Renova Energy working to rehire staff and find new partner after parent company defaults

Renova Energy is slowly starting to bring back some staff after it’s owner furloughed more than 300 employees when its parent company, Sunpower defaulted.  

We first broke this story less than two weeks ago when concerned community members reached out to our newsroom looking for answers.

Renova’s CEO, Vincent Battaglia says his team has responded to more than two thousand calls since he paused operations. 

“It’s only been nine days, but it feels like it's been a year," says Battaglia.

Some complaints from concerned community members have spilled into our inbox, including conversations about bounced checks.

I went to Renova’s Corporate Center to give Battaglia the opportunity to clear the air. 

We were told it had nothing to do with insufficient funds. Instead there was an issue with employees using electronic services to cash those checks. 

Battaglia also says he’s brought back about ten percent of the renova team, which include executives and upper level managers that are focusing on customer service. 

"We've been answering everyone individually, either by phone or by email, so that folks have things in writing," added Battaglia. "All we have to do is reschedule those folks in the middle of August, and they'll be pushed out for about three weeks."

The goal is for Renova to bring back staff in mid-August for the rescheduling and reinstallation of their systems.

We also reached out to another solar energy supplier in the desert to see if the industry was suffering as a whole. 

It turns out regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission have had a rippling effect statewide. 

"We've seen this change all over California," said Sunlogix Energy Co-Owner, Sandra Lamont. "These changes happened with net metering and it really affected a lot of companies."

I asked Sunlogix Energy owners if they could quantify the hit to their bottom line after the meter regulations took place.

Glenn splain, co-owner sunlogix 

"I would say probably about a 50 percent drop for all solar companies across the board," said Sunlogix Energy Co-owner, Glenn Splain. "Which is why we tried to minimize it. We saw this coming and we diversified our company into HVAC."

Although they’ve been able to adapt the changes, they’re just one of countless solar companies being affected.    

As for what’s next for Renova Energy, the company is working to finalize a new business partner.