UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 20152018

OR

Commission File Number 001-36642

VIVINT SOLAR, INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its Charter)

3301 N. Thanksgiving Way, Suite 500

Lehi, UT

84043

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

(877) 404-4129

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)code: (877) 404-4129

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

None

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    YES  ¨☐     NO  x☒

Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act.    YES  ¨☐    NO  x☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    YES  x☒     NO  ¨☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit and post such files).    YES  x☒     NO  ¨☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of Registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  x☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitiondefinitions of “large accelerated filer”,filer,” “accelerated filer”,filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “smaller reporting“emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the Registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.  ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).     YES  ¨☐     NO  x☒

AsThe aggregate market value of the voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30, 2015,29, 2018, the last business day of the registrant’sRegistrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market valuewas approximately $168.4 million.

The number of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant based on the closing price of $12.17 for shares of the registrant’sRegistrant’s common stock outstanding as reported by the New York Stock Exchange, was approximately $264.1 million.

As of March 2, 2016, there were 106,595,407 shares of registrant’s common stock outstanding.1, 2019 was 120,193,303.

Portions of the Registrant’s Definitive Proxy Statement relating to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders, scheduled to be held on June 6, 2016,27, 2019, are incorporated by reference into Part III of this report.

Table of Contents

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PART I

Forward-looking Statements

This report, including the sections entitled “Business,” “Risk Factors,” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and certain information incorporated by reference into this report contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are identified by words such as “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “will,” “may,” “seek” and other similar expressions. You should read these statements carefully because they discuss future expectations, contain projections of future results of operations or financial condition or state other “forward-looking” information. These statements relate to our future plans, objectives, expectations, intentions and financial performance and the assumptions that underlie these statements.

These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:

In combination with the risk factors we have identified, we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this report will prove to be accurate. Further, if our forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all, or as predictions of future events. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Item 1. Business.

BUSINESS

Overview

We primarilywere incorporated as Vivint Solar, Inc., a Delaware corporation, in 2011. We offer distributed solar energy — electricity generated by a solar energy system installed at or near customers’ locations — to residential customers based on 20-yearprimarily through a customer-focused and neighborhood-driven direct-to-home sales model. Through investment funds, we own a substantial majority of the solar energy systems we install and provide solar electricity pursuant to long-term contracts at prices below their current utility rates. Our customerswith our customers. Additionally, we wholly own a smaller number of solar energy systems outside of investment funds. We also sell solar energy systems outright to customers.

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Customers that enter long-term contracts pay little to no money upfront, and typically save 20% to 40%receive savings on solar-generated electricity rates relative to utility-generated electricity rates following system interconnection to the power grid and continue to benefit from locked-in energy prices over the term of their contracts, insulating them against unpredictable increases in utility rates. In 2015, we began offeringThe majority of these customers sign 20-year contracts for solar electricity generated by our customerssystems and pay us directly over the option to purchase solar energy systems.term of their contracts.

Our 20-year customer contracts generate predictable, recurring cash flows and establish a long-term relationship with homeowners. ThroughAs of December 31, 2018 the average estimated nominal contracted payment for our investment funds, we own an interest inlong-term customer contracts was approximately $28,600, and there is the potential for additional payments if customers choose to renew their contracts at the end of the term. The ownership of the solar energy systems we install and ownership of the solar energy systemsunder long-term customer contracts allows us and the other fund investors to benefit from various local, state and federal incentives. We obtain financing based on these cash flows from customers and these incentives. When customers decide to move or sell the home prior to the end of their contract term, the customer contracts allow our customers to transfer their obligations to the new home buyer, subject to a creditworthiness determination.buyer. If the home buyer is not creditworthy or does not wish to assume the customer’s obligations, the contract allows us to require the customer to purchase the system. Our sources of financing are used to offset our direct installation costs and most, if not all, of our allocated overhead expenses. As of February 28, 2019, we had raised 25 investment funds to which investors such as banks and other large financial investors have committed to invest approximately $1.9 billion. The undrawn committed capital for these funds as of February 28, 2019 was approximately $176 million, which we estimate will fund approximately 86 megawatts of future deployments.

We also offer our customers the option to purchase solar energy systems for cash or through third-party loan financing. Selling solar energy systems allows us to address customers who prefer to own the solar energy system and assume the long-term benefits and risks of system ownership. Customers who choose this option are generally eligible for various local, state and federal incentives, which may help to offset the cost of their solar energy system.

We have developed an integrated approach to providing residential distributed solar energy where we fully control the lifecycle of our customers’ experience including the initial professional consultation, design and engineering process, installation, and ongoing monitoring and service. We deploy our sales force on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, which allows us to cultivate a geographically concentrated customer base that reduces our costs and increases our operating efficiency. We couple this model with repeatable and scalable processes to establish warehouse facilities, assemble and train sales and installation teams and open new offices. We believe that our processes enable us to expand within existing markets and into new markets. We also believe that our direct sales model and integrated approach represent a differentiated platform, unique in the industry, that maximizes sales effectiveness, delivering high levels of customer satisfaction and driving cost efficiency.

From our inception in May 2011 through December 31, 2015,2018, we have experienced rapid growth, installinginstalled solar energy systems with an aggregate of 458.91,060.9 megawatts of capacity at more than 68,500approximately 154,600 homes in 12 states for an average solar energy system capacity of approximately 6.76.9 kilowatts. According to GTM Research, an industry research firm, we were the second largest installer of solar energy systems to the U.S. residential market in 2015, capturing approximately 11% market share in the third quarter of 2015, down from approximately 16% in the third quarter of 2014. We attribute the decrease in market share to distractions from the proposed SunEdison acquisition and increased competition in the residential solar market. We believe the key ingredients to our growth include the following:

As of February 29, 2016, we had raised 16 residential investment funds to which investors such as banks have committed to invest approximately $1.1 billion which will enable us to install solar energy systems of total fair market value approximating $2.6 billion. As of February 29, 2016, we had remaining tax equity commitments to fund approximately 55 megawatts of future deployments, which we estimate to be sufficient to fund solar energy systems with a total fair market value of approximately $241 million.

Our Approach

We secure financing that enables our customers to access solar energy for little to no upfront cost to them. The key elements of our integrated approach to providing distributed solar energy include:

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Customer Contracts

Prior toOur primary product offerings include the first quarter of 2014, all of our long-term contracts were structured asfollowing:

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Of our 196.0 megawatts installed in 2018, approximately 79% were installed under PPAs, 6% were installed under Solar Leases and 15% were installed under System Sales. As of December 31, 2018, the average FICO score of our customers was approximately 760.

Sales and Marketing

We place our integrated residential solar energy systems through a scalable sales organization that relies primarily useson a direct-to-home sales model. We believe that a high-touch, customer-focused selling processdirect, customer-facing sales model is important before, during and after the sale ofthroughout our productssales process to maximize our sales success.success and customer experience. The members of our sales force typically reside and work within the marketmarkets they serve.support. We also generate a significant amount of sales volume through customer referrals. We have found that customerCustomer referrals increase in relation to our penetration in a particular market and shortly after entering a new market entry become an increasingly effective way to market our solar energy systems.

In addition to direct sales, we sell to customers through our inside sales team and through our retail channelsales dealer agreements that reaches new customers at kiosks in mallswe have entered into with Vivint and other locations.others. We also continue to explore opportunities to sell solar energy systems to customers through a number of other distribution channels, including relationships with real estate management companies, home builders, home improvement stores,retailers, large construction, electrical and roofing companies and other third parties that have access to large numbers of potential solar customers.

Operations

Our corporate headquarters are located in Utah. We manage inventory through our local warehouses and maintain a fleet of over 700 trucks and other vehicles to support our installers and operations. In 2018, our field teams completed on average approximately 2,300 residential installations per month. We manage thousands of projects as they move through the stages of engineering, permitting, installation, maintenance and monitoring.

We establishoffer a sales officerange of warranties to our investment funds on our solar energy systems under long-term customer contracts to ensure the solar energy systems remain productive. Under our workmanship warranty, we are obligated, at our cost and expense, to correct defects in each market that we enter. A typical sales team may consist of 15 to 20 sales representatives,our installation work, which depending on the sales region, whichparticular investment fund, is for periods of five to 20 years. Generally, our maintenance obligations to our investment funds do not include the cost of panels, inverters or racking, should such major components require replacement. The cost of such components is borne instead by the applicable investment fund, although we referare obligated to install such equipment as sales managers,part of our services covered by the agreed maintenance services fee. We provide ongoing service and repairs to solar energy systems under PPAs and Solar Leases during the entire term of the customer relationship. We also agree to provide a workmanship warranty and maintain the solar energy systems we sell to customers through System Sales for a period of one to two district managers. Sales managers are typically recruited by district managers or throughten years. We expect the costs we incur in providing these services will continue to grow as the number of systems in our sales recruiting team. These sales teams are supported by approximately 30 installation techniciansportfolio increases and an operations manager. There are also regional managers who generally oversee 10 to 20 sales offices. As of December 31, 2015, we had 66 total sales offices.as installed solar energy systems age.

Operations and Suppliers

We purchase solar panels, directlyinverters and other system components from multiple manufacturers. During 2015, Trina Solar Limited, Yingli Green Energy Americas, Inc. and JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. accounted for substantiallya limited number of suppliers. Substantially all of our solar photovoltaic module purchasespanels and Enphase Energy, Inc. and SolarEdge Technologies Inc. accounted for substantially all of our inverter purchases. Ecolibrium Solar, EcoFasten Solar and Mounting Systems Inc. accounted for substantially all of our racking purchases.inverters are produced outside the United States. We generally source the other products related to our solar energy systems such as fasteners, wiring and electrical fittings, through a variety of suppliers and distributors.

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If we fail to develop, maintain and expand our relationships with these or other suppliers, our ability to meet anticipated demand for our solar energy systems may be adversely affected, or we may only be able to offer our systems at higher costs or after delays. To reduce risk, we have added suppliers in the module, inverter and racking product groups. If one or more of the suppliers that we rely upon to meet anticipated demand ceases or reduces production due to its financial condition, acquisition by a competitor or otherwise, it may be difficult to quickly identify alternative suppliers or to qualify alternative products on commercially reasonable terms, and our ability to satisfy this demand may be adversely affected.

We screen all suppliers and components based on expected cost, reliability, warranty coverage, ease of installation and other ancillary costs. We typically enter into master contract arrangements with our major suppliers that define the general terms and conditions of our purchases, including warranties, product specifications, indemnities, licenses, delivery and other customary terms. We typically purchase solar panels, inverters and racking from our suppliers at then prevailing prices pursuant to purchase orders issued under our master contract arrangements. From time to time we find it advantageous to enter into purchase commitments with our suppliers.

The declining cost ofAlthough the solar panel market has seen an increase in supply, upward pressure on prices may occur due to growth in the solar industry, regulatory policy changes and the resulting increase in demand for solar panels and the raw materials necessary to manufacture them has beenthem.

On January 22, 2018, the President of the United States announced the imposition of safeguard measures for a key driverperiod of four years that include (1) a 30% tariff on imports of solar cells not partially or fully assembled into other products and (2) a 30% tariff on imported solar panels. The tariff on imported solar panels will decline 5% each year in the price we chargesecond, third and fourth years. The safeguard measures went into effect on February 7, 2018 and apply to imports from all foreign countries, including Mexico and Canada, except certain developing countries that are members of the World Trade Organization.

On September 17, 2018, the President of the United States announced the imposition of tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods. Inverters imported from China are listed as subject to the new duties. Tariffs of 10% on inverters went into effect on September 24, 2018, and the tariffs were scheduled to rise to 25% on January 1, 2019. In December 2018, the President agreed to suspend further trade action for electricity90 days, and customer adoption of solar energy. Accordingin February 2019 to industry experts, solar panel and raw material prices are not expectedfurther suspended trade action, to continue negotiations and to declineleave the tariff at the same10% rate asfor the time being. Our various inverter suppliers are still determining how they have overwill manage these tariffs. We are currently seeing various responses from inverter suppliers to the past several years. The resulting prices we pay for components could slow our growth and cause our financial results10% tariff, ranging from no price increases to suffer. Inpassing on the past we have purchased virtually allmajority of the solar panels used in our solar energy systems from manufacturers based in China and we expect that our manufacturers will begintariff to seek lower tariff countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.

As of December 31, 2015, we operated in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Utah. Our corporate headquartersthe purchaser through price increases. We are located in Utah. We manage inventory through our local warehouses and maintain a fleet of nearly 900 trucks and other vehicles to support our installers and operations. In 2015, our field teams completed on average approximately 2,730 residential installations per month. Our project management teams simultaneously manage thousands of projects as they move through the stages of engineering, permitting, installation, maintenance and monitoring.

We offer an installation warranty that the solar energy systems under our customer contractsunsure how supplier pricing will be free from material defects in design and workmanship foraffected by the termpotential implementation of the contract as well as a limited warranty on roof penetrations. We are also obligated25% tariff. Additionally, it remains unclear whether the tariff applies to maintain the solar energy systems in good condition for the term of the contractall components that accompany an inverter, or for a stated period, usually 20 years.

We provide a performance guarantee to our lease customers that requires us to refund moneyjust to the lessee if the solar energy system fails to generate the minimum amount of electricity in a given term, as specified in the lease. We compensate customers if their systems produce less energy than the guaranteed amount in any given year by making a payment to customers with under-performing systems. Through December 31, 2015, such compensation has been de minimis. As of December 31, 2015, approximately 1,300 of our systems in service had been leased. As the number of leased systems grows, payments for underperforming systems may increase over time and may vary from period-to-period based on a number of factors, including weather conditions in the areas in which we lease systems, which may adversely impact our results of operations.

We further offer a range of warranties on our solar energy systems to our investment funds. All of our systems feature a workmanship warranty during which we are obligated, at our cost and expense, to correct defects in our installation work, which depending on the particular investment fund, is for periods of five to twenty years. Generally our maintenance obligations to our investment funds do not include the cost of panels, inverters or racking, should such major components require replacement. The cost of such components are borne instead by the applicable investment fund, although we are obligated to install such equipment as part of our services covered by the agreed maintenance services fee. This obligation is satisfied by Vivint Solar Developer, LLC, on behalf of Vivint Solar Provider, LLC, which provides operations and maintenance services to each of our investment funds. As part of Vivint Solar Provider’s operations and maintenance work, we provide a pass-through of the inverter and panel manufacturers’ warranty coverage to our customers, which generally range from 10 to 25 years. We also provide ongoing service and repair during the entire term of the customer relationship, regardless of whether or not such repairs are covered by our or a manufacturer’s warranty. We expect the costs we incur in providing these services will continue to grow as the number of systems in our portfolio increases and as installed solar energy systems age.itself.

Competition

We believe that our primary competitors are the traditional utilities that supply electricity to our potential customers. We compete with these traditional utilities primarily based on price (cents per kilowatt hour), predictability of future prices (by providing pre-determined annual price escalations) and the ease by which customers can switch to electricity generated by our solar energy systems. We believe that we compete favorably with traditional utilities based on these factors in the states where we operate.

We also compete with companies that are not regulated like traditional utilities but that have access to the traditional utility electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure pursuant to state and local pro-competitive and consumer choice policies, as well as with national and withlocal solar companies with business modelssuch as Tesla’s SolarCity subsidiary and Sunrun Inc. These companies may offer products that are similar to ours, such as SolarCity Corporationour PPAs, Solar Leases and Sunrun Inc.System Sales. We believe that we compete favorably with these companies; however, in 2015, we experienced a decrease in market share which we attribute to distractions associated with the proposed SunEdison acquisition.companies.

In addition, we compete with solar companies in the downstream value chain of solar energy. For example, we face competition from purely finance driven organizations that acquire customers and then subcontract out the installation of solar energy systems, from installation businesses that seek financing from external parties, from large construction companies and utilities and increasingly from sophisticated electrical and roofing companies. These distributed energy competitors typically work inemploy contractual arrangements with third parties, leaving the customer in the position of having to deal with different companies for different aspects of their solar energy systems. We believe that we compete favorably with these companies because we offer an integrated approach to residential solar energy systems, which includes in-house sales, financing, engineering, installation, maintenance and monitoring. Many of our competitors offer only a subset of the services we provide. Aside from simple cost efficiency, we offer distinct practical benefits as an all-in-one provider such as providing a single point of contact and accountability for our offerings during the relationship with our customers. Further, we are not dependent onWe primarily use our own installation subcontractors,teams, enabling us to better scale our business while maintaining quality control.

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We also compete with solar companies that offer community solar products and utility companies that provide renewable power purchase programs. Some customers may choose to subscribe to a community solar project or renewable subscriber programs instead of installing a solar energy system on their home, which could affect our sales. Additionally, some utility companies (and some utility-like entities, such as community choice aggregators in California) have generation portfolios that are increasingly renewable in nature. We believe we compete favorably with these options.

Technology and Intellectual Property

As of December 31, 2015, we,We, directly or through our wholly owned subsidiary Solmetric Corporation, also known as Vivint Solar Labs, (formerly known as Solmetric Corporation) had fivehave a number of patents and 12 pending applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. These patents and applications relate primarily to shade and site analysis.analysis, installation and monitoring technologies. Our issued patents start expiring in 2026. We intend to file additional patent applications as we innovate through our research and development efforts.

Vivint Solar Labs is our research and development team focused on proprietary photovoltaic installation instruments and software. In February 2015,technologies that we decided to discontinue external sales of two of the three main Vivint Solar Labs products, which were at the end of their product life cycles. Webelieve will continue selling the PV Analyzer product, which is commercially used in commissioning, auditing, operating, maintaining and troubleshooting issuesbenefit our business, as they have significant experience with photovoltaic systems. We will continue to develophardware and produce the discontinued products for internal use only.installation instruments.

As part of our strategy, we may expand our technological capabilities through targeted acquisitions, such as Solmetric, licensing technology and intellectual property from third parties, joint development relationships with partners and suppliers and other strategic initiatives as we strive to offer the industry’s best operational efficiency, performance prediction, operations and management.

Government Regulation, Policies and Incentives

Government Regulation

WeExcept as described below with respect to New York, we are not regulated as a public utility in any of the United Statesmarkets in which we currently operate. As a result, we are not subject to the various federal, state and local standards, restrictions and regulatory requirements applicable to traditional utilities that operate transmission and distribution systems and that have an obligation to serve electric customers within a specified jurisdiction.

In October 2017, the Public Service Commission of the State of New York, or the NYPSC, entered an order determining that residential rooftop solar energy providers are “electric corporations” (the term for electric utilities under current applicable national,New York state or other locallaw) and requiring changes that will affect certain aspects of our business. The order, which is part of a broader proceeding before the NYPSC associated with regulating and overseeing distributed energy resource suppliers, is premised on the NYPSC’s determination that it has the jurisdiction to oversee our business, and businesses like ours, in the same way that it oversees public utilities. Though NYPSC is, to our knowledge, the first state public commission to take the position that residential rooftop solar energy providers are subject to the same regulatory regimes whereoversight as electric utilities, we conduct business.

To operate our systems we obtain interconnection permissionunderstand from the applicable local primary electric utility. DependingSolar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA, that other public service commissions are following what is happening in New York and may take similar action depending on the size of the solar energy system and local law requirements, interconnection permission is provided by the local utility and us and/or our customer. In almost all cases, interconnection permissions are issued on the basis of a standard process that has been pre-approved by the local public utility commission or other regulatory body with jurisdiction over net metering procedures. We maintain a utility administration function, with primary responsibility for engaging with utilities and ensuring our compliance with interconnection rules.outcome.

Our operations are subject to stringent and complex federal, state and local laws, including regulations governing the occupational health and safety of our employees and wage regulations. For example, weWe are subject to the requirements of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, as amended, or OSHA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, or DOT, and comparable state laws that protect and regulate employee health and safety. We strive to maintain compliance with applicable OSHA, DOT and similar government regulations; however, as discussed in the section captioned “Risk Factors—Compliance with occupational safety and health requirements and best practices can be costly, and noncompliance with such requirements may result in potentially significant monetary penalties, operational delays and adverse publicity,” there have been instances in which we have experienced workplace accidents and received citations from regulators, resulting in fines. Such instances have not materially impacted our business or relations with our employees.

Government Policies

Net metering is one of several key policies that have enabled the growth of distributed solar in the United States. Net metering allows a homeownerhomeowners to pay his or her local traditional utility onlyreceive credit for the energy that their power usage net of production from the solar energy system installed on his or her roof. Wheregenerates in excess of that consumed onsite to offset energy usage at times when the customer’s utility providessolar installation is not generating energy. In states that provide for net metering, the customer typically pays for the net energy used or receives a credit against future bills at the retail rate if more energy is produced than consumed. Homeowners receive credit for the energy thatby the solar installation exports to the local power grid,energy system than consumed onsite. In some states and utility territories, customers are also reimbursed by the electric utility for net excess

generation inon a periodic basis. Each of the states where we currently serve customers has adopted some utility markets, including some of those in which we operate. Forty-one states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted some form of a net metering law or regulation. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, the total number ofpolicy.

