SunCommon powers on as former parent iSun’s bankruptcy converts to Chapter 7
February 20, 2025 | By Timothy McQuiston | Vermont Business Magazine Update Feb. 24: This post was updated with an additional comment from SunCommon Director of Sales Mike McCarthy.
An iSun commercial solar installation in North Clarendon, VT. Courtesy photo
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court is in the process of converting the iSun Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing from last June into a Chapter 7 liquidation.
iSun was the parent company of the solar installation company SunCommon in Waterbury. Following the iSun bankruptcy filing in 2024, SunCommon was subsequently acquired by Siltstone Capital, a private equity firm from Texas and folded into a renewable energy company called Clean Royalties, which continues to operate SunCommon. It also has an office in upstate New York.
SunCommon’s Director of Sales Mike McCarthy said the Chapter 7 filing by its former owner does not include SunCommon. He said that SunCommon was mentioned in the recent Chapter 7 filing because it was one of the legacy DBAs under iSun.
“We are not going bankrupt,” McCarthy said.
Silstone is investing “millions of dollars” into SunCommon and, “SunCommon is going to be around for a very long time,” he said.
SunCommon employs about 60 in Vermont and another 15 in upstate New York.
The new Chapter 7 filing is the end of the process from the original Chapter 11 filing from iSun, McCarthy explained. “We are back on terms with our major vendors, and are proud to be buying from many of the local businesses who were hurt by the bankruptcy of our former owners,” McCarthy said.
Based in Williston, iSun filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy last June. The assets were acquired for $10 million by Silstone Capital, while keeping the residential brand SunCommon and rebranding the commercial iSun enterprise as Legacy Power.
Silstone subsidiary Clean Royalties, a developer and builder of solar energy and storage systems, acquired SunCommon and Liberty Electric (Salem, N.H.) last September.
Siltstone Capital acquired iSun following approval by the bankruptcy court on Aug. 23. In its last 2023 financial report, iSun stated that its estimated annual revenues were nearly $100 million.
SolarCommunities was the parent company of SunCommon before it was acquired by iSun in 2021 for $40 million.
McCarthy said it was the legacy iSun assets, not SunCommon, that are now being liquidated. “It's an entirely different company that bought SunCommon,” he said. “It is a really strong brand.”
“The current business is alive and well, employing dozens of Vermonters and doing great work installing solar, and energy storage across the state,” McCarthy said.
“SunCommon is rocking: installing battery storage through GMP's Energy Storage program, helping homeowners go solar, and doing incredible commercial projects like the recently installed Autumn Harp 727kW project in Essex and the 693kW Machia & Sons Dairy install which is underway in Sheldon, Vermont.”
This story was first published by Vermont Business Magazine on Feb. 18, 2025.