EVs) at home.

The company's Fully Integrated Solar allows customers to purchase a Vivint Solar rooftop solar system, a ChargePoint Home electric vehicle charger, a Mercedes-Benz Energy storage home battery and Vivint Smart Home intelligent energy management.[39]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.vivintsolar.com/coverage. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ https://www.vivintsolar.com/newsroom/media-assets. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ "Home Security Firm Enters Solar Market With $75M Fund". Forbes. Retrieved Oct 19, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Vivint Solar prices IPO at $16, the low end of the range". Renaissance Capital IPO Center. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  5. ↑ "Vivint Solar Coverage Area". Vivint Solar. Retrieved Jul 16, 2017.
  6. ↑ Hill, Joshua S. (23 February 2017). "Vivint Solar Hits 100,000 Customers". CleanTechnica. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  7. ↑ Basich, Greg (January 5, 2012). "Vivint Launches Fleet for New Solar Division". Automotive Fleet.
  8. 1 2 Vivint Solar Is Struggling To Survive, SeekingAlpha.com, Nov 4, 2016, accessed Aug 3, 2017
  9. 1 2 Karl-Erik Stromsta Lawsuits against Vivint Solar 'lack merit', company say, RechargeNews.com 12 December 2014, accessed 03 Aug 2017
  10. ↑ Brickely, Peg and Liz Hoffman. "SunEdison Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection". Wall Street Journal. April 21, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Vivint Recognizes National Green Week Through Energy-Saving Solar and Home Automation". Business Wire. February 4, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Vivint Solar Offers Affordable Solar Energy Solutions in Two New California Markets". Business Wire. November 29, 2012.
  13. ↑ Tempesta, Matt (February 23, 2013). "Saugus sees sudden spike in solar installations". The Daily Item.
  14. ↑ "Vivint Solar names BYU, Harvard grad as new CEO".
  15. ↑ "Mercedes-Benz and Vivint Solar partner to compete with Tesla in home energy".
  16. ↑ "Smart-home innovator Vivint announces new AI assistant and unique Airbnb partnership".
  17. ↑ "Vivint, ChargePoint to pair home solar with EV charging".
  18. ↑ "Allegations that employees built racist fort".
  19. ↑ "Employees built racist fort".
  20. ↑ "Home security packaged with energy and solar". CNET. Retrieved Feb 11, 2011.
  21. ↑ http://2gig.com/
  22. ↑ De La Merced, Michael J. (September 18, 2012). "Blackstone to Buy Control of Vivint, a Home Security Provider". The New York Times.
  23. ↑ "Blackstone $2 Billion Acquisition Ties in Solar and Home Automation". 24/7 Wall Street. Retrieved Sep 19, 2012.
  24. ↑ "Elon Musk plans crazy 2017 for Tesla, but SolarCity may be the biggest headache".
  25. ↑ Wang, Ucilia (1 October 2014). "Vivint Solar Makes Public Market Debut, Shares Up Modestly". Forbes. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  26. ↑ Fehrenbacher, Katie (20 July 2015). "Why SunEdison is buying Vivint Solar for $2.2 billion". Fortune. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  27. 1 2 http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/13/vivint-solars-1-billion-lawsuit-adds-to-sunedison.aspx
  28. ↑ http://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-875.html
  29. ↑ http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/vslr/interactive-chart
  30. ↑ Christian Roselund (2017). Vivint Solar installations decline in Q4, PVMag.com, 16 March 2017; accessed 12 April 2017
  31. ↑ "Vivint Solar Beats Expectations In Q2 & Continues Upward Trend".
  32. ↑ "Vivint Solar & ChargePoint Announce Fully Integrated Solar Residential Energy Management Solution".
  33. ↑ Castle, Stephen (October 20, 2011). "Vivint Offers Solar Panels—No Money Down". Electronic House.
  34. ↑ Burns, Matt (October 18, 2011). "Vivint Solar Announces $75m Partnership With U.S. Bancorp, Expansion Into Three New Markets". TechCrunch.
  35. ↑ "Vision of Vivint Solar". Vimeo. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  36. ↑ Serra, Tanguy. "Solar Leasing". Alternative Energy eMagazine. Retrieved May 18, 2013.
  37. ↑ "VivintKnock! Knock! Solar company wins converts going door to door". Reuters. Retrieved Nov 3, 2013.
  38. ↑ "Solar Earnings in a Trump World: SunPower, SolarCity, SolarEdge, Vivint".
  39. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/business/energy-environment/vivint-solar-mercedes-benz-battery.html
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