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In recent years, net metered customers in the United States has grown at a CAGR of approximately 90%, from approximately 19,000 households in 2005 to approximately 6,213,130 households in 2014. Net metering programs have been subject to regulatory scrutiny orand legislative proposals in some states, such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada,, Puerto Rico, Utah New Hampshire, New York, Texas and several other states. Regulators in these states have considered imposing limits on the aggregate capacity ofUtah. Utilities are proposing new and varied revisions to their net metering generation, fees on programs, with such proposals decided by the state public utilities commissions. These revisions include capping the numbers of customers that can elect net metering customers,within a utility service territory, imposing new fixed charges for grid service or interconnection, and reducing the retail rate thatvalue of the net metered generation. In California, for example, customers within the service territory of San Diego Gas and Electric, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and Southern California Edison Company, must take service on a new net metering customers are paid forsuccessor tariff. For this new tariff, the power that they deliver back to the grid and allegations that homeowners with net metered solar systems shift the costs of maintaining the electric grid onto non-solar ratepayers. In California the Public Utilities Commission largely uphelduses the current net metering in its current form with full retail compensation for exports but did imposeallows the utilities to impose reasonable interconnection fees and some additional fees charges on net metering customers and will require such customers to take service on time-of-use rates. In 2015, Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission significantly loweredThere are no caps under the ratenew Net Energy Metering, or NEM, successor tariff. Further, municipal utilities are generally not subject to the same state laws and public commission oversight as compared to investor owned utilities and may make drastic and abrupt changes. As we continue to expand into areas with municipal utilities, we may be subject to greater risk of compensation paid to net metering customers. In late 2015, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission voted in favor of a plan which limits export compensation to net metering customers and imposed high monthly fees, which greatly reduced the economic benefit to Nevada customers of residential solar. As a result we no longer have a presence in Nevada.regulatory uncertainty.

Government Incentives

Federal, state and local government and regulatory bodies provide for tariff structures and utilities provide incentives to various parties including owners, end users, distributors, system integrators and manufacturers of solar energy systems to promote solar energy. These incentives come in various forms, including rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives such as system performance payments, payments for renewable energy creditscertificates associated with renewable energy generation, and exclusion of solar energy systems from property tax assessments. These incentives enableassessments and net metering. We rely on these governmental and regulatory programs to finance solar energy system installations, which enables us to lower the price we charge customers for energy from our customers,solar energy systems, and to lease or purchase these systems, helping to catalyzeachieve customer acceptance of solar energy with those customers as an alternative to utility-provided power.

The Federal government currently offers a 30% ITC under Section 48(a) of the Internal Revenue Code for the installation of certain solar power facilities; legislation was passed in December 2015 which extended this 30% rate untilthrough December 31, 2019. The rate will decrease to 26% in 2020 and 22% in 2021. By statute, this tax creditthe ITC percentage is scheduled to decrease to 26% of the basis of a solar energy system that began construction during 2020, 22% for 2021 and 10% on January 1, 2022.if construction begins after 2021 or the solar energy system is placed into service after 2023.

The economics of purchasing a solar energy system are also improved by eligibility for accelerated tax depreciation, also known as the modified accelerated cost recovery system, or MACRS, which allows for the depreciation of equipment according to an accelerated schedule established by the Internal Revenue Service.schedule. The acceleration of depreciation creates a valuable tax benefit that reduces the overall cost of the solar energy system and increases the return on investment.

Approximately halfSome of the states in which we operate offer a personal and/or corporate investment or production tax credit for solar energy that is additive to the ITC. Further, mostmany of the states and local jurisdictions have established property tax incentives for renewable energy systems that include exemptions, exclusions, abatements and credits.

ManySome state governments, traditional utilities, municipal utilities and co-operative utilities offer a rebate or other cash incentive for the installation and operation of a solar energy system or energy efficiency measures. Capital costs or “up-front” rebates provide funds to solar customers or developers or systemssystem owners based on the cost, size or expected production of a customer’s solar energy system. Performance-based incentives provide cash payments to solar customers or a system owner based on the energy generated by the solar energy system during a pre-determined period.

Many states also have adopted procurement requirements for renewable energy production. Twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories have adopted a renewable portfolio standard that requires regulated utilities to procure a specified percentage of total electricity delivered to customers in the state from eligible renewable energy sources, such as solar energy systems, by a specified date. To prove compliance with such mandates, utilities usually must surrender solar renewable energy certificates, or SRECs, to the applicable authority. Solar energy system owners such as our investment funds often are able to sell SRECs to utilities directly or in SREC markets.

Workforce

As of December 31, 2015,2018, we had a total workforce of 3,685, including 1,750 employees in installation, 831 service providers in sales and marketing, 790 employees in operations, 282 employees in general and administrative and 32 employees in research and development. Our sales and marketing headcount includes 721 active2,542, which does not include direct sellers. We consider a direct sales person to be active if they completed at least four customer pre-surveys in the prior four weeks. Our operations personnel work primarily in installation, design and account management. Our general and administrative personnel work primarily in finance, business development, capital markets and human resources. None of our service providers are represented by a labor union, and we consider relations with our workersemployees to be good.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

You should carefully consider the following risk factors, together with all of the other information included in this report, including the section of this report captioned “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our financial statements and related notes. If any of the following risks occurred, itthey could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or operating results. This report also contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of factors that are described below and elsewhere in this report.

Risk Related to our Proposed Acquisition by SunEdison

SunEdison’s failure to complete the acquisition has affected and may in the future, materially and adversely affect our results of operations and stock price.

On July 20, 2015, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger, or Merger Agreement, as amended by the Amendment to the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of December 9, 2015, with SunEdison, Inc., or SunEdison, a Delaware corporation, and SEV Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation and a wholly owned subsidiary of SunEdison, pursuant to which the we were to have been acquired by SunEdison.

We delivered notice to SunEdison on February 26, 2016, and again on March 1, 2016, that, pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement, SunEdison was required to cause the closing of the acquisition to occur on February 26, 2016, and remained obligated to cause the closing to occur, given that all conditions to SunEdison’s obligations to close the acquisition in the Merger Agreement were satisfied on February 24, 2016 when (1) our stockholders adopted the Merger Agreement, and (2) the marketing period contemplated by the Merger Agreement related to SunEdison’s financing of the acquisition (which commenced when we delivered all required information to SunEdison on February 11, 2016) terminated on February 21, 2016. SunEdison’s failure to cause the closing within three business days of the delivery of the notices specified in the preceding sentence triggered our right to terminate the Merger Agreement pursuant to Section 7.01(i) thereof.

Moreover, as of SunEdison’s failure to cause the closing to occur on February 26, 2016, SunEdison was in breach of its covenants under Sections 1.02 and 4.05(a) of the Merger Agreement, and such breach resulted in the failure of the conditions set forth in Section 6.02 of the Merger Agreement to be satisfied on such date. SunEdison’s representatives subsequently informed us that SunEdison was unable to cause the closing to occur in the foreseeable future. Since such breach was therefore incurable prior to March 18, 2016, the date on which the Merger Agreement would otherwise terminate, we have the right to terminate the Merger Agreement pursuant to Section 7.01(e) thereof.

As a result of the foregoing and in accordance with and pursuant to our rights under Section 7.01(i) and 7.01(e) of the Merger Agreement, we terminated the Merger Agreement on March 7, 2016. On March 8, 2016, we filed suit in the Court of Chancery State of Delaware against SunEdison and SEV Merger Sub Inc. alleging that SunEdison willfully breached its obligations under the Merger Agreement. While we believe that SunEdison willfully breached its obligations under the Merger Agreement and that our claims have merit and are likely to succeed, the outcomes of lawsuits are inherently unpredictable, and we may be unsuccessful in our claims.

However, SunEdison’s failure to close the acquisition presents significant risks to us, including:

The occurrence, continuation or exacerbation of any of these events individually or in combination could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and stock price.Our Business

The announcement and pendency of the acquisition caused disruptions in our business, which has had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on our business operations and financial results.

During the pendency of the acquisition, we and SunEdison operated independently. Uncertainty about the effect of the acquisition on customers and employees has had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on us and consequently, may have an adverse effect on our business operations and financial results as a standalone company. During the pendency of the acquisition, current and prospective employees experienced uncertainty about their future with SunEdison, us or the combined company. These uncertainties have impaired, and may continue to impair the ability of us to retain, recruit or motivate key personnel, and may have negatively impacted the productivity of current employees. In addition, due to these uncertainties and to SunEdison’s required approvals, we ceased certain employee actions such as hiring, terminating and reallocating personnel. Our employees and our management teams reallocated significant time to integration efforts. We deferred transitions to key IT systems as a standalone company. We were also caused to defer and delay financing options, including additional acquiring investment funds and debt facilities, which has decreased our operational efficiency and effectiveness. Further, SunEdison withheld approval of power purchase agreement enhancements as a leverage tool, which further decreased our effectiveness in attracting and obtaining prospective customers.

In response to the announcement of the acquisition, and due to uncertainty regarding the closing of the acquisition, our existing or prospective customers or suppliers have or may have:

These such delays or changes to terms have disrupted, and may continue to disrupt our business and adversely impact our results of operations as we continue to operate as a standalone company.

Risks Related to our Business

We need to enter into substantial additional financing arrangements to facilitate new customers’ access to our solar energy systems and provide working capital, and if financing is not available to us on acceptable terms when needed, our ability to continue to grow our business would be materially adversely impacted.

Our future success depends on our ability to raise capital from third-party investors and commercial sources, such as banks and other lenders, on competitive terms to help finance the deployment of our solar energy systems. We seek to minimize our cost of capital in order to maintain the price competitiveness of the electricity produced by, or the lease payments for, our solar energy systems. We rely on investment funds in order to provide solar energy systems with little to no upfront costs to our customers under our PPAs and Solar Leases. We also rely on access to capital, including through indebtedness in the form of debt facilities and asset-backed securities, to cover the costs of our solar energy systems that are sold outright until the systems are paid for by our customers, whether by cash or through third-party financing arrangements. Certain of our financing arrangements are with fund investors who require particular tax and other benefits. The availability of this tax-advantaged financing depends upon many factors, including:

Moreover, potential investors seeking such tax-advantaged financing must remain satisfied that the structures we offer qualify for the tax benefits associated with solar energy systems available to these investors, which depends both on the investors’ assessment of tax law and the absence of any unfavorable interpretations of that law. Changes in existing law and interpretations by the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, and the courts could reduce the willingness of fund investors to invest in funds associated with these solar energy system investments or cause these investors to require a larger allocation of customer payments. We are not certain that this type of financing will continue to be available to us. If we are unable to establish new investment fundsfinancing when needed, or upon desirable terms, to enable our customers’ access to our solar energy systems, with little to no upfront cost to them, we may be unable to finance installation of our customers’ systems, or our cost of capital could increase eitheror our liquidity could be constrained, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. As of February 29, 2016,28, 2019, we had raised 16 residential25 investment funds to which investors such as banks and other large financial investors have committed to invest approximately $1.1 billion which will enable us to install solar energy systems of total fair market value approximating $2.6$1.9 billion. AsThe undrawn committed capital for these funds as of February 29, 2016,28, 2019 was approximately $176 million, which we had remaining residential tax equity commitments toestimate will fund approximately 5586 megawatts of future deployments, which we estimate to be sufficient to fund solar energy systems with a total fair market value of approximately $241 million. As of February 29, 2016, we had entered into one C&I investment fund with a total committed capital amount of $150.0 million, however, no projects had been accepted into the investment fund as of February 29, 2016. deployments.

The contract terms in certain of our investment fund documents impose conditions on our ability to draw on financing commitments from the fund investors, including if an event occurs that could reasonably be expected to have a material adverse effect on the fund or on us. The terms and conditions of our investment funds can vary and may require us to alter our products, services or product mix. If we do not satisfy such conditions due to events related to our business or a specific investment fund or developments in our industry or otherwise, and as a result we are unable to draw on existing commitments, our inability to draw on such commitments could have a material adverse effect on our business, liquidity, financial condition and prospects. In addition to our inability to draw on the investors'investors’ commitments, we have in the past incurred and may in the future incur financial penalties for non-performance, including delays in the installation process and interconnection to the power grid of solar energy systems and other factors. Based on the terms of the investment fund agreements, we will either reimburse a

portion of the fund investor’s capital or pay the fund investor a penaltynon-performance fee. For the C&I investment fund, we could incur a non-performance fee of up to $3.0 million primarily due to a delay in solar energy systems being interconnected to the power grid.

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To meet the capital needs of our growing business, we will need to obtain additional financing from new investors and financial institutions and investors and financial institutions who are current investors or with whom we currently have financing arrangements. If any of the investors or financial institutions that currently provide financing decide not to invest in us in the future due to general market conditions, concerns about our business or prospects or any other reason, or decide to invest at levels that are inadequate to support our anticipated needs or materially change the terms under which they are willing to provide future financing, we will need to identify new investors and financial institutions and companies to provide financing and negotiate new financing terms. In addition, the pendency of the SunEdison acquisition and the risks and uncertainties associated with it adversely affected the willingness of parties to enter into financing arrangements with us. This, combined with restrictions under the Merger Agreement on our ability to incur, assumeobtain additional financing through the asset-backed securities market or guarantee any indebtedness, or make any loans or advancesother secured debt markets is subject to any other person, restrictedour having sufficient assets eligible for securitization as well as our ability to raise additional capital during the pendency of the acquisition and our business may continue to be affected by the residual impact of these or similar factors.obtain appropriate credit ratings. If we are unable to raise additional capital in a timely manner, our ability to meet our capital needs and fund future growth may be limited.

In the past, we have sometimes been unable to timely establish investment funds in accordance with our plans, due in part to the relatively limited number of investors attracted to such types of funds, competition for such capital and the complexity associated with negotiating the agreements with respect to such funds. Delays in raising financing could cause us to delay expanding in existing markets or entering into new markets and hiring additional personnel in support of our planned growth.personnel. Any future delays in capital raising could similarly cause us to delay deployment of a substantial number of solar energy systems for which we have signed power purchase agreementsPPAs or leasesSolar Leases with customers. Our future ability to obtain additional financing depends on banks’ and other financing sources’ continued confidence in our business model and the renewable energy industry as a whole. It could also be impacted by the liquidity needs of such financing sources themselves. We face intense competition from a variety of other companies, technologies and financing structures for such limited investment capital. If we are unable to continue to offer a competitive investment profile, we may lose access to these funds or they may only be available to us on terms that are less favorable than those received by our competitors. For example, if we experience higher customer default rates than we currently experience in our existing investment funds, thisit could make itbe more difficult or costly to attract future financing. In our experience, there are a relatively small number of investors that generate sufficient profits and possess the requisite financial sophistication that canto benefit from and have significant demand for the tax benefits that our investment funds can provide. Historically, in the distributed solar energy industry, investors have typically been large financial institutions and a few large, profitable corporations. Our ability to raise investment funds is limited by the relatively small number of such investors. Any inability to secure financing could lead us to cancel planned installations, could impair our ability to accept new customers and couldor increase our borrowing costs, any of which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Our business currently depends on the availability of rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives. The expiration, elimination or reduction of these rebates, credits or incentives or our ability to monetize them could adversely impact our business.

Federal, state and local government and regulatory bodies provide for tariff structures and incentives to various parties including owners, end users, distributors, system integrators and manufacturers of solar energy systems to promote solar energy in various forms, including rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives such as system performance payments, renewable energy certificates associated with renewable energy generation, exclusion of solar energy systems from property tax assessments and net metering. We rely on these governmental and regulatory programs to finance solar energy system installations, which enables us to lower the price we charge customers for energy from, and to lease or purchase, our solar energy systems, helping to achieve customer acceptance of solar energy with those customers as an alternative to utility-provided power. However, these programs may expire on a particular date, end when the allocated funding or capacity allocations are exhausted or be reduced or terminated. These reductions or terminations often occur without warning. In addition, the financial value of certain incentives decreases over time. For example, the value of SRECs in a market tends to decrease over time as the supply of SREC-producing solar energy systems installed in that market increases. If we overestimate the future value of these incentives, it could adversely impact our financial results.

Substantially all of our solar energy systems installed to date have been eligible for ITCs as well as accelerated depreciation benefits. We have relied on, and will continue to rely on, financing structures that monetize a substantial portion of those benefits and provide financing for our solar energy systems. The federal government currently offers a 30% ITC under Section 48(a) of the Internal Revenue Code for the installation of certain solar power facilities; the 30% rate continues until December 31, 2019. By statute, the ITC is scheduled to decrease to 26% of the basis of a solar energy system for systems where construction begins in 2020, 22% for systems where construction begins in 2021 and 10% for systems where construction begins after 2021 or where the solar energy system is placed into service after 2023, and the amounts that fund investors are willing to invest could decrease or we may be required to provide a larger allocation of customer payments to the fund investors as a result of this scheduled decrease. To the extent we have a reduced ability to raise investment funds as a result of this reduction or an inability to continue to monetize such benefits in our financing arrangements, the rate of growth of installations of our residential solar energy systems and our ability to maintain such systems could be negatively impacted. In addition, future changes in existing law and interpretations by the IRS and the courts with respect to certain matters, including but not limited to, treatment of the ITC and our financing arrangements, the taxation of business entities and the deductibility of interest expense could affect the amount that fund investors are willing to invest, which could reduce our access to capital. The ITC has been a significant driver of the financing supporting the adoption of residential solar energy systems in the United States and its scheduled reduction beginning in 2020, unless modified by an intervening change in law, will significantly impact the attractiveness of solar energy to these investors and could potentially harm our business.

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In addition, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, which was enacted in December 2017, contains several provisions that may significantly impact the attractiveness of tax benefits to our fund investors. The TCJA reduces the highest marginal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, which causes accelerated depreciation to have less value to investors and results in investors having less appetite for ITCs. In addition, the TCJA imposes a new “base erosion and anti-abuse tax”, or BEAT. The BEAT is a minimum tax applied to certain large taxpayers who make deductible payments that erode their U.S. tax base above a minimum threshold. If an investor is subject to BEAT, ITCs may be used to partially, but not fully offset the BEAT, resulting in a decrease of the value of the ITCs. Thus, investors will likely discount their investments to reflect the lower corporate tax rate as well as the BEAT and may be less likely to invest in solar overall, which could potentially harm our business.

Applicable authorities may adjust or decrease incentives from time to time or include provisions for minimum domestic content requirements or other requirements to qualify for these incentives. An inability to finance solar energy systems through tax-advantaged structures, to realize or monetize depreciation benefits, to monetize or otherwise receive the benefit of rebates, tax credits, SRECs or other financial incentives, or to otherwise structure investment funds in ways that are both attractive to investors and allow us to provide desirable pricing to customers could adversely impact our results of operations and ability to compete in our industry by increasing our cost of capital, causing us to increase the prices of our energy and solar energy systems and reducing the size of our addressable market. In addition, this would adversely impact our ability to attract investment partners and to form new investment funds and our ability to offer attractive financing to prospective customers.

A material reduction in the retail price of traditional utility-generated electricity or electricity from other sources or other reduction in the cost of such electricity would harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

We believe that a significant numbermany of our customers decide to buycustomers’ interest in solar energy because they wantsystems is driven by a desire to pay less for electricity than what is offered by the traditional utilities.their energy costs. However, distributed residential solar energy has yet to achieve broad market adoption.adoption for a number of reasons including state regulatory hurdles, utility-imposed interconnection issues for distributed electricity generation systems and unfavorable economics from the customer perspective.

TheA customer’s decision to chooseinterest in a solar energy system may also be affected by the cost of electricity generated from other renewable energy sources. Decreases in the retail prices of electricity from the traditional utilities or from other renewable energy sources would harm our ability to offer competitive pricing and could harm our business. The cost of electricity from traditional utilities could decrease as a result of:

A reduction in utility electricity costs would make the purchase of electricity under our power purchase agreementsPPAs or the lease of our solar energy systemsSolar Leases less economically attractive.attractive to customers on a monthly basis and would increase the time to breakeven for our System Sales customers. If the cost of energy available from traditional utilities were to decrease due to any of these reasons, or other reasons, we would be at a competitive disadvantage, we may be unable to attract new customers and our growth would be limited. In addition, from time to time we have increased our pricing in certain markets, which may negatively impact our competitiveness.

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Electric utility industry policies and regulations may present technical, regulatory and economic barriers to the purchase and use of solar energy systems that may significantly reduce demand for electricity from our solar energy systems.

Federal, state and local government regulations and policies concerning the electric utility industry, utility rate structures, interconnection procedures, and internal policies of electric utilities, heavily influence the market for electricity generation products and services. These regulations and policies often relate to electricity pricing and the interconnection of distributed electricity generation systems to the power grid. Policies and regulations that promote renewable energy and customer-sited energy generation have been challenged by traditional utilities and questioned by those in government and others arguing for less governmental spending and involvement in the energy market. ToIn addition, it is unclear what, if any, actions the extentcurrent presidential administration in the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may take regarding existing regulations and policies that such views are reflected in government policy,affect the changescost competitiveness of nuclear, coal and gas electric generation, and fossil fuel mining and exploration. Changes in such policies and regulations could increase the cost or decrease the benefits of solar energy systems or reduce costs and other limitations on competing forms of generation, and adversely affect the attractiveness of our products and our results of operations, cost of capital and growth prospects.

