Retail Supplier "Bearish" On Solar

During an earnings call last week, Just Energy CFO Patrick McCullough said that the company has turned "bearish" on the solar segment.

Asked by an analyst about solar, McCullough said, "[W]e've turned bearish on the segment. We're looking at what's happening in the U.S. from a government and political perspective, and we're recognizing the tax reform that's being planned is going to be very negative for the residential rooftop solar space, in two ways that we can envision. The first way is, with the lower corporate income tax plan, it's obviously going to make the investment tax credit a great deal less valuable if it actually stays in effect through the Trump administration. And then secondly, we see a lot of protectionist talk around imports, and I think as we all know most of the hardware for U.S. solar right now is coming from outside of the United States. So, we see a lot of pressure on cost and frankly returns in that space."

"So, we're looking at solar as a product that's part of a portfolio that we bring to our customer base, but not a primary growth strategy for the short-term," McCullough said