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Freedom Forever Filed for Bankruptcy — What Illinois Solar Customers Should Do Now

Ryan Cook•July 4, 2026

One of the biggest solar companies in America filed for bankruptcy this spring — and it installed a lot of systems here in Illinois.

On April 15, 2026, Freedom Forever LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the District of Delaware, reporting more than $500 million in debt. The company had been one of the largest residential solar installers in the country, selling through a huge network of dealers — including plenty of doors knocked and contracts signed across central and southern Illinois.

I've been selling solar in Illinois for five years, and I want to say this clearly before anything else: if your system is on your roof and producing, you are fine. Solar panels don't stop working because a company's finances did. But depending on where you stand — installed, mid-installation, or holding a quote — there are real steps worth taking this month. Here's the honest guide.

First, figure out which group you're in

Everything below depends on your situation:

Your situation	Your risk level	Your first move
System installed and producing	Low	Register equipment warranties with the manufacturers
System installed, but no PTO / final inspection yet	Medium	Call your utility and your lender this week
Installation started but unfinished	High	Document everything, call your lender, get a completion assessment
Signed contract, work never started	Medium	Contact your lender about canceling funding; get advice before signing anything new
Just had a quote	None	Get a second quote from a company with local roots

If your system is installed and working

Your panels will keep producing for 25+ years regardless of what happens in a Delaware courtroom. Three housekeeping items protect you:

1. Register your equipment directly with the manufacturers. Panel warranties (typically 25 years) and inverter warranties (10–25 years) are backed by the manufacturers — not by Freedom Forever — so they survive the bankruptcy. Find the manufacturer and model on your inverter label or in your monitoring app, and register on the manufacturer's site so future claims don't route through a company that no longer exists.

2. Keep your monitoring running. Apps like Enphase and SolarEdge talk to the manufacturer's servers, not the installer's. If your monitoring was set up under the installer's account, contact the manufacturer to get it transferred to your name — that's also your early-warning system if production ever drops.

3. Line up a service relationship before you need one. The workmanship warranty — the installer's promise to fix their own installation labor — is the piece that's realistically gone, absorbed into the bankruptcy as a claim. The fix isn't complicated: established local installers routinely adopt "orphaned" systems and service them going forward. Better to know who you'd call before a squirrel chews a wire in February.

If your installation was left unfinished

This is the group I'm most concerned about, and Illinois has plenty of them — homeowners with panels on the roof but no permission-to-operate, no final inspection, or no interconnection paperwork filed.

Move fast, in this order:

Document everything today. Contract, payment receipts, texts and emails with your rep, permit numbers, photos of the work. You may need this for your lender, a claim, or the next contractor.
Call your lender this week. Most Freedom Forever deals were financed through third-party lenders. If the work isn't done, your lender needs to know — many can pause disbursements, open a dispute, or help arrange completion. Do not silently stop paying (more on that in the FAQ).
Check your permit status with your city or county building department. An open permit tells the next installer exactly where the project legally stands.
File a proof of claim in the bankruptcy case through the court-appointed claims agent — it costs nothing and preserves your rights.
File a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General (illinoisattorneygeneral.gov) — consumer complaints create a paper trail that has real weight in these cases.
Get a completion assessment from a licensed local installer before signing anything with a door-knocker who "heard about your situation."

The Illinois Shines piece: Approved Vendors matter here

If your project was enrolled in Illinois Shines — the state incentive program most Illinois solar projects run through — there's an extra layer working in your favor.

Illinois Shines projects are submitted by state-registered Approved Vendors, and your REC (renewable energy credit) agreement runs through that vendor. When a vendor stops operating, the Illinois Power Agency — which administers the program — doesn't just abandon the project. The program maintains an official Approved Vendor directory and a consumer protection portal at illinoisshines.com, where you can check on your project and file a complaint or question about its status.

Practically, that means a stranded project can often be picked up: other Approved Vendors and their registered partners can, in many cases, step in to complete work or take over servicing — the details depend on where your project sat when the music stopped. If you're not sure whether your project was even submitted to the program (a real problem when paperwork stops mid-stream), that's worth confirming right away, because program deadlines keep running whether or not your installer answers the phone.

This is the part of the process I live in every day. I work inside Illinois Shines with vetted local installer partners, and I'm glad to look at where your project stands and point you to the right people — the program administrator, your lender, or an installer who can actually finish the job. No charge for the conversation: (618) 217-2001 or send me your details here.