In the United States, governments and the state public service commissions that determine utility rates continuouslycontinually modify these regulations and policies. These regulations and policies could result in a significant reduction in the potential demand for electricity from our solar energy systems and could deter customers from entering into contracts with us. In addition, depending on the region,in certain of our regions, electricity generated by solar energy systems competes most effectively with the most expensive retail rates for electricity from the power grid, rather than the less expensive average price of electricity. Modifications to the utilities’ peak hour pricing policies or rate design, such as movement to a flat rate, would make our current products less competitive with the price of electricity from the power grid. For example,Other regulatory revisions that could impact the California Public Utilities Commission recently issued a decision that will transition residential rates over the next four yearscompetitiveness of our product include moving from a four-tiered structureretail rate to a two-tiered structure, with only a 25% differential between the two rates and a surchargetime-of-use compensation mechanism, imposition of fixed demand or grid-service charges, or limitations on whether third-party owned systems are eligible for very high energy users.such programs. It is possible that this changechanges such as these could have the effect of lowering the incentive for residential customers of California’s large investor-owned utilities to reduce their purchases of electricity from their utility by supplying more of their own electricity from solar, and thereby reducereducing demand for our products. In addition, California is in the process of shifting to a time-of-use rate structure in the coming years.product. A shift in the timing of peak rates for utility-generated electricity to a time of day when solar energy generation is less efficient or nonexistent could make our solar energy system offerings less competitive and reduce demand for our offerings.The California Public Utilities Commission determined in January of 2016 that net metering customers taking service on the net energy metering (NEM) successor tariff will be required to take service on time-of-use rates. This transition may occur in 2016 for some of our potential customers. In addition, since we are required to obtain interconnection permission for each solar energy system from the local utility, changes in a local utility’s regulations, policies or interconnection processprocesses have in the past delayed and in the future could delay or prevent the completion of our solar energy systems. This in turn has delayed and, in the future, could delay or prevent us from generating revenues from such solar energy systems or cause us to redeploy solar energy systems, adversely impacting our results of operations.

In addition, any changes to government or internal utility regulations and policies that favor electric utilities or alternative forms of energy over residential rooftop solar energy could reduce our competitiveness and cause a significant reduction in demand for our offerings or increase our costs or the prices we charge our customers. Certain jurisdictions have proposed allowing traditional utilities to assess various fees on customers purchasing energy from solar energy systems or have imposed or proposed new charges or rate structures that would disproportionately impact solar energy system customers who utilize net metering, either of which would increase the cost of energy to those customers and could reduce demand for our solar energy systems. For example, thein California, Public Utilities Commission issued a decision in July 2015 thatinvestor owned utilities are allowed utilities to impose a minimum $10 fixed charge on the monthly bill for residential customers approved the concept of fixed charges and will permit the utilities to propose such fixed charges again in 2018. A decision issued in January 2016 will allow new interconnection fees and additional nonbypassable charges to be assessed on customers taking service on California’sthat elect net metering successor tariff. This will result in monthlyand also impose new fees for interconnection and other non-bypassable charges. Such non-bypassable charges are being imposed on our customers inauthorized by other public utilities commissions outside of California. Additionally, certain utilities in Arizona have approved increased rates and charges for net metering customers, and others have proposed doing away with the state’s renewable electricity standard carve-outs for distributed generation as well as the state’s net metering program.generation. These policy changes may negatively impact our customers and affect demand for our solar energy systems, and similar changes to net metering policies may occur in other states. It is also possible that these or other changes could be imposed on our current customers, as well as future customers. Due to the current and expected continued concentration of our solar energy systems in California, any such changes in this market would be particularly harmful to our reputation, customer relations, business, results of operations and future growth in these areas. We may be similarly adversely affected if our business becomes concentrated in other jurisdictions.

OurRelatedly, it is possible that the bankruptcy proceedings initiated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company on January 29, 2019 could have an adverse impact on our customers and operations in California. Any such negative impacts (e.g., resulting from new non-bypassable charges, rate changes, restructuring, etc.) could be harmful to our customer relations, business, currently depends onresults of operations and future growth, especially given the availabilityconcentration of rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives. The expiration, elimination or reduction of these rebates, credits or incentives could adversely impact our business.

Federal, state and local government and regulatory bodies provide for tariff structures and incentives to various parties including owners, end users, distributors, system integrators and manufacturers of solar energy systems to promote solar energy in various forms, including rebates, tax credits and other financial incentives such as system performance payments, renewable energy credits associated with renewable energy generation, exclusion of solar energy systems from property tax assessments and net metering. We rely on these governmental and regulatory programs to finance solar energy system installations, which enables us to lower the price we charge customers for energy from, and to lease, our solar energy systems helping to catalyze customer acceptance of solar energyin California.

Finally, public service commissions may impose requirements on our business associated with those customers as an alternative to utility-provided power. However, these programs may expire on a particular date, end whenour interactions with potential customers. The California Public Utilities Commission and the allocated funding is exhausted or be reduced or terminated. These reductions or terminations often occur without warning. For example, the Arizona Department of Revenue recently decided that it will begin to collect property taxes in 2015 on rooftop solar energy systems such as ours. In addition, the financial value of certain incentives decreases over time. For example, the value of solar renewable energy certificates, or SRECs, in a market tends to decrease over time as the supply of SREC-producing solar energy systems installed in that market increases. If we overestimate the future value of these incentives, it could adversely impact our financial results.

The federal government currently offers a 30% investment tax credit, or the ITC, under Section 48(a)Public Service Commission of the Internal Revenue Code for the installationState of certain solar power facilities; the 30% rate continues until December 31, 2019. By statute, the ITC is scheduledNew York have each adopted orders requiring changes to decrease to 26% for 2020, 22% for 2021 and 10% of the fair market value of a solar energy system on January 1, 2022, and the amounts that fund investors are willing to invest could decrease or we may be required to provide a larger allocation of customer payments to the fund investors as a result of this scheduled decrease. To the extent we have a reduced ability to raise investment funds as a result of this reduction, the rate of growth of installationscertain of our residential solar energy systemsbusiness practices. Other public service commissions could be negatively impacted. The ITC has been a significant driver of the financing supporting the adoption of residential solar energy systems in the United Statesfollow California and its scheduled reduction beginning in 2020, unless modified by an intervening change in law, will significantly impact the attractiveness of solar energy to these investorsNew York’s lead and impose requirements associated with consumer protection that could potentially harm our business.

Applicable authorities may adjust or decrease incentives from time to time or include provisions for minimum domestic content requirements or other requirements to qualify for these incentives. Reductions in, eliminations or expirations of or additional application requirements for, governmental incentives could adversely impact our results of operationsaffect how we do business and ability to compete in our industry by increasing our cost of capital, causing us to increase the prices of our energy and solar energy systems and reducing the size of our addressable market. In addition, this would adversely impact our ability to attract investment partners and to form new investment funds and our ability to offer attractive financing to prospectiveacquire customers.

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We rely on net metering and related policies to offer competitive pricing to our customers in all of our current markets, and changes to net metering policies may significantly reduce demand for electricity from our solar energy systems.

Our business benefits significantly from favorable net metering policies in states in which we operate. Net metering allows a homeowner to pay his or her local electric utility only for theirhis or her power usage net of production from the solar energy system, transforming the conventional relationship between customers and traditional utilities. Homeowners receive credit for the energy that the solar installation generates in excess of that needed by the home to offset energy usage at times when the solar installation is not generating energy. In states that provide for net metering, the customer typically pays for the net energy used or receives a credit against future bills at the retail rate if more energy is produced by the solar installation than consumed. In some states and utility territories, customers are also reimbursed by the electric utility for net excess generation on a periodic basis.

Forty-one states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted some form of net metering. Each of the states where we currently serve customers has adopted some form of a net metering policy.

In recent years, net metering programs have been subject to regulatory scrutiny and legislative proposals in some states, such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Texas and Utah. In California, for example, after the earlier of July 1, 2017 or the date the applicable investor owned utility reaches its statutoryMany utilities have proposed and are proposing new and varied revisions to their net metering cap,programs, with such proposals decided by the state public utilities commissions. These revisions include, but are not limited to, capping the numbers of customers will take service on a new that can elect net metering successor tariff. The net metering cap is measured based onwithin a utility service territory, imposing new fixed charges for grid service or interconnection, reducing the nameplate capacityretail rate value of the net metered systemselectricity generation, and imposing consumer protection requirements on solar companies. For example, in 2016, the California Public Utilities Commission enacted changes requiring customers within the applicable utility’s service territory. Currently, the net metering caps for the three large investor-owned utilities are: 617 megawatts forterritory of San Diego Gas and Electric, Company; 2,240 megawatts for Southern California Edison Company; and 2,409 megawatts for Pacific Gas and Electric Company. As reflected in their January 31, 2016 reports required by statute, these investor-owned utilities have approximately 12%, 35%Company, and 22%, respectively, of capacity remaining under their respectiveSouthern California Edison Company, to take service on a net metering caps. The statute providing the current caps also provides that, once the new net metering rules are effective, there will be no net metering caps applied to these utilities. For the NEMsuccessor tariff. Under this successor tariff, the California Public Utilities Commission largely upheld net metering in its current form with full retail compensation for exports and rejected utility requests to impose extremely high fixed and capacity charges. The Commission did allow the utilities are allowed to impose reasonable interconnection fees on customers and some additional charges, onand customers and will require such customers tomust take service on time-of-use rates.

On October 12, 2015, the Hawaii The California Public Utilities Commission issued an order closing the Hawaiian Electric Company’s net metering programis expected to new participants and replaced this program with two new options for customers to interconnectbegin considering additional changes to the utilities’ electric grids, neitherNEM successor tariff in 2019. Further, municipal utilities are generally not subject to the same state laws and public commission oversight as compared to investor owned utilities and may make drastic and abrupt changes. As we continue to expand into areas with municipal utilities, we may be subject to greater risk of which provides for compensation for exports at retail electricity rates. Solar advocates have filed suit challenging this order and seeking to enjoin its effectiveness.

In late 2015, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission voted in favor of a plan which limits export compensation to net metering customers to avoided cost rates and imposes high monthly fees on such customers. This order greatly reduced the economic benefit to Nevada customers of residential solar. Solar advocates have filed suit challenging this order. Several other states plan to revisit their net metering policies in the coming years, and the First Circuit Court’s order denying the plaintiff’s requested relief is currently on appeal.regulatory uncertainty.

If and when net metering caps in certain jurisdictions are reached, while they are still in effect, the value of the credit that customers receive for net metering iswill be significantly reduced, utility rate structures arewill be altered, or fees arewill be imposed on net metering customers, and future customers may be unable to recognize the same level of cost savings associated with net metering that current customers enjoy. The absence of favorable net metering policies or of net metering entirely, or the imposition of new charges that only or disproportionately impact customers that use net metering would significantly limit customer demand for our solar energy systems and the electricity they generate, could negatively affect existing customers and lead to missed payments or defaults, and could adversely impact our business, results of operations and future growth. For example, shortly after expanding

Our business has benefited from the declining cost of equipment, and our operationsfinancial results may be harmed if the cost of equipment increases in the future.

During previous years, the declining cost of solar panels and the raw materials necessary to manufacture them has been a key driver in the price we charge for electricity and customer adoption of solar energy systems. Despite recent increases in solar panel prices due to the tariffs imposed in February 2018, industry experts indicate, and we have seen, that solar panel and raw material prices have generally declined. However, it is possible they will not decline at the same rate as they have over the past several years or that they may increase. In addition, while the solar panel market has recently seen an increase in supply, growth in the solar industry and the resulting increase in demand for solar panels and the raw materials necessary to manufacture them may put upward pressure on prices. These resulting prices could slow our growth and cause our financial results to suffer. In addition, in the past we have purchased a substantial majority of the solar panels used in our solar energy systems from manufacturers headquartered in China; however, most of the manufacturing now takes place in other Asian countries, such as Malaysia and Vietnam. Changes in governmental support or regulation in China or the other countries where these products are manufactured could affect our ability to purchase them on competitive terms, and access to specialized technologies could be restricted.

The U.S. government has imposed duties and tariffs on solar cells and could impose additional tariffs on solar cells manufactured outside the United States or implement additional restraints on trade. In 2014 and 2015, the U.S. government imposed certain anti-dumping and countervailing duties on solar cells manufactured in China and Taiwan. On January 22, 2018, the President of the United States announced the imposition of safeguard measures for a period of four years that include (1) a 30% tariff on imports of solar cells not partially or fully assembled into Nevada, other products and (2) a 30% tariff on imported solar panels. These tariffs are additive to the state’s primary electric utility reached itsanti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed in 2014 and 2015. The tariff on imported solar panels will decline 5% each year in the second, third and fourth years. The safeguard measures went into effect on February 7, 2018 and apply to imports from all foreign countries, including Mexico and Canada, except certain developing countries that are members of the World Trade Organization.

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On September 17, 2018, the President of the United States announced the imposition of tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods. Inverters imported from China are listed as subject to the new duties. Tariffs of 10% on inverters went into effect on September 24, 2018, and the tariffs were scheduled to rise to 25% on January 1, 2019. In December 2018, the President agreed to suspend further trade action for 90 days, and in February 2019 to further suspended trade action, to continue negotiations and to leave the tariff at the 10% rate for the time being. Our various inverter suppliers are still determining how they will manage these tariffs. We are currently seeing various responses from inverter suppliers to the 10% tariff, ranging from no price increases to passing on the majority of the tariff to the purchaser through price increases. We are unsure how supplier pricing will be affected by the potential implementation of the 25% tariff. Additionally, it remains unclear whether the tariff applies to all components that accompany an inverter, or just to the inverter itself.

These combined tariffs make affected solar cells less competitively priced in the United States, and the impacted manufacturers may choose to limit the amount of solar equipment they sell into the United States. The U.S. government may also take broader actions to protect U.S. based manufacturers against imports of solar cells manufactured outside the United States, such as in Southeast Asia, Japan, Germany and South Korea.

The safeguard measures have increased, and other potential tariffs could further increase, our costs of solar panels and other system components, potentially causing a significant impact on our system costs, business and prospects. If we are required to pay higher prices, accept less favorable terms or purchase solar panels or other system components from alternative, higher-priced sources, or if supply is otherwise constrained, our costs would increase significantly, and it may be less economical for us to serve certain markets, which would adversely affect our operating results and growth prospects.

Lack of success in System Sales could negatively impact our operating results and cash flows.

System Sales allow us to expand our product offerings and to enter into additional markets, such as those that prohibit third-party ownership of distributed solar energy systems or that lack a favorable net metering cap. As a result, we have suspended operations in Nevada pending revisions to the net metering availablepolicy. System Sales represented approximately 15% of total megawatts installed in the state.year ended December 31, 2018. Industry analysts have indicated that the number of customer-owned solar energy systems has increased significantly relative to third-party ownership in certain markets. Continued increases in the variety and availability of third-party loan financing products to consumers and outright solar energy system purchases could further facilitate this growth. If customer preferences or the residential solar energy market continue to shift toward solar energy system sales, and we are not successful in our efforts, we may lose market share, which could have an adverse effect on our business, operating results and growth prospects. To the extent we are unsuccessful in our efforts to sell solar energy systems, or to work with third parties to finance those systems for our customers, our operating cash flows would be negatively affected, and our business and growth prospects would be adversely affected.

Technical and regulatory limitations may significantly reduce our ability to sell electricity from our solar energy systems and retain employees in certain markets.

Technical and regulatory limits may curb our growth in certain key markets, which may also reduce our ability to retain employees in those markets. For example, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in promulgating the first form small generator interconnection procedures, recommended limiting customer-sited intermittent generation resources, such as our solar energy systems, to a certain percentage of peak load on a given electrical feeder circuit. Similar limits have been adopted by many states as a de facto standard and could constrain our ability to market to customers in certain geographic areas where the concentration of solar installations exceeds this limit. For example, Hawaiian electric utilities have adopted certain policies that limit distributed electricity generation in parts of their service territories. In the first half of 2014, Hawaii was the second largest market in which we operated as measured by total installations. However, despite legislative and regulatory actions to allow further distributed electricity penetration, these limitations constrained growth of distributed residential solar energy in Hawaii in the second half of 2014 and beyond, and Hawaii has become a less important market to us as a result; which in turn resulted in the loss of employees located in that market that were not willing to relocate. While a recent Hawaii Public Utilities Commission order seeks to streamline the interconnection process, and while our growth in other markets has more than offset the impact of these limitations in Hawaii, if we experienced similar or other limitations on the deployment of solar energy systems, our business, operating results and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected. Furthermore, in certain areas, we benefit from policies that allow for expedited or simplified procedures related to connecting solar energy systems to the power grid. If such procedures are changed or cease to be available, our ability to sell the electricity generated by solar energy systems we install may be adversely impacted. As adoption of solar distributed generation rises along with the commercial operation of utility scale solar generation in key markets such as California, the amount of solar energy being fed into the power grid will surpass the amount planned for relative to the amount of aggregate demand. Some traditional utilities claim that in less than five years, solar generation resources may reach a level capable of producing an over-generation situation, which may require some solar generation resources to be curtailed to maintain operation of the power grid. While the prospect of such curtailment is somewhat speculative, particularly in the residential sector, the adverse effects of such curtailment without compensation could adversely impact our business, results of operations and future growth.

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We have incurred operating losses before income taxes and may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability in the future.

We have incurred operating losses before income taxes since our inception. We incurred net losses before income taxes of $253.3$173.3 million and $165.9$148.9 million for the years ended December 31, 20152018 and 2014.2017. We expect to continue to incur net losses before income taxes from operations as we finance the expansion of our operations, expand our installation, engineering, administrative, sales and marketing staffs, and implement internal systems and infrastructure to support our growth. Failure to grow at a sufficient rate to support these investments in personnel, systems and infrastructure, have adversely impacted and infinancing the future could adversely impact our business and resultsinstallation of operations.new solar energy systems. Our ability to achieve profitability depends on a number of factors, including:

Even if we do achieve profitability, we may be unable to sustain or increase our profitability in the future.

The vast majority of our business is conducted primarily using one channel, direct-selling.

Historically, our primary sales channel has been a direct sales model. Recently, we have opened a new retail sales channel and set up anWe also sell to customers through our inside sales team as new means of reaching customers.but continue to find greatest success using our direct sales channel. In addition, we have entered into sales dealer agreements with Vivint and others. We may sell through additional distribution channels in the future, including homebuilders and retailers. We compete against companies with experience selling solar energy systems to customers through a number of distribution channels, including homebuilders, home improvement stores, large construction, electrical and roofing companies, the internet and other third parties and companies that access customers through relationships with third parties in addition to other direct-selling companies. Our less diversified distribution channels may place us at a disadvantage with consumers who prefer to purchase products through these other distribution channels. Additionally,If customers demonstrate a preference for other distribution channels, we are experienced in reaching customers efficiently through a direct sale model; however, duemay need to limited experience, acquiring customers through other channels has been slow to develop, leading to less market penetration in these channels.reduce our direct-selling efforts. We are also vulnerable to changes in laws related to direct sales and marketing as regulations have limitedthat could impose additional limitations on unsolicited residential sales calls and may impose additional restrictions.restrictions such as adjustments to our marketing materials and direct-selling processes, and new training for personnel. If additional laws affecting direct sales and marketing are passed in the markets in which we operate, it would take time to train our sales force to comply with such laws, and we may be exposed to fines or other penalties for violations of such laws. If we fail to compete effectively through our direct-selling efforts or are not successful in executing our strategy to sell our solar energy systems throughdeveloping other sales channels, our financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects willcould be adversely affected.

We are highly dependent on our ability to attract, train and retain an effective sales force.

The success of our direct-selling channel efforts depends upon the recruitment, retention and motivation of a large number of sales personnel to compensate for a high turnover rate among sales personnel, which is a common characteristic of a direct-selling business. In order to grow our business, we need to recruit, train and retain sales personnel on a continuing basis. Historically, we have recruited a large portion of our sales personnel from our sister company, Vivint, particularly in California, where a significant portion of our business is concentrated. Pursuant to a non-competition agreement entered into in connection with our initial public offering, we and Vivint have agreed not to solicit for employment any of the other’s employees who primarily manage sales, installation or servicing of the other’s products and services. The commitment not to solicit those employees lasts for 180 days after the employee finishes employment with us or Vivint. In the future, we will need to recruit greater numbers of our sales personnel from other sources and we may be unable to successfully do so. Sales personnel are attracted to direct-selling by competitive earnings opportunities, and so direct-sellers typically compete for sales personnel by providing a more competitive earnings opportunity than that offered by the competition. CompetitorsWe believe competitors devote substantial effort to determining the effectiveness of such incentives so that they can invest in incentives that are the most cost effective or produce the best return on incentive. For example, weinvestment. We have historically compensated our sales personnel on a commission basis, based on the size of the solar energy systems they sell. Somesell and recently have begun compensating based on system size, contract rate and the expected number of hours the rooftop will be exposed to full sunlight. Some sales personnel may prefer a compensation structure that also includes a salary and equity incentive component. WeThere is significant competition for sales talent in our industry, and from time to time we may need to adjust our compensation model to include such components,components. These adjustments have caused our customer acquisition costs to increase and these adjustments could otherwise adversely impact our operating results and financial performance.

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In addition to our sales compensation model, our ability to recruit, train and retain effective sales personnel could be harmed by additional factors, including:

We are subject to significant competition for the recruitment of sales personnel from other direct-selling companies and from other companies that sell solar energy systems in particular. Furthermore, the regionalRegional and district managers of our sales personnel are instrumental in recruiting, retaining and motivating our sales personnel. When managers have elected to leave us and join other companies, the sales personnel they supervise have often left with them. We expect tomay experience similarincreased attrition in our sales personnel in the future, which may impact our results of operations and growth. The impact of such attrition could be particularly acute in those jurisdictions, such as California, where contractual non-competition agreements for service providers are not enforceable or are subject to significant limitations.

It is therefore continually necessary to innovate and enhance our direct-selling and service model as well as to recruit and retain new sales personnel. If we are unable to do so, our business willcould be adversely affected.

We are not currently regulated as an electric utility under applicable law in the jurisdictions in which we operate (other than New York), but we may be subject to regulation as an electric utility in the future.

WeExcept as described below with respect to New York, we are not regulated as a public utility in any of the markets in which we currently operate. As a result, we are not subject to the various federal, state and local standards, restrictions and regulatory requirements applicable to traditional utilities that operate transmission and distribution systems and that have an obligation to serve electric customers within a specified jurisdiction.

