Solar lending company declares bankruptcy following attacks on solar incentives: 'Caused some uncertainty and volatility'
The uncertainty around the solar tax credit is causing waves in the solar power industry, as one of the largest solar financing companies just filed for bankruptcy.
According to EnergySage, an expert in the solar power industry, Mosaic filed for Chapter 11 on June 6.
"The political uncertainty surrounding the fate of solar tax credits has put significant pressure on the industry, squeezing companies already contending with high interest rates and unfavorable policy changes," EnergySage said.
In May, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would end the solar tax credit at the end of the year. It was initially supposed to end at the end of 2035. The bill is now with the Senate, which plans to vote on the bill by the August recess.
Mosaic is optimistic that it will pull through, as it will continue to operate without disruptions. Since 2010, the financing company has helped over 360,000 households obtain solar power.
While there is uncertainty about the solar tax credit, there is no uncertainty around the savings that families get when they install solar panels. They can save up to $1,500 a year on energy bills.
Solar power is also better for the environment. It doesn't use dirty energy to power your home, so no polluting gases are released that warm the planet. That also means better air quality in neighborhoods.
With EnergySage's free marketplace, it's easy to invest in solar power. You can search and compare quotes for an installer in your area just like you would flight deals. EnergySage can even help you save up to $10,000 in incentives for panels and installation.
Additionally, EnergySage offers a helpful tool that displays the average cost of solar installation in each state, along with the available incentives.
According to Solar Builder, those incentives are as high as 30%, but it's unclear if they will remain in place next year. It will all depend on whether the government votes to eliminate the tax credits.
What's the biggest obstacle stopping your organization from using solar panels?
They're too expensive
Don't know where to start
They're an eyesore
We already use solar panels
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
Sungage Financial CEO Mike Gilroy expects short-term disruption if the government votes to eliminate the tax credit. "The current legislation has caused some uncertainty and volatility in the market," he said.
However, he's optimistic about the future.
He told EnergySage: "We expect rising utility rates, increased demand for electricity, the need for energy resilience in extreme weather events, a desire for control over energy costs, and support of clean energy will continue driving solar growth over time."
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
31 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Cyber Risk SMBs Can't Afford To Ignore
AI-driven threats are rewriting the rulebook. Here's the new cybersecurity playbook every small business must adopt before it's too late June just marked National Cybersecurity Education Month, an effort to raise awareness and expand the cybersecurity workforce. While public understanding is growing, so is the scale and sophistication of attacks. In the age of AI, threats no longer target only governments and large organizations. Cyberattacks now strike in unexpected places, putting individuals, SMBs, and entire systems at risk. Awareness alone isn't enough. Are we prepared? A recent conference held at Nasdaq by the Digital Evolution Institute explored the digital fabric comprising AI, data, and cybersecurity, and put a fascinating spotlight on the growing and unexpected risks and consequences. Byron Loflin, Nasdaq Board Excellence Center at the conference Digital Evolution Institute founder Julia Valentine stressed throughout the conference the shift from cyber crises as technical incidents to business and leadership-level challenges, and explained why being proactive in cyber crisis preparedness is no longer a luxury but a must-have. Cyber risk is a business risk Valentine, Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, entrepreneur, and a long time investor, is also the founder of AlphaMille, a global technology consulting firm specializing in digital and physical security, stressed at the conference that 'Companies cannot look to the government to protect them from cyberattacks in the AI era. Digital exposure should be treated as any other initiative that creates revenue, reduces cost, and mitigates risk,' she said, offering a familiar example from 2021, when R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD), a global provider of business communication and marketing services, which went through a ransomware attack that exposed sensitive client data. In 2024, the SEC reached a $2.125 million settlement with RRD for violating the internal controls and disclosure controls provisions of federal securities laws. As part of remediation, RRD revised incident response policies and procedures, adopted new cybersecurity technology and controls, updated employee training, and increased cybersecurity personnel headcount - all basic cybersecurity measures that shareholders increasingly expect to be put in place as a normal course of business. 'The 'R.R. Donnelley' case was a wake-up call,' Valentine now says. 