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Bloomberg
Sunrun Inc, America’s largest residential-solar company, is about to become even bigger by acquiring one of its top rivals. The deal will also help redefine it as more than just an installer of rooftop panels and batteries.
For Sunrun, buying Vivint Solar Inc is a way to accelerate a key objective: clustering thousands of batteries in dense areas that the company can tap to provide power to local electrical grids.
That focus shows how rooftop-solar providers are maturing. Installing batteries along with panels gives them a supply of dispatchable electricity that can be sold. As a result, companies that once were viewed as a disruptive threat to utilities are now increasingly partners to them.
“The future of the business is in smart solar – networking our systems together,†Edward Fenster, executive chairman of Sunrun, said. Residential solar panels and batteries are now seen as assets for both homeowners and utilities, said Joe Osha, an analyst at JMP Securities.