In October 2017, the Public Service Commission of the State of New York entered an order determining that residential rooftop solar energy providers are “electric corporations” (the term for electric utilities under New York state law) and requiring changes that will affect certain aspects of our business. The order, which is part of a broader proceeding before the Commission associated with regulating and overseeing distributed energy resource suppliers, is premised on the Commission’s determination that it has the jurisdiction to oversee our business, and businesses like ours, in the same way that it oversees public utilities. Though New York’s Public Service Commission is, to our knowledge, the first state public commission to take the position that residential rooftop solar energy providers are subject to the same regulatory oversight as electric utilities, we understand from SEIA that other public service commissions are following what is happening in New York and may take similar action depending on the outcome. If we were subject to the jurisdiction of public service commissions in the same or a similar way as public utilities, those commissions could take action that could materially affect our business operations.

Any additional federal, state, or local regulations that cause us to be treated as an electric utility, or to otherwise be subject to a similar regulatory regime of commission-approved operating tariffs, rate limitations, and related mandatory provisions, could place significant restrictions on our ability to operate our business and execute our business plan by prohibiting, restricting or otherwise regulating our sale of electricity. If we were subject to the same state or federal regulatory authorities as electric utilities in the United States or if new regulatory bodies were established to oversee our business in the United States, then our operating costs would materially increase.

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Our business depends in part on the regulatory treatment of third-party owned solar energy systems.

Retail sales of electricity by non-utilities such as us face regulatory hurdles in some states and jurisdictions, including states and jurisdictions that we intend to enter, where the laws and regulatory policies have not historically embraced competition to the service provided by the incumbent, vertically integrated electric utility. Some of the principal challenges pertain to whether non-customer owned systems qualify for the same levels of rebates or other non-tax incentives available for customer-owned solar energy systems, whether third-party owned systems are eligible at all for these incentives and whether third-party owned systems are eligible for net metering and the associated significant cost savings. Furthermore, in some states and utility territories third parties are limited in the way that they may deliver solar to their customers. In jurisdictions such as Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah and in Los Angeles, California, laws have been interpreted to either prohibit the sale of electricity pursuant to our standard power purchase agreement,PPA or regulate entities making such sales, and in some cases, leadingsuch laws have led residential solar energy system providers to use leases in lieu of power purchase agreements.PPAs. In other states, neither leases nor PPAs are permissible or commercially feasible. Changes in law and reductions in, eliminations of or additional application requirements for, these benefits could reduce demand for our systems, adversely impact our access to capital and could cause us to increase the price we charge our customers for energy.

If the Internal Revenue ServiceIRS or the U.S. Treasury Department makes a determination that the fair market value of our solar energy systems is materially lower than what we have reported in our fund tax returns, or cash grant applications, we may have to pay significant amounts to our investment funds, to our fund investors and/or the U.S. government. Such determinations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and prospects.

We report in our fund tax returns andthat we and our fund investors claim the ITC based on the fair market value of our solar energy systems. While weThe IRS continues to audit the fair market value determinations industry-wide. The IRS is conducting an audit of one of our investment funds. We are not aware of any other audits or results of audits related to our appraisals or fair market value determinations of any of our investment funds by the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, scrutiny with respect to fair market value determinations has increased industry-wide in recent years.funds. If as part of an examination the IRS were to review the fair market value that we used to establish our basis for claiming ITCs and determine that the ITCs previously claimed should be reduced, we would owe certain of our investment funds or our fund investors an amount equal to 30% of the investor’s share of the difference between the fair market value used to establish our basis for claiming ITCs and the adjusted fair market value determined by the IRS, plus any costs and expenses associated with a challenge to that fair market value, plus a gross up to pay for additional taxes. We could also be subject to tax liabilities, including interest and penalties, based on our share of claimed ITCs. To date, we have not been required to make such payments under any of our investment funds.

Our ability to provide solar energy systems to customers on an economically viable basis depends on our ability to finance these systems with fund investors who require particular tax and other benefits.

Substantially all of our solar energy systems installed to date have been eligible for ITCs or U.S. Treasury grants, as well as accelerated depreciation benefits. We have relied on, and will continue to rely on, financing structures that monetize a substantial portion of those benefits and provide financing for our solar energy systems. If, for any reason, we were unable to continue to monetize those benefits through these arrangements, we may be unable to provide solar energy systems for new customers and maintain solar energy systems for new and existing customers on an economically viable basis. The availability of this tax-advantaged financing depends upon many factors, including:

Solar energy system owners are currently allowed to claim the ITC that is equal to 30% of the system’s eligible tax basis, which is generally the fair market value of the system. By statute, the ITC is scheduled to decrease to 26% for 2020, 22% for 2021 and 10% on January 1, 2022. Moreover, potential fund investors must remain satisfied that the structures we offer qualify for the tax benefits associated with solar energy systems available to these investors, which depends both on the investors’ assessment of tax law and the absence of any unfavorable interpretations of that law. Changes in existing law and interpretations by the IRS and the courts could reduce the willingness of fund investors to invest in funds associated with these solar energy system investments. We cannot assure you that this type of financing will continue to be available to us. Alternatively, new investment fund structures or other financing mechanisms may become available, and if we are unable to take advantage of these fund structures and financing mechanisms it may place us at a competitive disadvantage. If, for any reason, we are unable to finance solar energy systems through tax-advantaged structures or if we are unable to realize or monetize depreciation benefits, or if we are otherwise unable to structure investment funds in ways that are both attractive to investors and allow us to provide desirable pricing to customers, we may no longer be able to provide solar energy systems to new customers on an economically viable basis. This would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Rising interest rates could adversely impact our business.

Rising interest rates could have an adverse impact on our business by increasing our cost of capital. The majority of our cash flows to date have been from customer contracts that have been partially monetized under various investment fund structures. One of the components of this monetization is the present value of the payment streams from the customers who enter into these contracts. If the rate of return required by the fund investor rises as a result of a rise in interest rates, the present value of the customer payment stream and the total value that we are able to derive from monetizing the payment stream will each be reduced. Interest rates are at historicallyrelatively low levels. It is likely that interest rates will continue to rise in 2016,the future, which would cause our costs of capital to increase.

Our investment funds contain arrangements whichthat provide for priority distributions to fund investors until they receive their targeted rates of return. In addition, under the terms of certain of our investment funds, we may be required to make payments to the fund investors if certain tax benefits that are allocated to such fund investors are not realized as expected. Our financial condition may be adversely impacted if a fund is required to make these priority distributions for a longer period than anticipated to achieve the fund investors’ targeted rates of return or if we are required to make any tax-related payments.

Our investment funds contain terms that contractually require the investment funds to make priority distributions to the fund investor, to the extent cash is available, until it achieves its targeted rate of return. The amounts of potential future distributions under these arrangements depends on the amounts and timing of receipt of cash flows into the investment fund, almost all of which is generated from customer payments related to solar energy systems that have been previously purchased (or leased, as applicable) by such fund. If such cash flows are lower than expected, the priority distributions to the investor may continue for longer than initially anticipated.

Additionally, certain of our investment funds require that, under certain circumstances, we forego distributions from the fund that we are otherwise contractually entitled to, or make capital contributions to the fund so that such distributions owed to us, or additional capital contributions made by us, can be redirected to the fund investor such that it achieves the targeted return. For example, asThese forgone distributions or capital contributions will generally occur if the fund investor has not achieved its targeted return prior to the target flip date of December 31, 2015,the investment fund. None of our investment funds have reached their target flip date at the current time and we accrued an estimated $5.2 million capital contribution to reimburseanticipate that the first target flip date in which a fund investor a portion ofis required to have achieved its capital contribution in order to true-up the investor’s expected rate oftargeted return primarily due to a delay in solar energy systems being interconnected to the power grid and other factors.is 2020.

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Our fund investors also expect returns partially in the form of tax benefits and, to enable such returns, our investment funds contain terms that contractually require us to make payments to the funds that are then used to make payments to the fund investor in certain circumstances so that the fund investor receives value equivalent to the tax benefits it expected to receive when entering into the transaction. The amounts of potential tax payments under these arrangements depend on the tax benefits that accrue to such investors from the funds’ activities.activities and, in some cases, may be impacted by changes in tax law.

Due to uncertainties associated with estimating the timing and amounts of these cash distributions and allocations of tax benefits to such investors, we cannot determine the potential maximum future impact on our cash flows or payments that we could have to make under these arrangements. We may agree to similar terms in the future if market conditions require it. Any significant payments that we may be required to make or distributions to us that are reduced or diverted as a result of these arrangements could adversely affect our financial condition.

We may incur substantially more debt or take other actions that could restrict our ability to pursue our business strategies.

In September 2014,As of December 31, 2018, we entered into an aggregation credit facility, which was subsequently amendedand our subsidiaries had outstanding $1.2 billion in February 2015principal amount of indebtedness, including through debt facilities and November 2015, pursuant to whichasset-backed securities issued by our subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2018 we may borrowhad up to an aggregate$396.6 million of $375.0 million and, upon the satisfaction of certain conditions and the approval of the lenders, up to an aggregate of $175.0 million in additional borrowings. In addition, in March 2015, we entered into a revolving credit facility pursuant to which we may borrow up to an aggregate of $131.0 million. In May 2015, certain conditions were satisfied and the aggregate amount of available revolver borrowings was increased to $150.0 million.unused borrowing capacity remaining. These creditdebt facilities restrict our ability to dispose of assets, incur indebtedness, incur liens, pay dividends or make other distributions to holders of our capital stock, repurchase our capital stock, make specified investments or engage in transactions with our affiliates. In addition, we do not have full access to the cash and cash equivalents held in our investments funds until distributed per the terms of the arrangements. We and our subsidiaries may incur substantial additional debt in the future and any debt instrument we enter into in the future may contain similar, or more onerous, restrictions. These restrictions could inhibit our ability to pursue our business strategies. Additionally, our ability to make scheduled payments depends on our operating performance, which is subject to economic, financial, competitive and other factors that may be beyond our control. Furthermore, if we default on one of our debt instruments, and such event of default is not cured or waived, the lenders could terminate commitments to lend and cause all amounts outstanding with respect to the debt to be due and payable immediately, which in turn could result in cross acceleration under other debt instruments. Our assets and cash flow may not be sufficient to fully repay borrowings under all of our outstanding debt instruments if some or all of these instruments are accelerated upon a default.

Furthermore, there is no assurance that we will be able to raise additional capital through the asset-backed securities market or other secured or unsecured debt markets or enter into new debt instruments on acceptable terms. If we are unable to satisfy financial covenants and other terms under existing or new instruments or obtain waivers or forbearance from our lenders or if we are unable to obtain refinancing or new financings for our working capital, equipment and other needs on acceptable terms if and when needed, our business would be adversely affected.

Our business is concentrated in certain markets,California, putting us at risk of region specificregion-specific disruptions.

As of December 31, 2015,2018, approximately 39%34% of our cumulative installations and total officesmegawatts installed were located in California. In addition, we expect future growth to occur in California, which could further concentrate our customer base and operational infrastructure. Accordingly, our business and results of operations are particularly susceptible to adverse economic, regulatory, political, weather and other conditions in California and in other markets that may become similarly concentrated. As mentioned above, any adverse impacts to retail electric customers resulting from Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s bankruptcy proceedings could affect a significant portion of our customer base in light of the concentration of our customers in California.

ItResidential solar energy is an evolving market, which makes it difficult to evaluate our businessprospects.

The residential solar energy industry is constantly evolving, which makes it difficult to evaluate our prospects. We cannot be certain if historical growth rates reflect future opportunities or whether growth anticipated by us or industry analysts will be realized. Any future growth of the residential solar energy market and prospects due tothe success of our limited operating history.

Since our formation in 2011, we have focused our efforts exclusively on the sales, financing, engineering, installation, maintenance and monitoring of solar energy systems fordepend on many factors beyond our control, including recognition and acceptance of the residential customers. We may be unsuccessful in significantly broadeningsolar energy market by consumers, the pricing of alternative sources of energy, a favorable regulatory environment, the continuation of expected tax benefits and other incentives and our customer base through installation ofability to provide our solar energy systems within our currentcost-effectively. If the markets or in new marketsfor residential solar energy do not develop at the rate we may enter. Our limited operating history, combined with the rapidly evolving and competitive nature of our industry, may not provide an adequate basis for you to evaluate our operating and financial results and business prospects. In addition, we have limited insight into emerging trends that may adversely impactexpect, our business prospects and operating results.may be adversely affected.

Additionally, due to ourthere is limited operating history, we do not have empirical evidence ofregarding the effect of oursolar energy systems have on the resale value of our customers’ houses. Due to the length of our customer contracts, the system deployed on a customer’s roof may be outdated prior to the expiration of the term of the customer contract reducing the likelihood of renewal of our contracts at the end of the 20-year term, and possibly increasing the occurrence of defaults. This could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flow. As a result, our limited operating historywe may impair our abilitybe unable to accurately forecast our future performance and to invest accordingly.

We have identified a material weakness in17

If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our internal control over financial reporting relating ability to inadequate financial statement preparationproduce accurate and review procedures in connection with the preparation of our consolidatedtimely financial statements that resulted in the restatementcould be impaired, which could harm our operating results, our ability to operate our business and investors’ views of certain of our financial statements, and we may identify material weaknesses in the future.us.

In connection with the preparation, audits and interim reviews of our consolidated financial statements, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting. Under standards established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight BoardSection 404 of the United States, a material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of ourSarbanes-Oxley Act requires public companies to conduct an annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

We previously reported a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting for the year ended December 31, 2014. This material weakness has not been fully remediatedreview and as a result, for the year ended December 31, 2015, we continued to have deficiencies in our internal controls including those associated with the HLBV method of attributing net income or loss to non-controlling interests and redeemable non-controlling interests and with our financial statement close process.

The nature of our investment funds increases the complexity of our accounting for the allocation of net income (loss) between our stockholders and non-controlling interests under the HLBV method and the calculation of our tax provision. As we enter into additional investment funds, which may have contractual provisions different from those of our existing funds, the calculation under the HLBV method and the calculation of our tax provision could become increasingly complicated. This additional complexity could increase the chance that we experience additional errors in the future, particularly because we have a material weakness in internal controls. In addition, our need to devote our resources to addressing this complexity could delay or prolong our remediation efforts and thereby prolong the existence of the material weakness.

We continue to take steps to remediate the underlying causes of the material weakness that was reported for the year ended December 31, 2014. We have hired a number of additional financial, accounting and tax personnel. In January 2015, we hired a director of internal audit to assist us in implementing and improving our existing internal controls. In February 2015, we hired a chief information officer to assist us in improving our underlying information technology systems and to decrease our reliance on manual processes. We continue to engage third-party consultants to provide support over our accounting and tax processes to assist us with our evaluation of complex technical accounting matters. We continuetheir internal controls. Our failure to engage consultants to advise us on making further improvements to our internal controls over financial reporting. We believe that these additional resources will enable us to broaden the scope and quality of our controls relating to the oversight and review of financial statements and our application of relevant accounting policies. Furthermore, we continue to implement and improve systems to automate certain financial reporting processes and to improve information accuracy. These remediation efforts are still in process and have not yet been completed. Because of this material weakness, there is heightened risk that a material misstatement of our annual or quarterly financial statements will not be prevented or detected.

The actions that we are taking are subject to ongoing senior management review as well as audit committee oversight. We are working diligently on this remediation process; however, we cannot estimate how long it will take to remediate this material weakness. In addition, the remediation steps we have taken, are taking and expect to take may not effectively remediate the material weakness, in which case our internal control over financial reporting would continue to be ineffective. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to complete our remedial actions successfully. Even if we are able to complete these actions successfully, these measures may not adequately address our material weakness. In addition, it is possible that we will discover additional material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting or that our existing material weakness will result in additional errors in or restatements of our financial statements.

If in future periods we determine that this material weakness has not been remediated or we identify other material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, which could result in the loss of investor confidence. In addition, to date, the audit of our consolidated financial statements by our independent registered public accounting firm has included a consideration of internal control over financial reporting as a basis of designing their audit procedures, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion onmaintain the effectiveness of our internal controls overin accordance with the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could have a material adverse effect on our business. We could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reporting. When we ceasereports, which could have an adverse effect on our stock price. In addition, if our efforts to be an emerging growth company we will be requiredcomply with new or changed laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to haveambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our independent registered accounting firm perform such an evaluation, and additional material weaknesses or other control deficienciesbusiness may be identified.

If we are unable to successfully remediate our current material weakness or avoid or remediate any future material weakness, our stock price may be adversely affected and we may be unable to maintain compliance with applicable stock exchange listing requirements.

Expansion into new markets could be costly and time-consuming. Historically, we have only provided our offerings to residential customers, which could put us at a disadvantage relative to companies who also compete in other markets.

We have historically only provided our offerings to residential customers. We compete with companies who sell solar energy systems in the commercial, industrial and government markets, in addition to the residential market. While we have recently entered the commercial and industrial market and we have contracts in place with commercial off-takers, no projects have been initiated as of December 31, 2015. The development cycle of these projects typically has a longer time horizon than the development of residential solar energy systems due to complexities associated with significantly larger system sizes and installations. The project approval process by project customers and our C&I fund investor has been delayed as a result of uncertainty related to the pending acquisition of our company and we may face continued delays following the termination of the Merger Agreement. While we believe that in the future we may have opportunities to expand our operations into other markets, there are no assurances that our design and installation systems will work for non-residential customers or that we will be able to compete successfully with companies with historical presences in such markets or we may not realize the anticipated benefits of entering such markets, and entering new markets has numerous risks, including the following:

If we are unable to successfully compete in the commercial and industrial market, our operating results and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected. Additionally, there is intense competition in the residential solar energy market in the markets in which we operate. As new entrants continue to enter into these markets, we may be unable to gain or maintain market share and we may be unable to compete with companies that earn revenue in both the residential market and non-residential markets.harmed.

We face competition from traditional regulated electric utilities, from less-regulated third party energy service providers, other solar companies and from new renewable energy companies.

The solar energy and renewable energy industries are both highly competitive and continually evolving as participants strive to distinguish themselves within their markets and compete with large traditional utilities. We believe that our primary competitors are the traditional utilities that supply electricity to our potential customers. Traditional utilities generally have substantially greater financial, technical, operational and other resources than we do. As a result, these competitors may be able to devote more resources to the research, development, promotion and sale of their products or respond more quickly to evolving industry standards and changes in market conditions than we can.can, including the ability to initiate proceedings before state public utility commissions to reduce the value of net metering. Traditional utilities could also offer other value-added products or services that could help them to compete with us even if the cost of electricity they offer is higher than ours. In addition, a majority of utilities’ sources of electricity is non-solar, which may allow utilities to sell electricity more cheaply than electricity generated by our solar energy systems.

We also compete with companies that are not regulated like traditional utilities but that have access to the traditional utility electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure pursuant to state and local pro-competitive and consumer choice policies. These energy service companies are able to offer customers electricity supply-only solutions that are competitive with our solar energy system options on both price and usage of renewable energy technology while avoiding the long-term agreements and physical installations that our current fund-financed business model requires. This may limit our ability to attract new customers, particularly those who wish to avoid long-term contracts or have an aesthetic or other objection to putting solar panels on their roofs.

We alsoAdditionally, we compete with solar companies with business models that are similar to ours. Some of these competitors have a higher degree of brand name recognition, differing business and pricing strategies, and greater capital resources than we have, as well as extensive knowledge of our target markets. In addition, our System Sales face increasing competition from other national and local solar energy companies who sell solar energy systems and may offer a broader suite of companion products. We believe the solar industry is becoming increasingly commoditized, and if we are unable to offer differentiated products, establish or maintain a consumer brand that resonates with homeowners or compete with the pricing offered by our competitors, our sales and market share position may be adversely affected.

In addition, we compete with solar companies in the downstream value chain of solar energy. For example, we face competition from purely finance driven organizations that acquire customers and then subcontract out the installation of solar energy systems, from installation businesses that seek financing from external parties, from large construction companies and utilities, and increasingly from sophisticated electrical and roofing companies. Some of these competitors specialize in the residential solar energy market, and some may provide energy at lower costs than we do. Additionally, some of our competitors may offer their products through sales channels that they have more fully developed, such as retail sales. Further, some of our competitors are integrating vertically in order to ensure supply and to control costs. Many of our competitors also have significant brand name recognition and have extensive knowledge of our target markets. For us to remain competitive, we must distinguish ourselves from our competitors by offering an integrated approach that successfully competes with each level of products and services offered by our competitors at various points in the value chain. If our competitors develop an integrated approach similar to ours including sales, financing, engineering, manufacturing, installation, maintenance and monitoring services, this will reduce our marketplace differentiation.

We also compete with solar companies that offer community solar products and utility companies that provide renewable power purchase programs. Some customers might choose to subscribe to a community solar project or renewable subscriber programs instead of installing a solar energy system on their home, which could affect our sales. Additionally, some utility companies (and some utility-like entities, such as community choice aggregators in California) have generation portfolios that are increasingly renewable in nature. In California, for example, due to recent legislation, utility companies and community choice aggregators in that state are required to have generation portfolios comprised of 60% renewable energy by 2030, and state regulators are planning for utility companies and community choice aggregators to sell 100% greenhouse gas free electricity to retail customers by 2045. As utility companies offer increasingly renewable portfolios to retail customers, those customers might be less inclined to install a solar energy system at their home, which could adversely affect our growth.

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As the solar industry grows and evolves, we will also face new competitors who are not currently in the market. Our industry is characterized by low technological barriers to entry and well-capitalized companies could choose to enter the market and compete with us. Our failure to adapt to changing market conditions and to compete successfully with existing or new competitors will limit our growth and will have a material adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Developments in alternative technologies or improvements in distributed solar energy generation may materially adversely affect demand for our offerings.