'Despite being a data-intensive company, they missed key warning signs. This cost them millions and damaged client trust. Overlooking cybersecurity doesn't just increase risk; it sets a company up for sudden and devastating failure.' Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, entrepreneur, and a long time investor, Julia ... More Valentine at the conference. While awareness is supposedly on the rise, cybercrime losses have been steadily increasing, and projections indicate a continued upward trend. Globally, cybercrime costs are projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. The annual cost of cybercrime in the U.S. alone is estimated to be around $639 billion in 2025. According to Valentine, three things need to happen to change the trend: 'Cybersecurity needs to be elevated to the board level. The board needs to calibrate the right amount of information it needs for effective oversight, and the company needs to right-size its cybersecurity defenses.' During the conference, broad discussions by key industry leaders explored this shift in priorities from multiple angles. 'As fiduciaries, we are now responsible for the resilience of our organizations, not just our balance sheets.' From a management and board perspective, it was made clear that the change starts there: 'Cybersecurity must be viewed not as an IT expense, but as a strategic differentiator. Boards need fluency in incident response, third-party risk, threat intelligence, and yes, a solid recovery plan. Because a breach today is no longer just a technical failure, it's a governance failure.' SMBs Are Losing the Battle to Cybercrime In today's digital economy, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are no longer flying under the radar of cybercriminals. In fact, they've become prime targets. According to recent industry reports, nearly 60% of SMBs experience a cyberattack each year. 'Many SMBs operate under the dangerous assumption that they're too small or insignificant to attract cybercriminals,' she says. 'In reality, attackers often see SMBs as low-hanging fruit, companies with valuable data but weaker defenses. Whether it's financial records, employee data, or client information, your business is a digital goldmine to hackers.' Many small businesses are at serious risk without realizing it. Common signs include not using multi-factor authentication, not knowing what systems or tools are in use, and ignoring alerts or phishing emails. Relying on basic IT support, skipping regular backups, running outdated software, and lacking a clear response plan all leave the door open to attacks. Even being denied cyber insurance can be a red flag. So beyond misconceptions, what's actually preventing SMBs from getting the protection they need? Valentine outlines five practical barriers that prevent SMBs from getting the cybersecurity protection they need: Cyber protection is not out of reach. SMBs need focused, outsourced, and staged solutions, not bloated enterprise packages. "SMBs must treat cybersecurity like a business imperative." With the different views discussed at the conference, a new 'playbook' was created with the critical steps each business, big and small, must take. Valentine is now outlining The New Cybersecurity Playbook for SMBs: 7 Essential Steps: 'Cybersecurity is a boardroom concern and a business imperative,' she concludes. 'A modern, tested cyber playbook is the best line of defense.'
Forbes
32 minutes ago
- Forbes
New MTU-IACMI Partnership Expands Metallurgy Education And Outreach
Casting—pouring molten metal into molds to create new components—is one of the fundamental skills ... More covered by IACMI's METAL program. With all the focus currently on skilled trades training and recruiting, one vital area that hasn't gotten a lot of attention is the fundamental processes of making things from metal. The Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship & Learning program was founded in June 2024 to help with that, and its latest win is a new partnership with Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. METAL is led by the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation with funding from the Department of Defense's Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, It focuses breakthrough education and awareness efforts on the metallurgical processes of casting, forging and plate rolling. The new partnership will provide workforce training to strengthen metalworking industries. As METAL's newest hub operator, Michigan Tech joins The Ohio State University, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and Pennsylvania State University in helping deliver METAL's nationally recognized curriculum, facilitate instructor certification, and launch boot camps and academic pathways for metalworking professionals. MTU will also integrate METAL training into its existing Summer Youth Programs, offering an introduction to metalworking, metallurgy and materials science to high school students from across the Upper Midwest. Plate rolling—running hot metal through progressive roll mills to create thinner slabs—is another of ... More the basic processes in the METAL program. 'We're trying to create exposure,' Greg Harrell, workforce coordinator at IACMI, told me in an interview. 'K through gray is what we call it, from kindergarten all the way through to adults, to expose them to different types of metallurgical-type processes.' 