Opinion: Let’s Pull Ourselves Up By Our Boot Straps, Accept Current Realities, Buck Up, and Stop Sending Me Non-booze Corporate Holiday Gifts
By: Doug Nicholson, CFO
Look, we all know 2025 was a bloodbath. Between the passing of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" gutting our tax credits and the new administration throwing tariffs, permitting hurdles, cancelled loan programs, and shitty guidance at us like the notion of clean, endless energy is a personal insult, the solar industry has taken a beating that would make a prizefighter wince. But whining about policy rollbacks and the sudden evaporation of Section 48E isn't going to get panels on roofs or steel in the ground. It is time for us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves, look at the new landscape with clear eyes, and realize that the only way I am going to get through these Q1 projections is if copious amounts darkly amber liquid arrive at my doorstep where I instead keep finding excessively packaged baskets of caramelized popcorn.
Stand up, lick your wounds, and get to work, folks. We need to pivot toward operational efficiency and stop relying on the easy money of the early 2020s. The "sorting process" is here, and only the leanest, most disciplined developers are going to survive this new era of tariff volatility and supply chain anarchy. We have to be smarter, faster, and more innovative to compete with fossil fuel subsidies, which requires a level of mental fortitude that I simply cannot maintain unless I am sedated by enough gin to kill a mid-sized pack animal, because if I have to look at one more spreadsheet showing a 40% drop in installations, I am going to start drinking the isopropyl alcohol out of the first aid kit.
This brings me to the holiday season. I appreciate the sentiment behind the branded swag, I really do. But let’s be honest with each other as professionals: You know me, and you know I do not need another recycled-plastic fleece vest with your firm’s logo on it, nor do I need a bamboo power bank that doesn’t work. We are facing an existential crisis that requires grit and determination, and frankly, sending me a box of fair-trade chocolates instead of a handle of Tito’s borders on a hate crime. If you want me to hang in there alongside you while we all try to navigate the new "foreign entity of concern" restrictions, you will stop mailing me shrink-wrapped sausages or branded calendars, and start mailing me cases - like, big ones - of anything that is at least 80 proof and doesn't ask me about my feelings.
Furthermore, we must re-evaluate our capital stacks with a renewed sense of discipline. The era of cheap debt is over, and we have to get creative with our financing structures to make the numbers pencil out in this high-interest environment. It is a challenge, certainly, but one that separates the serious players from the tourists. We must be laser-focused on our margins - a task that is physically impossible for me to accomplish unless I am receiving a steady intravenous drip of rye whiskey, because if you think I can look at a 9% interest rate on a construction loan without being blackout drunk, you are living in a fantasy world, and I demand you send me a case of reasonably-well-aged hard stuff immediately instead of this irritatingly cheerful desk succulent.
Slap your fucking logo on it if you have to…or find a brand with the same name as a project we worked on together; I don’t give a shit as long as it will obfuscate the reality of my company’s inevitable demise for at least the rest of the morning.
So let’s tighten our belts and face 2026 with the resilience that built this industry. Let’s retrofit those assets, optimize our storage integrations, and prove to the world that solar is here to stay, regardless of the political winds. But for the love of God, if I open one more holiday gift basket and find a mindfulness journal instead of a bottle of single-malt scotch, I am going to come find you where you work and jam this charcuterie set I got last week into your fucking throat.