Significant developments in alternative technologies, such as advances in other forms of distributed solar power generation, storage solutions such as batteries, the widespread use or adoption of fuel cells for residential or commercial properties or improvements in other forms of centralized power production may materially and adversely affect our business and prospects in ways we do not currently anticipate. Any failure by us to adopt new or enhanced technologies or processes, or to react to changes in existing technologies, could materially delay deployment of our solar energy systems, which could result in productproduct obsolescence, the loss of competitiveness of our systems, decreased revenue and a loss of market share to competitors.

A failure to hire and retain a sufficient number of employees in key functions would constrain our growth and our ability to timely complete our customers’ projects.

To support our growth,business, we need to hire, train, deploy, manage and retain a substantial number of skilled installers and electricians in the relevant markets.markets where there is heightened or increasing demand for solar energy products. Competition for qualified personnel in our industry has increased substantially, and we expect it to continue to do so, particularly for skilled electricians and other personnel involved in the installation of solar energy systems. We also compete with the homebuilding and construction industries for skilled labor. As these industries seek to hire additional workers, our cost of labor may increase. Companies with whom we compete to hire installers may offer compensation or incentive plans that certain installers may view as more favorable. We periodically assess the compensation plans and policies for our service providers, including our installers and electricians, and, if deemed necessary, may decide to revise those plans and policies. Our installers and electricians may not react well to any such revisions, which in turn could adversely affect retention, motivation and productivity. Additionally, we continually monitor our workforce requirements in the markets in which we operate. Any workforce reductions in markets where sales volume does not support the number of installation and other personnel could in turn adversely affect retention, motivation and productivity. We may also subcontract certain aspects of the installation process to independent contractors. Training these independent contractors and monitoring them for compliance with our policies may require significant management oversight and may present additional risks and challenges compared to those related to managing our employees.

Furthermore, trained installers are typically able to more efficiently install solar energy systems. Shortages of skilled labor could significantly delay installations or otherwise increase our costs. While we do not currently have any unionized employees, we have expanded, and may continue to expand, into areas such as the Northeast, where labor unions are more prevalent. The unionization of our labor force could also increase our labor costs. In addition, a significant portion of our business has been concentrated in states such as California, where market conditions are particularly favorable to distributed solar energy generation. We have experienced and may in the future experience greater than expected turnover in our installers in those jurisdictions which would adversely impact the geographic mix of new solar energy system installations.

Because we are a licensed electrical contractor in every jurisdiction in which we operate, we are required to employ licensed electricians. As we expand into new markets, we are required to hire and/or contract with seasoned licensed electricians in order for us to qualify for the requisite state and local licenses. Because of the high demand for these seasoned licensed electricians, these individuals currently or in the future may demand greater compensation. In addition, our inability to attract and retain these qualifying electricians may adversely impact our ability to continue operations in current markets or expand into new areas.

If we cannot meet our hiring, retention and efficiency goals, we may be unable to complete our customers’ projects on time, in an acceptable manner or at all. Any significant failures in this regard would materially impair our growth, reputation, business and financial results. If we are required to pay higher compensation than we anticipate, these greater expenses may also adversely impact our financial results and the growth of our business.

We depend on a limited number of suppliers of solar energy system components and technologies to adequately meet anticipated demand for our solar energy systems. Due to the limited number of suppliers in our industry, the acquisition of any of these suppliers by a competitor or any shortage, delay, price change, imposition of tariffs or duties or other limitation in our ability to obtain components or technologies we use could result in sales and installation delays, cancellations and loss of market share.

We purchase solar panels, inverters and other system components from a limited number of suppliers, making us susceptible to quality issues, shortages and price changes. In 2015, Trina Solar Limited, Yingli Green Energy Americas, Inc. and JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. accounted for substantially all of our solar photovoltaic module purchases and Enphase Energy, Inc. and SolarEdge Technologies Inc. accounted for substantially all of our inverter purchases. If we fail to develop, maintain and expand our relationships with these or other suppliers, our ability to adequately meet anticipated demand for our solar energy systems may be adversely affected, or we may only be able to offer our systems at higher costs or after delays. If one or more of the suppliers that we rely upon to meet anticipated demand ceases or reduces production due to its financial condition, acquisition by a competitor or otherwise, is unable to increase production as industry demand increases or is otherwise unable to allocate sufficient production to us, it may be difficult to quickly identify alternative suppliers or to qualify alternative products on commercially reasonable terms, and our ability to satisfy this demand may be adversely affected. There are a limited number of suppliers of solar energy system components and technologies. While we believe there are other sources of supply for these products available, transitioning to a new supplier may result in additional costs and delays in acquiring our solar products and deploying our systems. These issues could harm our business or financial performance.19

In addition, the acquisition of a component supplier or technology provider by one of our competitors could limit our access to such components or technologies and require significant redesigns of our solar energy systems or installation procedures and have a material adverse effect on our business. For example, one of our competitors acquired Zep Solar, Inc., or Zep, in 2013. Zep sold us virtually all of the racking systems used in our hardware in 2013, and the resulting limitation in our ability to acquire Zep products required us to redesign certain aspects of our systems to accommodate alternative racking hardware. In addition, some of our investment funds require the use of designated equipment, and our inability to obtain any such required equipment could limit our ability to finance solar energy systems that we intend to place in those funds.

There have also been periods of industry-wide shortages of key components, including solar panels, in times of rapid industry growth. The manufacturing infrastructure for some of these components has a long lead-time, requires significant capital investment and relies on the continued availability of key commodity materials, potentially resulting in an inability to meet demand for these components. The solar industry is currently experiencing rapid growth and, as a result, shortages of key components, including solar panels, may be more likely to occur, which in turn may result in price increases for such components. Even if industry-wide shortages do not occur, suppliers may decide to allocate key components with high demand or insufficient production capacity to more profitable customers, customers with long-term supply agreements or customers other than us and our supply of such components may be reduced as a result.

Historically, we purchased the components for our solar energy systems on an as-needed basis and did not operate under long-term supply agreements. Recently, we have entered into multi-year agreements with certain of our major suppliers. These agreements are denominated in U.S. dollars. Since our revenue is also generated in U.S. dollars we are mostly insulated from currency fluctuations. However, since our suppliers often incur a significant amount of their costs by purchasing raw materials and generating operating expenses in foreign currencies, if the value of the U.S. dollar depreciates significantly or for a prolonged period of time against these other currencies this may cause our suppliers to raise the prices they charge us, which could harm our financial results. Since we purchase almost all of the solar photovoltaic modules we use from China, we are particularly exposed to exchange rate risk from increases in the value of the Chinese Renminbi. In addition, the U.S. government has imposed tariffs on solar cells produced and assembled in China and Taiwan. These tariffs, and any tariffs or duties, or shortages, delays, price changes or other limitation in our ability to obtain components or technologies we use could limit our growth, cause cancellations or adversely affect our profitability, and result in loss of market share and damage to our brand. Further, certain of these multi-year agreements require us to make minimum volume purchases on a quarterly basis. As of December 31, 2015, we have met these minimum purchase requirements. However, if we fail to meet such minimum purchases in the future, we may be required to make additional payments or breach our contracts, which could adversely affect our results of operations and damage our relationships with these suppliers.

Our operating results may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year, which could make our future performance difficult to predict and could cause our operating results for a particular period to fall below expectations, resulting in a severe decline in the price of our common stock.

Our quarterly and annual operating results are difficult to predict and may fluctuate significantly in the future. We have experienced seasonal and quarterly fluctuations in the past. However, given that we are in a rapidly growing industry, the true extent of these fluctuations may have been masked by our recent growth rates and thus may not be readily apparent from our historical operating results and may be difficult to predict. For example, the amount of revenue we recognize in a given period from our customer contracts is dependent in part on the amount of energy generated by solar energy systems under such contracts. As a result,

revenue derived from power purchase agreements is impacted by seasonally shorter daylight hours in winter months. In addition, our ability to install solar energy systems is impacted by weather, as for example during the winter months in the Northeastern United States. Such delays can impact the timing of when we can install and begin to generate revenue from solar energy systems. As such, our past quarterly operating results may not be good indicators of future performance.

In addition to the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, the following factors could cause our operating results to fluctuate:

For these or other reasons, the results of any prior quarterly or annual periods should not be relied upon as indications of our future performance. In addition, our actual revenue, key operating metrics and other operating results in future periods may fall short of the expectations of investors and financial analysts, which could have an adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.

Our business has benefited from the declining cost of solar panels, and our financial results may be harmed now that the cost of solar panels has stabilized and could increase in the future.

The declining cost of solar panels and the raw materials necessary to manufacture them has been a key driver in the price we charge for electricity and customer adoption of solar energy. According to industry experts, solar panel and raw material prices are not expected to continue to decline at the same rate as they have over the past several years. In addition, growth in the solar industry and the resulting increase in demand for solar panels and the raw materials necessary to manufacture them may also put upward pressure on prices. These resulting prices could slow our growth and cause our financial results to suffer. In addition, in the past we have purchased virtually all of the solar panels used in our solar energy systems from manufacturers based in China which have benefited from favorable governmental policies by the Chinese government. If this governmental support were to decrease or be eliminated, our ability to purchase these products on competitive terms or to access specialized technologies from China could be restricted.

Even if this support were to continue, the U.S. government could impose additional tariffs on solar cells manufactured in China. In 2014, the U.S. government broadened its investigation of Chinese pricing practices in this area to include solar panels and modules produced in China containing solar cells manufactured in other countries. In July 2015, the U.S. government announced antidumping duties ranging from 9.67% to 238.95% on imports of the majority of solar panels made in China, and, in December 2014, rates ranging from 11.5% to 27.6% on imported solar cells made in Taiwan. Countervailing duties ranging from 15.43% to 49.8% for Chinese modules have also been announced, and in July 2015 were set at 20.94% for most Chinese modules. In January 2015, the antidumping duties were confirmed by a determination of the U.S. International Trade Commission that material harm to the U.S. solar industry had occurred. These combined tariffs would make such solar cells less competitively priced in the United States, and the Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers may choose to limit the amount of solar equipment they sell into the United States. As a result, it may be easier for solar cell manufacturers located outside of China or Taiwan to increase the prices of the solar cells they sell into the United States. If we are required to pay higher prices, accept less favorable terms or purchase solar panels or other system components from alternative, higher-priced sources, our financial results will be adversely affected.

The residual value of our solar energy systems at the end of the associated term of the lease or power purchase agreement may be lower than projected today and adversely affect our financial performance and valuation.

We intend to amortize the costs of our solar energy systems over a 30-year estimated useful life, which exceeds the period of the component warranties and the corresponding payment streams from our contracts with our customers. If we incur repair and maintenance costs on these systems after the warranties have expired, and if they then fail or malfunction, we will be liable for the expense of repairing these systems without a chance of recovery from our suppliers. We are also contractually obligated to remove, store and reinstall the solar energy systems for a nominal fee if customers need to replace or repair their roofs. The nominal fee is market standard; however, it may not cover our costs to remove, store and reinstall the solar energy systems. In addition, we typically bear the cost of removing the solar energy systems at the end of the term of the customer contract if the customer does not renew his or her contract at the end of its term. Furthermore, it is difficult to predict how future environmental regulations may affect the costs associated with the removal, disposal or recycling of our solar energy systems. If the residual value of the systems is less than we expect at the end of the customer contract, after giving effect to any associated removal and redeployment costs, we may be required to accelerate all or some of the remaining unamortized costs. This could materially impair our future operating results and estimated retained value.

We act as the licensed general contractor for our customers and are subject to risks associated with construction, cost overruns, delays, regulatory compliance and other contingencies, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We are a licensed contractor in every market we service, and we are responsible for every customer installation. We are the general contractor, electrician, construction manager and installer for all our solar energy systems. We may be liable to customers for any damage we cause to their home, belongings or property during the installation of our systems. For example, we penetratesystems, including any re-roofing services provided under our customers’ roofs during the installation process and may incur liability for the failure to adequately weatherproof such penetrations following the completion of installation of solar energy systems.contracts. In addition, because the solar energy systems we deploy are high-voltage energy systems, we may incur liability for the failure to comply with electrical standards and manufacturer recommendations. Furthermore, prior to obtaining permission to operate our solar energy systems, the systems must pass various inspections. Any delay in passing, or inability to pass, such inspections, would adversely affect our results of operations. Because our profit on a particular installation is based in part on assumptions as to the cost of such project, damage for which we are liable, cost overruns, delays or other execution issues may cause us to not achieve our expected results or cover our costs for that project.

In addition, the installation of solar energy systems is subject to oversight and regulation in accordance with national, state and local laws and ordinances relating to building, fire and electrical codes, safety, environmental protection, utility interconnection and metering, and related matters. We also rely on certain of our employees to maintain professional licenses in many of the jurisdictions in which we operate, and our failure to employ properly licensed personnel could adversely affect our licensing status in those jurisdictions. It is difficult and costly to track the requirements of every authority having jurisdiction over our operations and our solar energy systems. Any new government regulations or utility policies pertaining to our systems, or changes to existing government regulations or utility policies pertaining to our systems, may result in significant additional expenses to us and our customers and, as a result, could cause a significant reduction in demand for our systems.

We depend on a limited number of suppliers of solar energy system components and technologies to adequately meet anticipated demand for our solar energy systems. Due to the limited number of suppliers in our industry, the acquisition of any of these suppliers by a competitor or any shortage, delay, price change, imposition of tariffs or duties or other limitation in our ability to obtain components or technologies we use could result in sales and installation delays, cancellations and loss of market share.

We purchase solar panels, inverters and other system components from a limited number of suppliers, making us susceptible to quality issues, shortages and price changes. If we fail to develop, maintain and expand our relationships with our suppliers, our ability to adequately meet anticipated demand for our solar energy systems may be adversely affected, or we may only be able to offer our systems at higher costs or after delays. If one or more of the suppliers that we rely upon to meet anticipated demand ceases or reduces production due to its financial condition, acquisition by a competitor or otherwise, is unable to increase production as industry demand increases or is otherwise unable to allocate sufficient production to us, it may be difficult to quickly identify alternative suppliers or to qualify alternative products on commercially reasonable terms, and our ability to satisfy this demand may be adversely affected. There are a limited number of suppliers of solar energy system components and technologies. While we believe there are other sources of supply for these products available, transitioning to a new supplier may result in additional costs and delays in acquiring our solar products and deploying our systems, and may require us to obtain the approval of our financing partners in order to utilize new products. These issues could harm our business or financial performance.

There have also been periods of industry-wide shortages of key components, including solar panels, in times of rapid industry growth. The manufacturing infrastructure for some of these components has a long lead-time, requires significant capital investment and relies on the continued availability of key commodity materials, potentially resulting in an inability to meet demand for these components. The solar industry is growing and, as a result, shortages of key components, including solar panels, may be more likely to occur, which in turn may result in price increases for such components. Even if industry-wide shortages do not occur, suppliers may decide to allocate key components with high demand or insufficient production capacity to more profitable customers, customers with long-term supply agreements or customers other than us and our supply of such components may be reduced as a result.

We have entered into multi-year agreements with certain of our major suppliers. These agreements are denominated in U.S. dollars. Since our revenue is also generated in U.S. dollars, we are mostly insulated from currency fluctuations. However, since our suppliers often incur a significant amount of their costs by purchasing raw materials and generating operating expenses in foreign currencies, if the value of the U.S. dollar depreciates significantly or for a prolonged period of time against these other currencies, this may cause our suppliers to raise the prices they charge us, which could harm our financial results. As noted above, the U.S. government has imposed a 30% tariff (decreasing by 5% each year for four years) on imports of solar cells not partially or fully assembled into other products and a 30% tariff (decreasing by 5% each year for four years) on imported solar panels from most foreign countries. It is unclear what further actions the current U.S. presidential administration may take with respect to existing and proposed trade agreements, or restrictions on trade generally. The existing tariffs, and any new tariffs, duties or other trade measures, or shortages, delays, price changes or other limitation in our ability to obtain components or technologies we use could limit our growth, cause cancellations or adversely affect our profitability, and result in loss of market share and damage to our brand.

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Our operating results may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and year to year, which could make our future performance difficult to predict and could cause our operating results for a particular period to fall below expectations, resulting in a severe decline in the price of our common stock.

Our quarterly and annual operating results are difficult to predict and may fluctuate significantly in the future. We have experienced seasonal and quarterly fluctuations in the past. However, given that we are in a growing industry, the true extent of these fluctuations may have been masked by our historical growth rates and thus may not be readily apparent from our historical operating results and may be difficult to predict. For example, the amount of revenue we recognize in a given period depends in part on the types of customer contracts we have entered into—because revenue from System Sales is recognized when the system is placed into service whereas revenue from our PPAs and Solar Leases is recognized over the contract life, which is typically 20 years—and, in the case of PPAs and Solar Leases is dependent in part on the amount of energy generated by solar energy systems under such contracts. As a result, revenue derived from PPAs is impacted by seasonally shorter daylight hours in winter months. In addition, our ability to install solar energy systems is impacted by weather, such as during the winter months in the Northeastern United States. Such delays can impact the timing of when we can install and begin to generate revenue from solar energy systems. As such, our past quarterly operating results may not be good indicators of future performance.

In addition to the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, the following factors could cause our operating results to fluctuate:

For these or other reasons, the results of any prior quarterly or annual periods should not be relied upon as indications of our future performance. In addition, our actual revenue, key operating metrics and other operating results in future periods may fall short of the expectations of investors and financial analysts, which could have an adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.

The profitability and residual value of our solar energy systems during and at the end of the associated term of the PPA or Solar Lease may be lower than projected today and adversely affect our financial performance and valuation.

We maintain ownership of the solar energy systems that we install under our PPAs or Solar Leases. We amortize the costs of our solar energy systems over a 30-year estimated useful life, which exceeds the period of the component warranties and the corresponding payment streams from our contracts with our customers. If we incur repair and maintenance costs on these systems after the warranties have expired, and if they then fail or malfunction, we will be liable for the expense of repairing these systems without a chance of recovery from our suppliers. We are also contractually obligated to remove, store and reinstall the solar energy systems, typically for a nominal fee, if customers need to replace or repair their roofs. However, customer fees may not cover our costs to remove, store and reinstall the solar energy systems. In addition, we typically bear the cost of removing the solar energy systems at the end of the term of the customer contract if the customer does not renew his or her contract or purchase the system. Furthermore, it is difficult to predict how future environmental regulations may affect the costs associated with the removal, disposal or recycling of our solar energy systems. We also face other factors that could increase the costs or diminish the production of a solar energy system, such as unanticipated damage or malfunctions, animal interference and weather-related matters. If the residual value of the systems is less than we expect at the end of the customer contract, after giving effect to any associated removal and redeployment costs, we may be required to accelerate all or some of the remaining unamortized costs. If the profitability or the residual value of the systems is lower than expected, this could materially impair our future operating results and estimated retained value.

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Compliance with occupational safety and health requirements and best practices can be costly, and noncompliance with such requirements may result in potentially significant monetary penalties, operational delays and adverse publicity.

The installation of solar energy systems requires our employees to work at heights with complicated and potentially dangerous electrical systems and at potentially high temperatures. The evaluation and modification of buildings as part of the installation process requires our employees to work in locations that may contain potentially dangerous levels of asbestos, lead, mold or other materials known or believed to be hazardous to human health. We also maintain a fleet of nearly 900over 700 trucks and other vehicles to support our installers and operations. There is substantial risk of serious injury or death if proper safety procedures are not followed. Our operations are subject to regulation under the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act, or OSHA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, or DOT, and equivalent state laws. Changes to OSHA, DOT or state requirements, or stricter interpretation or enforcement of existing laws or regulations, could result in increased costs. If we fail to comply with applicable OSHA regulations, even if no work-related serious injury or death occurs, we may be subject to civil or criminal enforcement and be required to pay substantial penalties, incur significant capital expenditures or suspend or limit operations. While we have not experienced a high level of injuries to date, weWe could be exposed to increased liability in the future. In the past, we have had workplace accidents and received citations from OSHA regulators for alleged safety violations, resulting in fines. Any such accidents, citations, violations, injuries or failure to comply with industry best practices may subject us to adverse publicity, damage our reputation and competitive position and adversely affect our business.business or financial performance.

Problems with product quality or performance may cause us to incur expenses, may lower the residual value of our solar energy systems and may damage our market reputation and adversely affect our financial results.

We agree to maintain the solar energy systems installed on our customers’ homes in connection with a PPA or Solar Lease during the length of the term of our customer contracts, which is typically 20 years. We are exposed to any liabilities arising from the systems’ failure to operate properly and are generally under an obligation to ensure that each system remains in good condition during the term of the agreement. We also agree to provide a workmanship warranty and maintain the solar energy systems we sell to customers for a period of one to ten years. As part of our operations and maintenance work, we provide a pass-through of the inverter and panel manufacturers’ warranty coverage to our System Sales customers, which generally range from 10ten to 2520 years. We also take advantage of manufacturers’ warranty coverage when maintaining solar energy systems installed under PPAs and Solar Leases. One or more of these third-party manufacturers could cease operations and no longer honor these warranties, leaving us to fulfill these potential obligations to our customers or to our fund investors without underlying warranty coverage. We, either ourselves or through our investment funds, bear the cost of such major equipment. Even if the investment fund bears the direct expense of such replacement equipment, we could suffer financial losses associated with a loss of production from the solar energy systems.

Beginning in 2014, we began structuring some customer contracts as solar energy system leases. To be competitive in the market and to comply with the requirements of our jurisdictions, where we offer leases, our solar energy system leasesSolar Leases contain a performance guarantee in favor of the lessee. Solar Leases with performance guarantees require us to refund moneycertain payments to the lessee if the solar energy system fails to generate a stated minimum amount of electricity in a 12-month period. We may also suffer financial losses associated with such refunds if significant performance guarantee payments are triggered.