If you were shopping with them — or still comparing quotes

The uncomfortable truth: Freedom Forever isn't the first big national installer to fail, and the industry consensus is that it won't be the last. The national, dealer-network model — big ad budgets, subcontracted crews, aggressive financing — is exactly the model under the most stress right now.

That's not a reason to give up on solar. Illinois still has strong fundamentals: electric rates that jumped again this summer, another wave of utility rate hikes in the pipeline, and state incentives that remain among the best in the country. It is a reason to be pickier about who you sign with:

Ask who actually installs — an in-house local crew or a rotating cast of subcontractors?
Ask who services the system in year 12 — and whether they've been around long enough to make that promise credible.
Ask whether the company is an Illinois Shines Approved Vendor or works with one — and verify it in the directory.
Be wary of anyone who won't put estimates in writing. Every savings projection is an estimate, and honest companies say so.

Who to contact, for what

Issue	Who to contact
Panel or inverter problem	The equipment manufacturer (warranty registration + claims)
Loan questions, unfinished project funding	Your finance company
Formal claim against Freedom Forever	The claims agent at restructuring.ra.kroll.com/FreedomForever
Illinois Shines project status, vendor questions	illinoisshines.com consumer portal / program administrator
Consumer complaint	Illinois Attorney General — illinoisattorneygeneral.gov
"I just want someone local to tell me what to do"	Me — (618) 217-2001, no charge, no pressure

The bottom line

Your solar system is a 25-year asset that happened to be sold to you by a company that didn't last. The equipment warranties survive. The state program has structure for exactly this situation. And the gaps — service, completion, paperwork — are all fillable by people who are still here.

If you're one of the stranded ones, don't navigate the bankruptcy-claims-and-Approved-Vendor maze alone. I'm local, I know which doors to knock on, and the advice is free: (618) 217-2001.

Frequently Asked Questions

Part of it is, and it's the most valuable part. Solar warranties come in layers. The equipment warranties — typically 25 years on panels and 10 to 25 years on inverters — are issued by the manufacturers, not the installer, so they survive an installer's bankruptcy. Register your equipment directly with the manufacturer if you haven't, using the serial numbers from your paperwork or monitoring app. What's at risk is the workmanship warranty, which covered the installation labor itself — things like roof penetrations and wiring. That promise was made by Freedom Forever, and in a Chapter 11 it generally becomes a claim against the bankruptcy estate rather than a service you can call in. The practical fix: many established local installers will inspect an orphaned system and take over its service going forward. If you're not sure who made your equipment, the label on your inverter is the fastest place to look.

Act quickly and document everything before you do anything else. Gather your contract, proof of every payment, permit numbers, and photos of exactly where the work stopped. Then call your lender the same week — most solar loans are held by third-party finance companies, and if the project isn't complete, many lenders have processes to pause funding, withhold the installer's final payment, or help arrange completion. Next, check your permit status with your city or county building department, because an open permit tells the next contractor exactly where the project legally stands. You can also file a proof of claim in the bankruptcy case through the court-appointed claims agent, and file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General's consumer protection division. Finally, get a completion assessment from a licensed local installer. If the project was submitted through Illinois Shines, its Approved Vendor status matters too — see the next question.

Illinois Shines projects are submitted by state-registered companies called Approved Vendors, and your renewable energy credit (REC) contract runs through that vendor. If the vendor behind your project stops operating, the program doesn't just vanish — the Illinois Power Agency administers Illinois Shines and has handled vendor transitions before. Your first stop is the official Illinois Shines website, which maintains the current Approved Vendor directory and a consumer protection portal where you can ask questions or file a complaint about your specific project's status. In many situations another Approved Vendor can pick up a stranded project or take over servicing an existing one, though the details depend on where your project sat in the process when the company stopped work. This is exactly the kind of situation where a quick conversation with someone who works inside the program daily saves weeks of confusion — every project's status is different.

In almost every case, yes — and it surprises people. Your loan agreement is with a finance company, not with Freedom Forever, so the installer's bankruptcy doesn't erase the debt. Stopping payments on your own can damage your credit even when it feels justified. What you should do instead is call the lender, explain the situation, and put everything in writing. If your system was installed and is producing, keep paying as normal and just move service to a new company. If your installation was left incomplete, tell the lender immediately — many have hardship or dispute processes for exactly this scenario, and some will withhold remaining disbursements or negotiate while completion is arranged. If you have a lease or power purchase agreement instead of a loan, the agreement is typically owned by a financing entity that must arrange a new servicer; keep paying per the contract and watch your mail for transfer notices.