Earth Protect Blog

By Dan Mika, BizWest/Daily Camera, from The Denver Post eEdition, July 23, 2020

Real Goods Solar Inc. has begun liquidation of two of its regional installation groups and its financial arm. The three subsidiaries, Alteris Renewables Inc., RGS Financing Inc. and the company behind Sunetric, all filed to begin the Chapter 7 liquidation process in the Bankruptcy Court of Colorado on Monday. Alteris and Sunetric were full-service solar installers in the Northeast region of the U.S. and Hawaii, respectively. RGS Financing was most likely a separate entity used to handle long-term payment plans for customers.

Alteris and RGS Financing listed assets of $100,000 to $500,000 and liabilities below $50,000, while Sunetric listed assets of $100,000 to $500,000 and liabilities of $1 million to $10 million, without going into further detail about the largest creditors. The formerly Louisville-based company moved to Denver in 2017. It filed for bankruptcy in March after dismissing all of its employees and executives Jan. 31 after multiple reverse stock splits and regularly being at risk of being delisted from the Nasdaq exchange for having long stretches where its stock traded below $1.

RGS’ filing alone lists assets of $13.4 million and $9.9 million in liabilities owed to between 200 and 999 creditors. The main bankruptcy is still active, but RGS has yet to file a full liquidation plan. RGS could not be reached for comment. Its listed phone number is disconnected, and its websites are no longer available. While RGS was struggling in the months preceding its bankruptcy, the ongoing economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has upended smaller solar companies along the northern Front Range. 

Louisville’s SunTech Drive LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early June, while fellow Louisville-based firm Clean Energy Collective LLC filed for bankruptcy so it can shed debts before a planned sale to New York utility giant Consolidated Edison Inc. The Solar Industries Association estimates Colorado lost as much as a third of its solar workforce in the first months of the pandemic as depressed consumer confidence hurt interest in new projects.