NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana-based solar installer PosiGen has announced 166 layoffs in St. Charles and Jefferson parishes and warned that another 92 Louisiana employees could be cut within two weeks if new funding or a buyer is not secured. The company is shutting down most of its operations after financial troubles tied to the rollback of federal solar tax credits.
Founded in 2011, PosiGen grew by marketing solar systems to low-income households, relying heavily on state and federal incentives. At its peak, the company installed nearly 30,000 systems in 15 states under a 20-year lease model requiring no upfront payments or credit checks. Backed by a $200 million investment from Brookfield Asset Management — bringing its total stake since 2023 to $600 million — PosiGen expanded rapidly but became vulnerable when it defaulted on a credit line in August after struggling to raise long-term capital.
The collapse follows the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which rolls back provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act by ending the 30% Residential Clean Energy Credit in 2025 and phasing out the Commercial Clean Energy Investment Credit by 2027. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had visited PosiGen’s St. Rose headquarters in 2023 to highlight those same credits as central to the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda.
Industry groups warn PosiGen’s downfall is not an isolated case. Renewable energy firms across the Gulf South and beyond — including electricians, manufacturers, engineers and installers — expanded to meet demand under the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax framework. With those incentives now being rolled back, many face the same “credit cliff” that undermined PosiGen, raising concerns about widespread job losses and stalled projects.
“This news is very bleak,” said Troy von Otnott, a local expert in solar energy. Von Otnott was among the early advocates for Louisiana’s renewable-energy incentives in 2007 and 2008, a period that set the stage for residential solar growth in New Orleans. He co-founded South Coast Solar in 2007, helping establish one of the city’s first large-scale residential solar companies during the post-Katrina rebuilding years. Today, von Otnott spends most of his time as CEO of HotRok Energy, where he is focused on advancing clean-energy solutions through geothermal technology. He also operates Massive Technologies, a consulting firm.
“The biggest problem with the Trump administration’s attempt to negatively impact the solar industry is that the EPA Solar for All Grant Competition was already approved and funded by the federal government,” said von Otnott, referring to the program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created by the Inflation Reduction Act. “Private businesses took those commitments to heart and increased staffing and spent money to prepare for the program. This type of behavior by the President of the United States freezes financial investment in renewable industries.”
Von Otnott said investors will pull out of these industries in the U.S. “The Trump administration has effectively created mayhem in this industry. Most solar developers I know have already cut jobs and have stopped work and their future looks very bleak.”
“These types of actions betray the American worker. At the end of the day, these are not just clean energy jobs. They are jobs,” said von Otnott. “And these jobs are filled by our fellow neighbors who are engineers, installers, designers and financiers and now they will have to find other opportunities outside renewable energy which may not be available in the impending economic downturn.”
For PosiGen, the broader policy reversal compounded challenges already building inside the company. Its rapid expansion strained operations, with working capital tied up in projects already under contract. The company missed an interest payment on its credit facility in early August and said it could not raise new investment under the changed tax landscape. With its business model so closely tied to federal incentives, the abrupt policy shift ultimately forced PosiGen to shutter most of its operations.