Our failure to accurately predict future liabilities related to material quality or performance expenses could result in unexpected volatility in our financial condition. Because of the limited operating historylong estimated useful life of our solar energy systems, we have been required to make assumptions and apply judgments regarding a number of factors, including our anticipated rate of warranty claims, and the durability, performance and reliability of our solar energy systems. We have made these assumptions based on the historic performance of similar systems or on accelerated life cycle testing. Our assumptions could prove to be materially different from the actual performance of our systems, causing us to incur substantial expense to repair or replace defective solar energy systems in the future or to compensate customers for systems that do not meet their performance guarantees. Equipment defects, serial defects or operational deficiencies also would reduce our revenue from customer contracts because the customer payments under such agreements are dependent on system production or would require us to make refunds under performance guarantees. Any widespread product failures or operating deficiencies may damage our market reputation and adversely impact our financial results.

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We are responsible for providing maintenance, repair and billing on solar energy systems that are owned or leased by our investment funds on a fixed fee basis, and our financial performance could be adversely affected if our cost of providing such services is higher than we project.

We typically provide a workmanship warranty for periods of five to 20 years to our investment funds for every system we sell to them. We are also generally contractually obligated to cover the cost of maintenance, repair and billing on any solar energy systems that we sell or lease to our investment funds. We are subject to a maintenance services agreement under which we are required to operate and maintain the system and perform customer billing services for a fixed fee that is calculated to cover our future expected maintenance and servicing costs of the solar energy systems in each investment fund over the term of the leasePPA or power purchase agreementSolar Lease with the covered customers. If our solar energy systems require an above-average amountnumber of repairs or if the cost of repairing systems were higher than our estimate, we would need to perform such repairs without additional compensation. If our solar energy systems a majority of which are located in California, are damaged in the event of a natural disaster beyond our control, such as an earthquake, tornado, wildfire, tsunami or hurricane, losses could be outside the scope of insurance policies or exceed insurance policy limits, and we could incur unforeseen costs that could harm our business and financial condition. We may also incur significant costs for taking other actions in preparation for, or in reaction to, such events. When required to do so under the terms of a particular investment fund, we purchase property and business interruption insurance or other insurance policies with industry standard coverage and limits approved by the investor’s third-party insurance advisors to hedge against such risk, but such coverage may not cover our losses, and we have not acquired such coverage for all of our funds.

Product liability claims against us or accidents could result in adverse publicity and potentially significant monetary damages.

If one of our solar energy systems injuredor other products were to injure someone, we could be exposed to product liability claims. In addition, it is possible that our products could injure our customer or third parties, or that our products could cause property damage as a result of product malfunctions, defects, improper installation, fire or other causes. We rely on our general liability insurance to cover product liability claims. Any product liability claimclaims we face could be expensive to defend and divert management’s attention. The successful assertion of product liability claims against us could result in potentially significant monetary damages, penalties or fines, increase our insurance rates, subject us to adverse publicity, damage our reputation and competitive position and adversely affect sales of our systems and other products. In addition, product liability claims, injuries, defects or other problems experienced by other companies in the residential solar industry could lead to unfavorable market conditions to the industry as a whole and may have an adverse effect on our ability to attract new customers, thus affecting our growth and financial performance.

Failure by our component suppliers to use ethical business practices and comply with applicable laws and regulations may adversely affect our business.

We do not control our suppliers or their business practices. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee that they follow ethical business practices such as fair wage practices and compliance with environmental, safety and other local laws. A lack of demonstrated compliance could lead us to seek alternative suppliers, which could increase our costs and result in delayed delivery of our products, product shortages or other disruptions of our operations. Violation of labor or other laws by our suppliers or the divergence of a supplier’s labor or other practices from those generally accepted as ethical in the United States or other markets in which we do business could also attract negative publicity for us and harm our business.

Damage to our brand and reputation, or change or loss of use of our brand, wouldcould harm our business and results of operations.

We depend significantly on our reputation for high-quality products, best-in-class customer service and the brand name “Vivint Solar” to attract new customers and grow our business. If we fail to continue to deliver our solar energy systems within the planned timelines, if our offerings do not perform as anticipated or if we damage any of our customers’ properties or delay or cancel projects, our brand and reputation could be significantly impaired. Future technical improvements may allow us to offer lower prices or offer new technology to new customers; however, technical limitations in our current solar energy systems may prevent us from offering such lower prices or new technology to our existing customers. The inability of our current customers to benefit from technological improvements could cause our existing customers to lower the value they perceive our existing products offer and impair our brand and reputation.

We have focused particular attention on growing our direct sales force, leading us in some instances to take on candidates who we later determined did not meet our standards. In addition, given our direct sales business model and the sheer number of interactions our sales and other personnel have with customers and potential customers, it is inevitable that some customers’ and potential customers’ interactions with our company will be perceived as less than satisfactory. This has led to instances of customer complaints, some of which have affected our digital footprint on rating websites such as that for Yelp and the Better Business Bureau.social media platforms. If we cannot manage our hiring and training processes to avoid or minimize these issues to the extent possible, these issues, our reputation may be harmed and our ability to attract new customers would suffer.

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Given our past relationship with our sister company Vivint and the similarity in our names, customers may associate us with any problems experienced with Vivint, such as complaints with the Better Business Bureau. Because we have no control over Vivint, we may not be able tocannot take remedial action to cure any issues Vivint has with its customers, and our brand and reputation may be harmed if we are mistaken for the same company.

In addition, if we were to no longer use, lose the right to continue to use, or if others use, the “Vivint Solar” brand, we could lose recognition in the marketplace among customers, suppliers and partners, which could affect our growth and financial performance, and would require financial and other investment, and management attention in new branding, which may not be as successful.

Marketplace confidence in our liquidity and long-term business prospects is important for building and maintaining our business.

Our financial condition, operating results and business prospects may suffer materially if we are unable to establish and maintain confidence about our liquidity and business prospects among consumers and within our industry. Our solar energy systems require ongoing maintenance and support. If we were to reduce operations even years from now or in the future, existing buyers of our systems from years earlier might have difficulty in having us repair or service our systems, which remain our responsibility under the terms of our customer contracts. As a result, consumers may be less likely to purchase our solar energy systems now if they are uncertain that our business will succeed or that our operations will continue for many years. Similarly, suppliers and other third parties will be less likely to invest time and resources in developing business relationships with us if they are not convinced that our business will succeed. Accordingly, in order to build and maintain our business, we must maintain confidence among customers, suppliers and other parties in our liquidity and long-term business prospects. We may not succeed in our efforts to build this confidence.

If we fail to manage our recent and future operations and growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of customer service or adequately address competitive challenges.

We have experienced significant growth in recent periods with the cumulative capacity of our solar energy systems growing from 72.8864.9 megawatts as of December 31, 20132017 to 458.91,060.9 megawatts as of December 31, 2015,2018, and we intend to continue to expand our business significantly within existing markets and in a number of new locations in the future. This growth has placed, and any future growth may place, a significant strain on our management, operational and financial infrastructure. In particular, we will be required to expand, trainOur operations, growth and manageexpansion require significant time and effort on the part of our growing employee base and scale and otherwise improve our IT infrastructure in tandem with that headcount growth. Our management will also beteam as it is required to maintain and expand our relationships with customers, suppliers and other third parties and attract new customers, suppliers and suppliers,financing, as well as manage multiple geographic locations.

In addition, our current and planned operations, personnel, ITinformation technology and other systems and procedures might be inadequate to support our future growth and may require us to make additional unanticipated investments in our infrastructure. Our success and ability to further scale our business will depend, in part, on our ability to manage these changes in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

If we cannot manage our operations and growth, we may be unable to meet our or industry analysts’ expectations regarding growth, opportunity and financial targets, take advantage of market opportunities, execute our business strategies, meet our investment fund commitments or respond to competitive pressures. This could also result in declines in quality or customer satisfaction, increased costs, difficulties in introducing new offerings or other operational difficulties. Any failure to effectively manage our operations and growth could adversely impact our business and reputation.

Expansion into new markets could be costly and time-consuming. Historically, we have only provided our offerings to residential customers, which could put us at a disadvantage relative to companies who also compete in other markets.

We have historically only provided our offerings to residential customers. We compete with companies who sell solar energy systems in the commercial, industrial and government markets, in addition to the residential market. While we believe that in the future we could have opportunities to expand our operations into other markets, there are no assurances that our design and installation systems will work for non-residential customers or that we will be able to compete successfully with companies with historical presences in such markets or we may not realize the anticipated benefits of entering such markets, and entering new markets has numerous risks, including the following:

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If we choose to pursue opportunities in additional markets, including batteries or electric vehicle charging stations, and are unable to successfully compete in such markets, our operating results and growth prospects could be materially adversely affected. Additionally, there is intense competition in the residential solar energy market in the markets in which we operate. As new entrants continue to enter into these markets, we may be unable to gain or maintain market share and we may be unable to compete with companies that earn revenue in both the residential market and non-residential markets.

We may not realize the anticipated benefits of past or future acquisitions, and integration of these acquisitions may disrupt our business and management.

We acquired Solmetric Corporation in January 2014 and inIn the future we may acquire additional companies, project pipelines, products or technologies or enter into joint ventures or other strategic initiatives. We may not realize the anticipated benefits of this acquisition or any other future acquisition, and any acquisition has numerous risks. These risks include the following:

Mergers and acquisitions of companies are inherently risky, and if we do not complete the integration of acquired businesses successfully and in a timely manner, we may not realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisitions to the extent anticipated, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

The loss of one or more members of our senior management or key employees may adversely affect our ability to implement our strategy.

We dependare highly dependent on the efforts and abilities of the principal members of our experiencedsenior management team, and the loss of one or more key executives could have a negative impact on our business. In particular, we are dependent on the services of our chief executive officer, Greg Butterfield.

We also depend on our ability to retain and motivate key employees and attract qualified new employees. None of our key executives are bound by employment agreements for any specific term, and we do not maintain key person life insurance policies on any of our executive officers. In the year ended December 31, 2015, one-third of the outstanding options to purchase shares of our common stock grantedOur compensation structure, which includes salary, bonus, equity and benefits components, is important to our key executivesability to attract, retain and other employees undermotivate our 2013 Omnibus Incentive Plan vested. In addition, one-third of the options remained outstanding and will vest if 313 Acquisition LLC receives a return on its invested capital at a pre-established threshold, subjectemployees. If we do not provide adequate compensation, or appropriately structure our equity grants, we may be unable to the employee’s continued service through the receipt of such return. Whilemaintain our initial public offering did not itself constitute an event that would trigger vesting, subsequent sales by 313 Acquisition LLC of our common stock could resultcurrent workforce or attract new talent in the vesting of such options. As a result, the retention incentives associated with these options could lapse for all employees holding these options under our 2013 Omnibus Incentive Plan at the same time or times. This decrease in retention incentive could cause significant turnover after these options vest. Wefuture, and we may be unable to replace key members of our management team and key employees if we lose their services. Integrating new employees into our team could prove disruptive to our operations, require substantial resources and management attention and ultimately prove unsuccessful. An inability to attract and retain sufficient managerial personnel who have critical industry experience and relationships could limit or delay our strategic efforts, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

The requirements of being a public company may strain our resources, divert management’s attention and affect our ability to attract and retain qualified board members and officers.

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the listing requirements of the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased our legal and financial compliance costs, made some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increased demand on our systems and resources. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results and maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. To maintain and improve our disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting to meet this standard, significant resources and management oversight may be required. As a result, management’s attention may be diverted from other business concerns which could harm our business and operating results. If in the future, we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, the market price of our stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources.25

Being a public company has also made it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and in the future, we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to continue coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified executive officers and members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee.

We may be subject to intellectual property rights claims by third parties, which are extremely costly to defend, could require us to pay significant damages and could limit our ability to use certain technologies.

Third parties, including our competitors, may own patents or other intellectual property rights that cover aspects of our technology or business methods. Such parties may claim we have misappropriated, misused, violated or infringed third party intellectual property rights, and, if we gain greater recognition in the market, we face a higher risk of being the subject of claims that we have violated others’ intellectual property rights. Any claim that we violate a third party’s intellectual property rights, whether with or without merit, could be time-consuming, expensive to settle or litigate and could divert our management’s attention and other resources. If we do not successfully settle or defend an intellectual property claim, we could be liable for significant monetary damages and could be prohibited from continuing to use certain technology, business methods, content or brands. To avoid a prohibition, we could seek a license from third parties, which could require us to pay significant royalties, increasing our operating expenses. If a license is not available at all or not available on reasonable terms, we may be required to develop or license a non-violating alternative, either of which could require significant effort and expense. If we cannot license or develop a non-violating alternative, we would be forced to limit or stop sales of our offerings and may be unable to effectively compete. Any of these results would adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. To deter other companies from making intellectual property claims against us or to gain leverage in settlement negotiations, we may be forced to significantly increase the size of our intellectual property portfolio through internal efforts and acquisitions from third parties, both of which could require significant expenditures. However, a robust intellectual property portfolio may provide little or no deterrence, particularly for patent holding companies or other patent owners that have no relevant product revenues.

We use “open source” software in our solutions, which may restrict how we distribute our offerings, require that we release the source code of certain software subject to open source licenses or subject us to possible litigation or other actions that could adversely affect our business.

We currently use in our solutions, and expect to continue to use in the future, software that is licensed under so-called “open source,” “free” or other similar licenses. Open source software is made available to the general public on an “as-is” basis under the terms of a non-negotiable license. We currently combine our proprietary software with open source software but not in a manner that we believe requires the release of the source code of our proprietary software to the public. We do not plan to integrate our proprietary software with open source software in ways that would require the release of the source code of our proprietary software to the public, however, our use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software. Open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. In addition, if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release to the public or remove the source code of our proprietary software to the public. This would allow our competitors to create similar offerings with lower development effort and time and ultimately could result in a loss of sales.software. We may also face claims alleging noncompliance with open source license terms or infringement or misappropriation of proprietary software. These claims could result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license or require us to devote additional research and development resources to change our software, any of which would have a negative effect on our business and operating results.remove the software. In addition, if the license terms for open source software that we use change, we may be forced to re-engineer our solutions, incur additional costs or discontinue the sale of our offerings if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis. Although we monitor our use of open source software to avoid subjecting our offerings to unintended conditions, few courts have interpreted open source licenses, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our offerings. We cannot guarantee that we have incorporated open source software in our software in a manner that will not subject us to liability, or in a manner that is consistent with our current policies and procedures.

The installation and operation of solar energy systems depends heavily on suitable solar and meteorological conditions. If meteorological conditions are unexpectedly unfavorable, the electricity production from our solar energy systems may be substantially below our expectations and our ability to timely deploy new systems may be adversely impacted.

The energy produced and revenue and cash receipts generated by a solar energy system depend on suitable solar, atmospheric and weather conditions, all of which are beyond our control. Furthermore, components of our systems, such as panels and inverters, could be damaged by severe weather or other natural disasters, such as hailstorms, hurricanes, lightning or lightning.wildfires. Although we maintain insurance to cover for many such casualty events, our investment funds would be obligated to bear the expense of repairing the damaged solar energy systems, sometimes subject to limitations based on our ability to successfully make warranty claims. Our economic model and projected returns on our systems require us to achieve certain production results from our systems and, in some cases, we guarantee these results for both our consumerscustomers and our investors. If the systems underperform for any reason, our financial results could suffer. These risks are amplified by the anticipated increase in the frequency of extreme weather events due to rising average temperatures worldwide.

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Sustained unfavorable weather also could delay our installation of solar energy systems, leading to increased expenses and decreased revenue and cash receipts in the relevant periods. We have experienced seasonal fluctuations in our operations. For example, theThe amount of revenue we recognize in a given period from power purchase agreementsPPAs is dependent in part on the amount of energy generated by solar energy systems under such contracts. As a result, operating leases and incentives revenue is impacted by seasonally shorter daylight hours in winter months. In addition, our ability to install solar energy systems is impacted by weather. For example, weWe have limited ability to install solar energy systems during the winter months in the Northeastern United States. Such delays can impact the timing of when we can install and begin to generate revenue from solar energy systems. However, given that we are in a rapidly growing industry, the true extent of these fluctuations may have been masked by our recenthistorical growth rates and thus may not be readily apparent from our historical operating results and may be difficult to predict. As such, our historical operating results may not be indicative of future performance. Furthermore, weather patterns could change, making it harder to predict the average annual amount of sunlight striking each location where we install a solar energy system. This could make our solar energy systems less economical overallindividually or make individual systems less economical.in the aggregate. Any of these events or conditions could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Disruptions to our solar monitoring systems could negatively impact the operation of our business and our revenues and increase our expenses.

Our ability to accurately charge our customers for the energy produced by our solar energy systems depends on our ability to monitor our customers’ solar energy systems. Our customer agreements require our customers maintainingto maintain a broadband internet connection so that we may receive data regarding solar energy systemssystem production from their home networks. We could incur significant expenses or disruptions of our operations in connection with failures of our solar monitoring systems, including failures of our customers’ home networks that would prevent us from accurately monitoring solar energy production. In addition, sophisticated hardware and operating system software and applications that we procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture, including “bugs” and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with the operation of our systems. The costs to us to eliminate or alleviate viruses and bugs, or any problems associated with failures of our customers’ home networks could be significant, and the efforts to address these problems could result in interruptions, delays or cessation of service that may impede our sales, distribution or other critical functions. We have in the past experienced periods where some of our customers’ networks have been unavailable and, asWhen a result,customer’s solar monitoring system is not properly communicating with us, we have been forced to estimate the production of their solar energy systems. Such estimates may prove inaccurate and could cause us to underestimate the power being generated by our solar energy systems and undercharge our customers, thereby harming our results of operations.

We are exposed to the credit risk of our customers.

Our solar energy customers primarilymost commonly purchase energy or lease solar energy systems from us pursuant to one of two types of long-term contracts: a power purchase agreementPPA or a lease.Solar Lease. The power purchase agreementterms of PPAs and lease termsSolar Leases are typically for 20 years and require the customer to make monthly payments to us. Accordingly, we are subject to the credit risk of our customers. As of December 31, 2015,2018, the average FICO score of our customers was approximately 760. However, as we grow our business, we expect that the risk of customer defaults willcould increase. As a result, ourOur reserve for this exposure is estimated to be $0.9$5.2 million as of December 31, 2015,2018, and our future exposure may exceed the amount of such reserves. While we do not currently extend credit to customers interested in System Sales, many of those customers are interested in financing the purchase of a solar energy system. While these customers may seek third-party financing through their own lender or a lender with whom we have a relationship, if they do not have sufficient credit to qualify for a loan, they may be unable to purchase a solar energy system. This could reduce our potential customer pool and limit our System Sales.

A failure to comply with laws and regulations relating to our interactions with current or prospective residential customers could result in negative publicity, claims, investigations and litigation, and adversely affect our financial performance.

Our business substantially focuses on contracts and transactions with residential customers. We must comply with numerous federal, state and local laws and regulations that govern matters relating to our interactions with residential consumers, including those pertaining to privacy and data security, consumer financial and credit transactions, home improvement contracts, warranties, door-to-door solicitation as well as specific regulations pertaining to sales and installations of solar installations.energy systems. These laws and regulations are dynamic and subject to potentially differing interpretations, and various federal, state and local legislative and regulatory bodies may initiate investigations, expand current laws or regulations, or enact new laws and regulations, regarding these matters. Changes in these laws or regulations or their interpretation could dramatically affect how we do business, acquire customers, and manage and use information we collect from and about current and prospective customers and the costs associated therewith. For example,

Several states in which we operate, including Arizona, recentlyCalifornia, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Utah, have enacted a new statutelaws and regulations that willprovide enhanced rights and require increased disclosures to customers. Most of these laws and acknowledgements in any agreement governingregulations are specific to the financing, sale or leasesolar industry and have required changes to our contracts and processes. Some of distributed energy systems,the laws have been enacted along with other changes to state law that further impact the residential solar industry. Other laws and regulations, such as the ones that relate to licensing of sales representatives, are applicable to a wide array of industries, and failure to comply with such regulations could result in citations, fines, license suspensions, revocations and other penalties. Further, to the extent that states undertake enforcement actions against us or other states enact further laws or regulations applicable to our solar energy systems. This new law, which took effect on December 31, 2015,industry, we may be required us to amend the standard legal-form lease we provide customersexpend additional resources in Arizonaorder to among other things, include an acknowledgement by the customer of any restrictions on the abilitymodify our business practices to transfer ownership of the solar energy system or underlying property and provide contact information for any party that has the right to review or approve such a transfer. meet these regulatory requirements.

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We strive to comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to our interactions with residential customers. It is possible, however, that these requirements may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. For example, membersin March 2018, the New Mexico Attorney General’s office filed an action against us and certain of the U.S. Houseour officers alleging violation of Representatives have sent letters to the Consumer Financial Protection Board,state consumer protection statutes. If federal, state or CFPB, and the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, requesting that these agencies investigate the sales practices of companies providing solar energy system leases to residential consumers. While we believe our standard sales practices and policies comply with all applicable laws and regulations, if the CFPB or FTC or other local regulators or agencies were to initiate an investigation against us or enact regulations relating to the marketing of solar leasesour products to residential consumers, responding to such investigation or complying with such regulations could divert management’s attention to our business, require us to modify our operations and incur significant additional expenses, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations or could reduce the number of our potential customers. Additionally, we

We cannot ensure that our sales force will comply with our standard practices and policies, as well as applicable laws and anyregulations, including sales licensure requirements. Any such non-compliance, which violates applicable laws or regulationsthe perception of noncompliance, potentially could also expose us to claims, proceedings, litigation, and investigations, and/or enforcement actions by private parties and regulatory authorities, as well as substantial fines and negative publicity, each of which may materially and adversely affect our business. We have incurred, and will continue to incur, significant expenses to comply with suchthe laws, regulations and regulations.industry standards that apply to us.