'So Michigan Tech, one of the ones things they're doing is summer youth programs,' added Michael Kubacki, project coordinator at IACMI added. 'We're able to help fund those so that they have more casting and forging curriculum, or expand on it, add more summer youth programs to try to get more kids interested. It can also drive them to take a metal or material science or engineering course at school so you can help drive admissions into the higher degree pathways for engineering.' The MTU hub curriculum will combine interactive online learning with in-person casting and forging boot camps at MTU's state-of-the-art labs. Future educational modules will incorporate training on automation in casting and forging and will open pathways to employment in critical industry roles. 'We have a fully working foundry,' Alexandra Glover, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at MTU, said in an interview. 'We have full-time staff who work there. So it's a really easy thing for us to slot in. As a department, we've taught a very rigorous castings class for a very long time, and so curriculum-wise, a lot of the activities line up really well with METAL. We're used to having large groups of students in our foundry all the time.' Forging—using powerful presses to shape hot metal—is another of the METAL program's fundamental ... More metallurgical processes. Glover sees additional educational opportunities arising as the program moves forward. 'We're making some upgrades to the facilities, just to have better teaching spaces, designated spaces where we don't have to deconflict research and teaching as much. We are getting a mill and a lathe so we can incorporate some machining into our program… Right now, they are mostly focused on casting. My background is actually in forging. For me, I would love to get more into the metalworking space.' Growing the program is also a focus for IACMI as well. 'We're going to continue to grow our network,' said Kubacki. 'We have a proposal out there that is not yet to be executed, but we're told soon that'll help us get eight to 10 more sites. … We also have Ohio State, and one of their deliverables is plans for a mobile foundry.' 'We're also trying to integrate the METAL program into our high schools,' added Harrell. 'We're doing one in Grange County here in Tennessee. We're integrating our place like a workshop where the kids will melt tin, they'll create a mold, they'll pour that, and we'll have some curriculum-building around that with the teachers there. We have a lot of outreach programs we're doing there to try to spark more interest in the metallurgical-type processes.' From her perch at Michigan Tech, Glover sees both the need for, and the tremendous opportunities that can arise from, programs like METAL. 'There's a ton of need for people to enter this workforce, a ton of opportunity to develop new technologies. Our factories and our forging houses and our metalworking spaces need to be modernized. They need a high level of investment over the next couple decades just to meet the manufacturing needs of this country. And that really hasn't been the case for a long time. So it's a really exciting time, and it's also a great area for employment. Michigan Tech grads have a super-high employment rate. I think that's true for engineering in general, and this is a great industry that has had a lot of hiring and continues to have a lot of hiring. And that's true both on the college side and on the trade side. You can make a really good career out of being a trades person in a metalworking space.'
Newsweek
34 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Did Republicans Just Kill the Filibuster?
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Republicans are relying on rarely employed accounting methods to push Donald Trump's "one, big beautiful bill" through the Senate, and in doing so could upend established Congressional procedures surrounding the reconciliation process and the filibuster. Why It Matters The filibuster—a procedural move allowing senators to extend debates on bills indefinitely without a 60-vote majority—has long been viewed as a move to encourage bipartisanship in Congress and as a bulwark against political dominance by slim majorities in the upper chamber. Experts told Newsweek that recent moves by Republicans while trying to pass Trump's tax legislation could create new precedent surrounding the filibuster for years to come, including past the period of GOP control. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham looks out from the upper chamber, June 11, 2025. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham looks out from the upper chamber, June 11, 2025. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo What To Know Republicans are employing the reconciliation process to pass Trump's tax bill, the centerpiece of his second-term domestic agenda, allowing them to eventually advance the bill with only a majority vote rather than the 60 votes normally needed to do away with the threat of a filibuster. A central element of the bill, which the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates would add $4.2 trillion to the nation's deficit through 2034, is the extension of the tax cuts enacted during Trump's first term. Sweeping fiscal moves of this kind are traditionally restricted by the Byrd Rule, adopted in 1985, which limits the sort of policies that can be folded into bills passed through reconciliation, and forbids legislation from adding to the nation's deficit beyond 10 years. However, as reported by AP, Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel recently notified Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of the Senate Budget Committee that elements of the Big, Beautiful Bill would increase the deficit "in years after 2034." Going by this assessment, the Republican bill would violate the rule that determines what legislation can clear the Senate with a simple majority, which could force Republicans to amend significant portions of the legislation. In response to these concerns, and Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough advising that certain provisions in the bill were not budget-related and therefore in violation of Senate rules, Republicans have now argued that Trump's 2017 tax cuts should be treated as part of the fiscal "baseline" forecast, even though these have not yet been extended. Republicans have also cited Section 312 of Congressional Budget Act to argue that the final authority for determining baseline spending figures, and whether the tax portion of the bill violates Byrd, lies with Republican Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham. When approached by Newsweek for comment, a spokesperson for Senator Graham said: "Republicans do not want a $4 trillion tax hike—which is what would happen if the Democrats had their way and the 2017 tax cuts expired." They also referenced past support from Democrats for the notion that the Senate Budget Committee Chairman has the power to establish the baseline, citing former Chairman Bernie Sanders' 2022 remark that "the Budget Committee, through its Chair, makes the call on questions of numbers." Sanders is an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Experts have said that this new "Byrd Bath"—as it has been referred to by some on Capitol Hill—could establish a new precedent regarding budget reconciliation and the avoidance of filibusters by those in power in the future. "The budget process established in 1974 and reinforced by rules and precedents since then was intended to allow a simple majority to pass a budget as long as the contents of a budget measure were limited to budget-related spending and tax provisions," Steve Smith, professor of politics at Arizona State University, told Newsweek. "Playing partisan games with the budget process to set aside the 10-year budget period or use it for nonbudget purposes is contrary to the plain language of the Budget Act and the Byrd rules adopted by the Senate," he added. "It is a precedent that will get repeated over and over again." Michael Ettlinger, a political adviser who previously worked with the Biden-Harris campaign, said, "If the Republican's new accounting method becomes the norm, it will be far easier to pass deficit increasing legislation in the Senate with a simple majority vote—limiting the impact of the filibuster." Ettlinger, who is currently a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), noted that nothing would then stop Democrats from employing the same precedents to bypass the filibuster in future bills. "If the Democrats reclaim the Senate they will have the opportunity to undermine the filibuster as the Republicans have done," he told Newsweek. "It's their choice." Democratic Senator Rubén Gallego, reiterated this argument, posting to X: "There is no filibuster if the Senate [Republicans] do this and when Dems take power there is no reason why we should not use reconciliation to pass immigration reform." What People Are Saying Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, in a statement released Sunday, said: "The only way for Republicans to pass this horribly destructive bill, which is based on budget math as fake as Donald Trump's tan, was to go nuclear and hide it behind a bunch of procedural jargon. We're now operating in a world where the filibuster applies to Democrats but not to Republicans, and that's simply unsustainable given the triage that'll be required whenever the Trump era finally ends." Steve Smith, professor of politics at Arizona State University, told Newsweek: "If a small Senate majority can put anything in a budget measure or ignore the ten-year budget window, then nothing is left for regular legislation that is subject to a filibuster. It represents a "get-it-while-you-can" partisanship that Republicans have adopted since [Mitch] McConnell became leader that, step-by-step, has undermined longstanding Senate norms." Republican Senator and Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, said: "I'm not the first chairman to change a baseline for different reasons." "The budget Chairman, under [Section] 312, sets the baseline," Graham continued. "This has been acknowledged by Republicans and Democrats." What Happens Next? Debate over President Trump's megabill has now reached the final stages. A "vote-a-rama" on the bill—a marathon session during which lawmakers may introduce amendments to a reconciliation package—kicked off in the Senate on Monday morning. Should the bill pass a Senate vote, expected this week, it will then be sent back down to the House for approval. On Friday, Trump said that his preferred deadline of July 4 was not the "end all," but later said via Truth Social that the House of Representatives "must be ready" to send the bill to his desk by this date.