Any unauthorized access to, or disclosure or theft of personal information or other proprietary information we gather, store or use could harm our reputation and subject us to claims or litigation.

We receive, store and use personal information of our customers, including names, addresses, e-mail addresses, credit information and other housing and energy use information. We also store and use personal information of our employees. In addition, we currently utilizepreviously used certain shared information and technology systems with Vivint.Vivint, and Vivint continues to store some of our historical data. We take certain steps in an effort to protect the security, integrity and confidentiality of the personal information and other proprietary and confidential information we collect, store or transmit, but there is no guarantee that inadvertent or unauthorized use or disclosure will not occur or that third parties will not gain unauthorized access to this information despite our efforts. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not identified until they are launched against a target, we and our suppliers or vendors, including Vivint, may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative or mitigation measures. In addition, due to a potential time lapse between when a sales representative leaves us and when we are made aware of the separation, sales representatives may have continued access to our customers’ information for a period when they should not.

UnauthorizedWe are also subject to laws and regulations relating to the collection, use, retention, security and transfer of personal information of our customers. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between one company and its subsidiaries. Several jurisdictions have passed new laws in this area, and other jurisdictions are considering imposing additional restrictions. These laws continue to develop and may be inconsistent from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In addition to government regulation, privacy advocates and industry groups may propose new and different self-regulatory standards that either legally or contractually apply to us, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS, which may affect any processes associated with handling credit card numbers. In the event we fail to be compliant with the PCI DSS, fines and other penalties could result. Complying with emerging and changing requirements may cause us to incur costs or require us to change our business practices. Any actual or alleged failure by us, our affiliates or other parties with whom we do business to comply with privacy-related or data protection laws, regulations and industry standards could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, which could have a detrimental effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Any actual or perceived unauthorized use or disclosure of, or access to, any personal information or other proprietary or confidential information maintained by us or on our behalf, whether through breach of our systems, breach of the systems of our suppliers or vendors, including Vivint, by an unauthorized party, or through employee or contractor error, theft or misuse, or otherwise, could harm our business. If any such unauthorized use or disclosure of, or access to, such personal information werewas to occur or to be believed to have occurred, our operations could be seriously disrupted, and we could be subject to demands, claims and litigation by private parties, and investigations, related actions, and penalties by regulatory authorities. In addition, we could incur significant costs in notifying affected persons and entities and otherwise complying with the multitude of federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the unauthorized access to, or use or disclosure of, personal information. Finally, any perceived or actual unauthorized access to, or use or disclosure of, such information could harm our reputation, substantially impair our ability to attract and retain customers and have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We are involved, and may become involved in the future, in legal proceedings that, if adversely adjudicated or settled, could adversely affect our financial results.

We are, and may in the future become, party to litigation. For example, in September 2014, two of our former installation technicians, on behalf of themselvesexamples, see Note 17—Commitments and a purported class, filed a complaint for damages, injunctive relief and restitution in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of San Diego against us and unnamed John Doe defendants. The complaint alleges certain violations of the California Labor Code and the California Business and Professions Code based on, among other things, alleged improper classification of installer technicians, installer helpers, electrician technicians and electrician helpers, failure to pay minimum and overtime wages, failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements, and failure to provide wages on termination. In December 2014, the original plaintiffs and three additional plaintiffs filed an amended complaint with essentially the same allegations. On November 5, 2015, the parties agreed to preliminary terms of a settlement of all claims related to allegations in the complaint in return for our payment of $1.7 million to be paid out to the purported class members. The settlement agreement must be approved by the Court, after notice to the purported class. A $1.7 million reserve was recorded related to this proceeding in our consolidated financial statements.

On September 9, 2015, two of our customers, on behalf of themselves and a purported class, named us in a putative class action, Case No. BCV-15-100925(Cal. Super. Ct., Kern County), alleging violation of California Business and Professional Code Section 17200 and requesting relief pursuant to Section 1689 of the California Civil Code. The complaint seeks: (1) rescission of their power purchase agreements along with restitution to the plaintiffs individually and (2) declaratory and injunctive relief. On October 16, 2015, we moved to compel arbitration of the plaintiffs’ claims pursuant to the provisions set forth in the power purchase agreements, which the Court granted and dismissed the class claims without prejudice. Plaintiffs have appealed the Court’s order. We are not able to estimate the amount or range of potential loss, if any, at this time.

In addition, in November and December 2014, two putative class action lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against us, our directors, certain of our officers and the underwriters of our initial public offering of common stock alleging violation of securities laws and seeking unspecified damages. In January 2015, the Court ordered these cases to be consolidated into the earlier filed case, Hyatt v. Vivint Solar, Inc. et al., 14-cv-9283 (KBF). The plaintiffs filed a consolidated amended complaint in February 2015. On May 6, 2015, we filed a motion to dismiss the complaint and on December 10, 2015, the Court issued an Opinion and Order dismissing the complaint with prejudice. On January 5, 2016, the plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. We are unable to estimate a range of loss, if any, that could result were there to be an adverse final decision. If an unfavorable outcome were to occur in this case, it is possible that the impact could be material to our results of operations in the period(s) in which any such outcome becomes probable and estimable.

Contingencies. While we intend to defend against these actions vigorously, the ultimate outcomes of these cases are presently not determinable as they are in a preliminary phase.phases. In general, litigation claims can be expensive and time consuming to bring or defend against, may result in the diversion of management attention and resources from our business and business goals and could result in settlements or damages that could significantly affect financial results and the conduct of our business. It is not possible to predict the final resolution of the litigation to which we currently are or may in the future become party, and the impact of certain of these matters on our business, prospects, financial condition, liquidity, results of operations and cash flows.

Our reported financial results may be affected, and comparability of our financial results with other companies in our industry may be impacted, by changes in the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.

Generally accepted accounting principles in the United States are subject to change and interpretation by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and various bodies formed to promulgate and interpret appropriate accounting principles. A change in these principles or interpretations could have a significant effect on our reported financial results and on the financial results of other companies in our industry and may even affect the reporting of transactions completed before the announcement or effectiveness of a change. For example, in May 2014 the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), which affected certain elements of our accounting for revenue and costs incurred to acquire contracts as we adopted this standard on January 1, 2018. Other companies in our industry may be affected differently by the adoption of Topic 606 or other new accounting standards, including timing of the adoption of new accounting standards, adversely affecting the comparability of our financial statements. See Note 2—Summary of Significant Accounting Policies for information about Topic 606.

Risks Related to our Relationship with Vivint

Vivint provides us with certain information technology support for our business. If Vivint fails to perform its obligations to us or if we do not find appropriate replacement services, we may be unable to perform these services or implement substitute arrangements on a timely and cost-effective basis on terms favorable to us.

We have historically relied on the technical support of Vivint to run our business. Some of the Vivint resources we are using include information technology and infrastructure, employee benefits and certain other services. The implementation of new software support systems requires significant management time, support and cost, and there are inherent risks associated with implementing, developing, improving and expanding our core systems. We cannot be sure that these systems will be fully or effectively implemented on a timely basis, if at all. If we do not successfully implement these systems, our operations may be disrupted and our operating results could be harmed. In addition, the new systems may not operate as we expect them to, and we may be required to expend significant resources to correct problems or find alternative sources for performing these functions.

In order to successfully transition to our own systems and operate as a stand-alone business, we entered into various agreements with Vivint in connection with our public offering. These include a master framework agreement providing the overall terms of the relationship and a transition services agreement detailing various information technology services that Vivint will provide. Vivint will provide each service until we agree that support from Vivint is no longer required for that service. The information technology services provided under the transition services agreement may not be sufficient to meet our needs and we may not be able to replace these services at favorable costs and on favorable terms, if at all. Any failure or significant downtime in our own financial or administrative systems or in Vivint’s financial or administrative systems during the transition period and any difficulty in separating our information technology services from Vivint’s information technology services and integrating newly developed or acquired information technology services into our business could result in unexpected costs, impact our results or prevent us from paying our suppliers and performing other technical, administrative and information technology services on a timely basis and could materially harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Our inability to resolve any disputes that arise between us and Vivint with respect to our past and ongoing relationships may adversely affect our financial results, and such disputes may also result in claims for indemnification.

Disputes may arise between Vivint and us in a number of areas relating to our past and ongoing relationships, including the following:

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We have entered into certain agreements with Vivint. In August 2017, we entered into a sales dealer agreement with Vivint. Under this agreement, each party will act as a dealer for the other party to market, promote and sell each other’s products. The agreement has a two-year term, which will be automatically renewed for successive one-year terms unless written notice of termination is provided by one of the parties to the other no less than 90 days prior to the end of the then current term. The products, territories and consideration that is payable by each party to the other is determined in accordance with the agreement. There can be no assurances regarding the number of sales and installations of our products that Vivint will be able to generate, or the number of leads that we will be able to generate. In addition, as we work to expand our customer opportunities and product offerings through our relationship with Vivint, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected by factors that affect Vivint’s business and our relationship. Pursuant to the terms of thea Non-Competition Agreement we have entered into with Vivint, as amended, we and Vivint each define our areas of business and our competitors, and agreehave agreed not to directly or indirectly engage in the other’s business for three years. This agreement may limit our ability to pursue attractive opportunities that we may have otherwise pursued.

Additionally, this agreement prohibits, for a period of five years, either Vivint or us from solicitingsolicit for employment any member of the other’s executive or senior management team, or any of the other’s employees who primarily manage sales, installation or services of the other’s products and services.services until the termination of the sales dealer agreement. The commitment not to solicit each other’s employees lasts for 180 days after such employee finishes employment with us or Vivint. Historically, we havehad recruited a majoritysignificant number of our sales personnel from Vivint. This agreement may require us to obtain personnel from other sources, and any inability to do so may limit our ability to continue scaling our business if we are unable to do so.

Pursuant Notwithstanding the above, a small number of sales representatives work for both Vivint and us. To the extent there is any confusion concerning the relationship between us and Vivint with respect to the termsproducts and services we offer and the products and services of Vivint, such sales representatives could expose us to increased claims, proceedings, litigation and investigations by consumers and regulatory authorities. In addition, having sales representatives who work for both Vivint and us could distract such sales representatives, impact the Marketingeffectiveness of our sales force, and Customer Relations Agreement we have entered into with Vivint, we and Vivint are required to compensate one another forpotentially increase the turnover of our existing sales leads that result in sales. Vivintrepresentatives who may direct sales leads to other solar energy companies in markets in which we have not entered. However, once we enter a market, Vivint must exclusively direct to us all leads for customers and potential customers with an interest in solar energy. Vivint’s ability to sell leads to other solar energy providers in markets where we are not currently operating may adversely affect our ability to scale rapidly if we subsequently enter into such market as many of Vivint’s customers with solar energy inclinations may have already been referred to another companyfeel displaced by the time we enter into such market.addition of Vivint sales representatives to our sales force.

We may not be able to resolve any potential conflicts relating to these agreements or otherwise, and even if we do, the resolution may be less favorable than if we were dealing with an unaffiliated party. In addition, we have indemnification obligations under some of the intercompany services agreements we have entered into with Vivint, and disputes between us and Vivint may result in claims for indemnification. However, we do not currently expect that these indemnification obligations will materially affect our potential liability compared to what it would be if we did not enter into these agreements with Vivint.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

The price of our common stock may be volatile, and the value of your investment could decline.

The trading price of our common stock may be highly volatile. For example, fromFrom our initial public offering on October 1, 2014 to March 11, 2016,December 31, 2018, the closing price of our common stock has ranged from a high of $16.01 to a low of $4.09.$2.22. Our stock price could continue to be subject to wide fluctuations in response to various factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include:

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Further, the stock markets have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have affected and continue to affect the market prices of equity securities of many companies. These fluctuations often have been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of those companies. In addition, the stock prices of many renewable energy companies have experienced wide fluctuations that have often been unrelated to the operating performance of those companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations, as well as general economic, political and market conditions such as recessions, interest rate changes or international currency fluctuations, may cause the market price of our common stock to decline. If the market price of our common stock decreases, investors may not realize any return on investment and may lose some or all of their investments.

In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We are currently subject to two putative class action lawsuits, subsequently consolidated into an amended complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging certain misrepresentations by us in connection with our initial public offering. We maycould become the target of additional securities litigation in the future, which could result in substantial costs and divert our management’s attention from other business concerns, which could seriously harm our business.

As an emerging growth company and smaller reporting company within the meaning of the Securities Act, we will utilize certain modified disclosure requirements, and we cannot be certain if these reduced requirements will make our common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, and, for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to “emergingemerging growth companies”companies including, but not limited to, not being required to have our independent registered public accounting firm audit our internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We have utilized, and we plan in future filings with the SEC to continue to utilize, the modified disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies. As a result, our stockholders may not have access to certain information they may deem important.

In addition, Section 107 of the JOBS Act also provides thatWe could remain an emerging growth company can utilize the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. Thus, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have irrevocably elected not to avail ourselves of this exemption from new or revised accounting standards and, therefore, we will be subject to the same new or revised accounting standards as other public companies that are not “emerging growth companies.”

We could remain an ‘‘emerging growth company’’ for up to five years, or until the earliest of (1) December 31, 2019, (2) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenue exceeds $1$1.1 billion, (2)(3) the date that we become a ‘‘large accelerated filer’’filer as defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act, which would occur if we become a seasoned issuer and the market value of our common stock that is held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter or (3)and (4) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt securities during the preceding three-year period.

Even after we no longer qualify as an emerging growth company, we may still qualify as a smaller reporting company, which would allow us to take advantage of many of the same exemptions from disclosure requirements. Similar to emerging growth companies, smaller reporting companies have reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in periodic reports and proxy statements and have certain other reduced disclosure obligations in their SEC filings.

We cannot predict if investors will find our common stock less attractive because we may rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our common stock and our stock price may be more volatile.

Our stock price could decline due to the large number of outstanding shares of our common stock eligible for future sale.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our common stock to decline. These sales could also make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities in the future at a time and price that we deem appropriate.

As of December 31, 2015,2018, we had 106.6120.1 million outstanding shares of common stock. These shares may be sold in the public market in the United States, subject to prior registration in the United States, if required, or reliance upon an exemption from U.S. registration, including, in the case of shares held by affiliates or control persons, compliance with the volume restrictions of Rule 144.

In addition, 0.6we have granted and expect to continue to grant equity awards to our directors and employees as additional compensation in an effort to align their interests with those of our stockholders. Approximately 2.7 million shares of our common stock are reserved for future issuance under our Long-Term Incentive Plan, were issued, vested and became immediately tradable without restriction on April 15, 2015. Approximately 2.7 million additionalthese shares of our common stock reserved for future issuance under our Long-Term Incentive Plan will issue, vest and be immediately tradable without restriction on the date that The Blackstone Group L.P., our sponsor,Sponsor and its affiliates achieve specified returns on their invested capital. On the date that is 18 months after the closing of our initial public offering, approximately 0.7 million shares reserved

Further, equity awards for future issuance under our Long-Term Incentive Plan will issue, vest and be immediately tradable without restriction. For more information regarding the shares reserved under our Long Term Incentive Plan see the section of the Prospectus captioned “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.”

Further, options to purchase 9.39.6 million shares of common stock remained outstanding as of December 31, 2015,2018, with 4.21.6 million of those shares being vested and exercisable as of December 31, 2015. Of2018. Additionally, “sell-to-cover” transactions are utilized in connection with the 5.1 million sharesvesting and settlement of equity awards that are not yet vested, 1.8 milliongranted to our employees so that shares are subject to ratable time-based vesting over a five year period and 0.1 million shares are subject to time-based vesting over a four year period with 25% vesting after 1 year and 6.25% vesting quarterly thereafter. All shares subject to time-based vesting will become immediately tradable once vested. The remaining 3.2 million shares are subject to vesting upon certain performance conditions and will vest and become immediately tradable when 313 Acquisition LLC receives cash proceeds with respect to its holdings of our common stock are sold on behalf of our employees in an amount that equals $500 million more than its cumulative investmentsufficient to cover the tax withholding obligations associated with these awards. As a result of these transactions, a significant number of shares of our stock may be sold over a limited time period in our common stock (which amount shall be equal to $75 million plus any amounts invested after November 16, 2012). Asconnection with significant vesting events. For example, during the month of December 31, 2015, 0.9May 2018, approximately 2.3 million restricted stock units remained outstanding, mostvested and settled, which increased the volume of which are time-based and vest over four years with 25% vesting after 1 year and 6.25% vesting quarterly thereafter.our shares that would otherwise have been sold during that time.

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Stockholders owning an aggregate of 84.776.4 million shares of our common stock are entitled, under contracts providing for registration rights, to require us to register shares of our common stock owned by them for public sale in the United States, subject to the restrictions of Rule 144. OnIn October 1, 2014, we filed a registration statement on Form S-8 to register 22.9 million shares previously issued or reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans and agreements. Upon effectiveness of thisagreements, and we registered an additional 12.9 million shares in March 2017. Under these registration statement,statements, subject to the satisfaction of applicable exercisevesting periods, the shares of common stock issued upon exercise of outstanding options and vested restricted stock units will be available for immediate resale in the United States in the open market. Sales of our common stock as restrictions end or pursuant to registration rights may make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate. These sales also could cause our stock price to fall and make it more difficult for youinvestors to sell shares of our common stock.

Our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates control us, and their interests may conflict with ours or yoursinvestors’ in the future.

As of December 31, 2015,2018, 313 Acquisition LLC, which is controlled by our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates, beneficially owned approximately 77%62% of our common stock. Moreover, under our organizational documents and the stockholders agreement with 313 Acquisition LLC, for so long as our existing owners and their affiliates retain significant ownership of us, we will agree to nominate to our board individuals designated by our sponsor,Sponsor, whom we refer to as the sponsorSponsor directors. In addition, for so long as 313 Acquisition LLC continues to own shares representing a majority of the total voting power, we will agree to nominate to our board individuals appointed by Summit Partners and Todd Pedersen. Even when our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates and certain of its co-investors cease to own shares of our stock representing a majority of the total voting power, for so long as our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates continue to own a significant percentage of our stock our sponsorSponsor will still be able to significantly influence the composition of our board of directors and the approval of actions requiring stockholder approval. In addition, under the stockholders agreement, affiliates of our sponsorSponsor will have consent rights with respect to certain actions involving our company, provided a certain aggregate ownership threshold is maintained collectively by our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates, together with Summit Partners, Todd Pedersen and Alex Dunn and their respective affiliates. Accordingly, for such period of time, our sponsorSponsor and certain of its co-investors will have significant influence with respect to our management, business plans and policies, including the appointment and removal of our officers. In particular, for so long as our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates continue to own a significant percentage of our stock, our sponsorSponsor will be able to cause or prevent a change of control of our company or a change in the composition of our board of directors and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of our company. The concentration of ownership could deprive youinvestors of an opportunity to receive a premium for your shares of common stock as part of a sale of our company and ultimately might affect the market price of our common stock.

Our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates engage in a broad spectrum of activities, including investments in the energy sector. In the ordinary course of their business activities, our sponsorSponsor and its affiliates may from time to time acquire and hold interests in businesses that compete directly or indirectly with us. For example, affiliates of our sponsorSponsor regularly invest in utility companies that compete withand solar energy and renewable energy companies such as ours. In addition, affiliates of our sponsor own interests in one of the largest solar power developers in India andthat may in the future make other investments in solar power, including in the United States.compete with us. Our certificate of incorporation provides that none of our sponsor,Sponsor, any of its affiliates or any director who is not employed by us (including any non-employee director who serves as one of our officers in both his or her director and officer capacities) or his or her affiliates will have any duty to refrain from engaging, directly or indirectly, in the same business activities or similar business activities or lines of business in which we operate. Our sponsorSponsor also may pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business, and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us. In addition, our sponsorSponsor may have an interest in pursuing acquisitions, divestitures and other transactions that, in its judgment, could enhance its investment, even though such transactions might involve risks to you.investors.

We have elected to take advantage of the “controlled company” exemption to the corporate governance rules for NYSE-listedNew York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, listed companies, which could make our common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price.

Because we qualify as a “controlled company” under the corporate governance rules for NYSE-listedNYSE listed companies, we are not required to have a majority of our board of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function. In light of our status as a controlled company, in the future we could elect not to have a majority of our board of directors be independent or not to have a compensation committee or nominating and governance committee. Accordingly, should the interests of 313 Acquisition LLC or our sponsorSponsor differ from those of other stockholders, the other stockholders may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance rules for NYSE-listedNYSE listed companies. Our status as a controlled company could make our common stock less attractive to some investors or otherwise harm our stock price.

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Provisions in our certificate of incorporation, bylaws, stockholders agreement and under Delaware law might discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our common stock.

Our certificate of incorporation, bylaws and stockholders agreement contain provisions that could depress the trading price of our common stock by discouraging, delaying or preventing a change of control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may believe advantageous. These provisions include:

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business or our market, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, our market or our competitors. If any of the analysts who do now, or may in the future, cover us change their recommendation regarding our stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, our stock price would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

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Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

None.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

None.

Item 2. Properties.

Our corporate headquarters and executive offices are currently located in Lehi, Utah, where we occupy approximately 37,000 square feet of office space. We lease approximately 134,000 square feet of office space with TCO-Canyon Park, LLC in Orem, Utah. We have entered into a lease with T-Stat One, LLC for approximately 150,000 square feet of office space under a lease that will replaceexpires in 2031. We previously had a lease for a second office building to be constructed adjacent to our current corporate headquarters and executive offices oncethat was terminated in February 2019. Concurrent with the termination, we entered into a new lease for approximately 32,000 square feet of office space in the second office building, is completed, which is expected to becommence in the second quarter of 2016.2020. We also entered into a lease for the construction of a second office buildingbelieve that our currently leased space is sufficient to meet our current needs and a studio building on the corporate headquarters campus that will increase the leased premises by approximately 160,000 square feet. Construction on the studio building is on hold and the second office building is expected to be available in 2018.our anticipated growth.

Our other locations include leased warehouses and sales offices that range from approximately 1,000 to 36,000 square feet for terms ranging from one to seven years in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Utah.

We lease all of our facilities andthe states in which we do not own any real property. We believe with the addition of our corporate headquarter space to be completed in 2016 that our Utah offices are sufficient to meet our current needs and our anticipated growth.operate.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

In December 2013, oneFor a list of our former sales representatives, on behalf of himselfcurrent legal proceedings, see Note 17—Commitments and a purported class, filed a complaint for unspecified damages, injunctive relief and restitution in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of San Diego against Vivint Solar Developer, LLC, one of our subsidiaries, and unnamed John Doe defendants alleging violations of the California Labor Code and the California Business and Professions Code and seeking penalties of an unspecified amount, interest on all economic damages and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. In January 2014, we filed an answer denying the allegations in the complaint and asserting various affirmative defenses. In late 2014, the parties agreed to preliminary terms of settlement, which were subsequently revised in mid-2015. The settlement agreement provided for a settlement payment from us in the amount of $0.4 million. On October 30, 2015, the Court entered a final order approving the settlement agreement and the settlement payment was distributed in accordance with the settlement agreement.

In September 2014, two of our former installation technicians, on behalf of themselves and a purported class, filed a complaint for damages, injunctive relief and restitution in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of San Diego against us and unnamed John Doe defendants. The complaint alleges certain violations of the California Labor Code and the California Business and Professions Code based on, among other things, alleged improper classification of installer technicians, installer helpers, electrician technicians and electrician helpers, failure to pay minimum and overtime wages, failure to provide accurate itemized wage statements, and failure to provide wages on termination. In December 2014, the original plaintiffs and three additional plaintiffs filed an amended complaint with essentially the same allegations. On November 5, 2015, the parties agreed to preliminary terms of a settlement of all claims related to allegations in the complaint in return for our payment of $1.7 million to be paid out to the purported class members. The settlement agreement must be approved by the Court, after notice to the purported class. A $1.7 million reserve was recorded related to this proceeding in our consolidated financial statements.

In November and December 2014, two putative class action lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against us, our directors, certain of our officers and the underwriters of our initial public offering of common stock alleging violation of securities laws and seeking unspecified damages. In January 2015, the Court ordered these cases to be consolidated into the earlier filed case, Hyatt v. Vivint Solar, Inc. et al., 14-cv-9283 (KBF). The plaintiffs filed a consolidated amended complaint in February 2015. On May 6, 2015, we filed a motion to dismiss the complaint and on December 10, 2015, the Court issued an Opinion and Order dismissing the complaint with prejudice. On January 5, 2016, the plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. We are unable to estimate a range of loss, if any, that could result were there to be an adverse final decision. If an unfavorable outcome were to occur in this case, it is possible that the impact could be material to our results of operations in the period(s) in which any such outcome becomes probable and estimable.

On July 31, 2015, a putative class action lawsuit was filed in the Court of Chancery State of Delaware against our directors, SunEdison Inc., or SunEdison, and TerraForm Power, or TerraForm, alleging that the proposed acquisition by SunEdison is unfair to our stockholders. On August 7, 2015, a second putative class action lawsuit was filed in the same court alleging similar claims, and including 313, Acquisition, LLC as a named defendant. Both complaints seek injunctive relief and unspecified damages. On or about September 10, 2015, two purported class action lawsuits were also filed in Utah's Fourth District State Court, or the Utah Actions, alleging similar claims to the complaints previously filed in the Delaware Chancery Court. On September 22, 2015, we, through counsel notified plaintiff's counsel in the Utah Actions that pursuant to our Articles of Incorporation, any such derivative action was subject to exclusive jurisdiction in the Delaware Chancery Court, and accordingly, the Utah Actions should be dismissed. After a December 2015 amendment to the proposed acquisition, a new complaint was filed in the Delaware Chancery Court on January 11, 2016. The new complaint alleges breach of fiduciary duty against our directors, certain officers, and SunEdison, and seeks damages on behalf of a putative class. In view of our indemnification obligation to our directors, we are unable to estimate a range of loss, if any, that could result were there to be an adverse final decision. If an unfavorable outcome were to occur in thesecases, it is possible that the impact could be material to our results of operations in the period(s) in which any such outcome becomes probable and estimable.

On September 9, 2015, two of our customers, on behalf of themselves and a purported class, named us in a putative class action, Case No. BCV-15-100925(Cal. Super. Ct., Kern County), alleging violation of California Business and Professional Code Section 17200 and requesting relief pursuant to Section 1689 of the California Civil Code. The complaint seeks: (1) rescission of their power purchase agreements along with restitution to the plaintiffs individually and (2) declaratory and injunctive relief. On October 16, 2015, we moved to compel arbitration of the plaintiffs’ claims pursuant to the provisions set forth in the power purchase agreements, which the Court granted and dismissed the class claims without prejudice. Plaintiffs have appealed the Court’s order. We are not able to estimate the amount or range of potential loss, if any, at this time.

On March 8, 2016, we filed suit in the Court of Chancery State of Delaware against SunEdison and SEV Merger Sub Inc. alleging that SunEdison willfully breached its obligations under the Merger Agreement pursuant to which we were to be acquired and breached its implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. We are seeking declaratory judgment, award damages, costs and reasonable attorney’s fees and such further relief that the court finds equitable, appropriate and just. While we believe that SunEdison willfully breached its obligations under the Merger Agreement and that our claims have merit and are likely to succeed, the outcomes of lawsuits are inherently unpredictable.Contingencies.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Market Information

Our common stock has been traded on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, since October 1, 2014 under the symbol “VSLR.” Prior to October 1, 2014, there was no established public trading market for our common stock. The following table sets forth the high and low sales price for our common stock as reported by the New York Stock Exchange for the period indicated.

Holders of Record

As of March 2, 2016,1, 2019, we had four273 stockholders of record of our common stock. WeThe actual number of stockholders is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares are held in street name by brokers and other nominees. This number of holders of record also have approximately 11,500 beneficial holdersdoes not include stockholders whose stock isshares may be held in nominee or “street name” accounts through brokers.

Stock Performance Graph

This following graph is not “soliciting material,” is not deemed “filed” with the SEC and is not to be incorporatedtrust by reference into any filing of Vivint Solar, Inc. under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or the Exchange Act, whether made before or after the date hereof and irrespective of any general incorporation language in any such filing. other entities.

The following graph compares for the period from October 1, 2014 through December 31, 2015, the total cumulative stockholder return on our common stock with the total cumulative return of the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index, the MAC Global Solar Energy Index and a group of publicly traded peer companies. The graph assumes a $100 investment at the beginning of the period in our common stock, the stocks represented in the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index, the MAC Global Solar Energy Index and a group of publicly traded peer companies, and reinvestment of any dividends. Historical stock price performance should not be relied upon as an indication of future stock price performance:

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.None.

Issuer Purchase of Equity Securities

None.

Dividend Policy

We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to fund our growth, and we do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Additionally, the terms of one or more of our current debt instruments restrict our ability to pay cash dividends on our common stock. Any future determination to declare cash dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors, subject to applicable laws and provisions of our debt instruments and organizational documents, after taking into account our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, general business conditions and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data.

The following table sets forth selected historical consolidated financial and other data for the periods ended and at the dates indicated below. On November 16, 2012, we were acquired by The Blackstone Group, L.P., our sponsor. We refer to the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 and the period from November 17, 2012 through December 31, 2012 as the Successor Periods or Successor, and the period from January 1, 2012 through November 16, 2012 as the Predecessor Period or Predecessor. Our selected historical consolidated statement of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 presented in this table and the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 have been derived from our historical audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative ofrequired to provide the results that may be expected in the future. The following selected financial data should be read in conjunction with the sections ofinformation required by this document captioned “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this report.Item 6 as we are a smaller reporting company.

⁽¹⁾See Note 17—Basic and Diluted Net Income (Loss) Per Share to our consolidated financial statements for an explanation of the method used to calculate basic and diluted net income available (loss attributable) per share to common stockholders and the weighted-average number of shares used in the computation of the per share amounts.

ItemItem 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

Overview

You should read the following discussion together with Item 6 “Selected Financial Data” and our consolidated financial statements and the related Notesnotes included in Item 8 of this report. This discussion contains forward-looking statements about our business and operations. Our actual results may differ materially from those we currently anticipate as a result of the many factors, including those we describe under Item 1A “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report. See “Forward-Looking Statements.”

Business Overview

We primarily offer distributed solar energy — electricity generated by a solar energy system installed at or near customers’ locations — to residential customers based on long-term contracts at prices below their current utility rates. Our customer focus,primarily through a customer-focused and neighborhood-driven direct-to-home sales model, brand and operational efficiency have driven our rapid growth in solar energy installations.model. We believe our continued growth iswe are disrupting the traditional electricity market by satisfying customers’ demand for increased energy independence and less expensive, more socially responsible electricity generation.

We As a result, we primarily compete with traditional utilities in the markets we serve, and our strategy is to price the energy we sell below prevailing retail electricity rates. The price our customers pay to buy energy from us varies depending on the electricity that ourstate where the customer is located, the impact of the local traditional utility, customer price sensitivity, the availability of incentives and rebates, the need to offer a compelling financial benefit and the price other solar energy systems produce through long-termcompanies charge in the region. We also compete with distributed solar energy system providers for solar energy system sales on the basis of price, service and availability of financing options.

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Our primary product offerings include the following:

Of our 196.0 megawatts installed in 2018, approximately 79% were installed under PPAs, 6% were installed under Solar Leases and 15% were installed under System Sales.

From time to time, we have adjusted our installation policies and pricing. We have become more selective in our installation policies to increase incremental value by limiting the region.installation of smaller system sizes and limiting installations on certain roof types. We have also changed our pricing in certain markets to increase returns on investment or to place ourselves in a more competitive position. We continue to evaluate and make adjustments to our installation policies and pricing as our processes become more efficient and power rates increase. We also continue to evaluate pricing to optimize our use of capital based on market conditions and utility rates.

Our ability to offer long-term customer contracts depends in part on our ability to finance the installation of the solar energy systems by co-investing or entering into lease arrangements with fund investors who value the resulting customer receivables and investment tax credits,ITCs, accelerated tax depreciation and other incentives related to the solar energy systems primarily through structured investments known as “tax equity.” Tax equity investments are generally structured as non-recourse project financings.financings known as investment funds. In the context of the distributed solar energy market, tax equity investors make an upfront advance payment to a sponsor through an investment fund in exchange for a share of the tax attributes and cash flows emanating from an underlying portfolio of solar energy systems. In these tax equity investments,investment funds, the U.S. federal tax attributes offset taxes that otherwise would have been payable on the investors’ other operations.

As of February 29, 2016, we had raised 16 residential investment funds to which investors such as banks and other large financial investors have committed to invest approximately $1.1 billion, which will enable us to install solar energy systems of total fair market value approximating $2.6 billion. As of February 29, 2016, we had tax equity commitments to fund approximately 55 megawatts of future deployments, which we estimate to be sufficient to fund solar energy systems with a total fair market value of approximately $241 million. As of February 29, 2016, we had entered into one commercial and industrial, or C&I, investment fund with a total committed capital amount of $150.0 million. The C&I investment fund was not operational, i.e., no projects had been accepted into the fund as of February 29, 2016. The terms and conditions of each investment fund vary significantly by investor and by fund. We continue to negotiate with financial investors to create additional investment funds.

OurIn general, our investment funds have adopted the partnership or inverted lease or lease pass-through structures.Under partnership structures, we and our fund investors contribute cash into a partnership company. The partnership uses this cash to acquire solar energy systems developed by us and sells energy from such systems to customers or directly leases the solar energy systems to customers. Under our existing inverted lease structures, we and the fund investor set up a multi-tiered investment vehicle, comprised of two partnership entities, that facilitates the pass through of the tax benefits to the fund investors. In this structure, we contribute solar energy systems to a lessor partnership entity in exchange for interests in the lessor partnership and the fund investors contribute cash to a lessee partnership in exchange for interests in the lessee partnership which in turn makes an investment in the lessor partnership entity in exchange for interests in the lessor partnership. The lessor partnership distributes the cash contributions received from the lessee partnership to our wholly owned subsidiary that contributed the projects to the lessor partnership. The lessor partnership leases the contributed solar energy systems to the lessee partnership under a master lease, and the lessee partnership pays the lessor partnership rent for those systems.

In 2015, we entered into a lease pass-through structure in which we set up a lessor entity and the fund investor set up a lessee entity. Under this structure, we lease solar energy systems to the fund investor under a master lease agreement, and the investor in turn subleases the solar energy systems to customers. We receive all of the value attributable to the accelerated tax depreciation and the value attributable to the other incentives. We assign to the fund investor the value attributable to the ITCs and, for the duration of the master lease term, the long-term recurring customer payments. The investor makes a significant upfront cash payments that we classify and allocate between the right to the ITCs and the future customer lease payments and other benefits assigned to the investor, which are recorded as a lease pass-through financing obligation. After the master lease term expires, we receive the customer payments. We record the amounts allocated to the ITCs as deferred revenue on our consolidated balance sheets as the associated solar energy systems are placed in service. We then recognize the deferred revenue in our consolidated statements of operations as revenue from operating leases and incentives, by reducing the deferred revenue balance at each reporting date as the five-year recapture period expires. We record the balance of the amounts received from fund investors as a financing obligation on our consolidated balance sheets and subsequently reduce the obligation by the amounts received by the fund investors from customer payments and the associated incentive rebates. We in turn recognize the incentive rebates and customer payments as revenue over the customer lease term and depreciate the associated solar energy systems over the estimated life of these systems.

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We have determined that we are the primary beneficiary in these partnership and inverted lease structures for accounting purposes. Accordingly, we consolidate the assets and liabilities and operating results of these partnerships in our consolidated financial statements. We recognize the fund investors’ share of the net assets of the investment funds as non-controlling interests and redeemable non-controlling interests in our consolidated balance sheets. These income or loss allocations, reflected on our consolidated statement of operations, may create significant volatility in our reported results of operations, including potentially changing net (loss attributable) income available (loss attributable) to common stockholders from incomeloss to loss,income, or vice versa, from quarter to quarter.

Recent Developments

SunEdison AcquisitionSmaller Reporting Company Status

In July 2015,June 2018, the SEC issued release number 33-10513, which changed the definition of a smaller reporting company to expand the number of registrants that qualify to provide scaled disclosures. This change became effective September 10, 2018 and registrants were permitted to transition to the scaled disclosures in their next periodic report due after the effective date. Under the new rule, we entered intoqualify as a smaller reporting company, and we will continue to take advantage of certain scaled disclosures in this annual report for the Merger Agreement, which agreement was amended inyear ended December 2015, pursuant to which we were to have been acquired by SunEdison.31, 2018.

We delivered notice to SunEdison onLease Amendments

In February 26, 2016, and again on March 1, 2016, that, pursuant to Section 1.02 of the Merger Agreement, SunEdison was required to cause the closing of the acquisition to occur on February 26, 2016, and remained obligated to cause the closing to occur, given that all conditions to SunEdison’s obligations to close the acquisition in Section 6.01 and 6.03 of the Merger Agreement were satisfied on February 24, 2016 when (1) our stockholders adopted the Merger Agreement, and (2) the marketing period contemplated by the agreement related to SunEdison’s financing of the acquisition (which commenced when we delivered all required information to SunEdison on February 11, 2016) terminated on February 21, 2016. SunEdison’s failure to cause the closing within three business days of the delivery of the notices specified in the preceding sentence triggered our right to terminate the Merger Agreement pursuant to Section 7.01(i) thereof.

Moreover, as of SunEdison’s failure to cause the closing to occur on February 26, 2016, SunEdison was in breach of its covenants under Section 1.02 and 4.05(a) of the Merger Agreement, and such breach resulted in the failure of the conditions set forth in Section 6.02 of the Merger Agreement to be satisfied on such date. SunEdison’s representatives subsequently have informed us that SunEdison is unable to cause the closing to occur in the foreseeable future. Since such breach is therefore incurable prior to March 18, 2016, the date on which the Merger Agreement would otherwise terminate, we have the right to terminate the Merger Agreement pursuant to Section 7.01(e) thereof.

As a result of the foregoing and in accordance with and pursuant to our rights under Section 7.01(i) and 7.01(e) of the Merger Agreement,2019, we terminated the Merger Agreement. 

On March 8, 2016, we filed suit inlease for a second office building to be constructed adjacent to our corporate headquarters. The terminated lease included the Court of Chancery State of Delaware against SunEdison alleging that SunEdison willfully breached its obligations under the Merger Agreemententire building and, breached its implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. We are seeking declaratory judgment, award damages, costs and reasonable attorney’s fees and such further relief that the court finds equitable, appropriate and just.

During the nine months of the pendency of the potential acquisition of our company by SunEdison, our planning relatedprior to being part of a larger organization, which would require a different headcount and cost structure than if we were operating as a standalone entity. During the pendency of the potential acquisition, we were restricted in our abilitytermination, was expected to obtain financing. As a result, we deferred pursuit of various financing options, including acquiring additional investment funds and incurring additional debt. Our executive leadership team, togethercommence on January 1, 2020. Concurrent with our board of directors, is re-evaluating our operating plan in light of the termination of the Merger Agreement and our financing needs. As a result, as oflease for the date of this reportsecond building, we are uncertain as to what level of growth, resources and ultimately costs that may be incurred in future business operations.

Term Loan Facility

On March 14, 2016, Vivint Solar Financing Holdings, LLC, one of our subsidiaries, entered into a financing agreement pursuantnew lease for approximately 32,000 square feet of office space in the second office building. This lease is expected to which it may borrow up to an aggregate principal amount of $200.0 million of term loan borrowings from investment funds and accounts advised by Highbridge Principal Strategies, LLC. We refer to such financing agreement as the “term loan facility.” We will initially incur $75.0 million in borrowings,one-third at closingcommence on January 1, 2020, and the remainder within 30 daysinitial term is approximately 11.5 years, with two options to extend the lease for five years each. We expect to make total rent payments of approximately $11.2 million over the initial term. Additionally, we agreed to amend the lease for our current corporate headquarters to extend the lease for an additional three years to 2031 and expect to make total additional rent payments of approximately $14.6 million over the term of the closing date. We refer to such initial borrowings as “Tranche A” borrowings. The remaining $125.0 million aggregate principal amount in borrowings may be incurred in three installments of at least $25.0 million aggregate principal amount prior to the first anniversary of the closing date. We refer to such subsequent borrowings, if any, as “Tranche B” borrowings. If we do not incur any Tranche B borrowings, we must repay outstanding Tranche A borrowings in December 2016. If we incur any Tranche B borrowings, the maturity date for all borrowings will be extended to the fourth anniversary of the closing date. If we incur any Tranche B borrowings, we may not prepay any borrowings until the second anniversary of the closing date and any subsequent prepayments are subject to a fee equal to a 3.0% penalty. Borrowings under the term loan facility will be used for the construction and acquisition of solar energy systems.extension.

Interest on the Tranche A borrowings accrues at a floating rate of LIBOR plus 5.5%; provided that if any Tranche B borrowings are incurred, the interest rate increases to a floating rate of LIBOR plus 8.0% for the entire principal amount outstanding. The term loan facility includes customary events of default, conditions to borrowing and covenants, including covenants that restrict, subject to certain exceptions, the borrower’s, and the guarantors’ ability to incur indebtedness, incur liens, make investments, make fundamental changes to their business, dispose of assets, make certain types of restricted payments or enter into certain related party transactions. These restrictions do not impact our ability to enter into investment funds, including those that are similar to those entered into previously. Additionally, the parties to the term loan facility must maintain certain consolidated and project subsidiary loan-to-value ratios and a consolidated debt service coverage ratio, with such covenants to be tested as of the last day of each fiscal quarter and upon each incurrence of borrowings. Each of the parties to the term loan facility has pledged assets not otherwise pledged under another existing debt facility as collateral to secure their obligations under the term loan facility. Vivint Solar Financing Holdings Parent, LLC, another of our subsidiaries and the parent company of the borrower and certain other of our subsidiaries guarantee the borrower’s obligations under the financing agreement.

Key Operating Metrics

We regularly review a number of metrics, including the following key operating metrics, to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate financial projections and make strategic decisions. Some of our key operating metrics are estimates. These estimates are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each of these estimates, these estimates are based on a combination of assumptions that may not prove to be accurate over time, particularly given that a number of them involve estimates of cash flows up to 30 years in the future. Underperformance of the solar energy systems, payment defaults by our customers, cancellation of signed contracts, competition from other distributed solar energy companies, development in the distributed solar energy market and the energy market more broadly, technical innovation or other factors described under the section of this report captioned “Risk Factors” could cause our actual results to differ materially from our calculations. Furthermore, while we believe we have calculated these key metrics in a manner consistent with those used by others in our industry, other companies may in fact calculate these metrics differently than we do now or in the future, which would reduce their usefulness as a comparative measure.

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