Commercial & Industrial Solar (C&I)
Companies developing commercial rooftop and community solar projects.
Market snapshot
These figures describe Solar Energy Development & Generation (7.8.9), the segment that Commercial & Industrial Solar (C&I) sits within. They are not figures for Commercial & Industrial Solar (C&I) on its own.
- Market size
- ~$5.5B
- Growth
- ~25.1%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
- Companies
- ~531 firms
87.8% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 466 micro-businesses, below most mandates.
- 20–99
- 2538%
- 100–499
- 2031%
- 500+
- 2031%
- Net generation
- ~296 TWh (6.7% of U.S. generation)
- Operating capacity
- ~124 GW nameplate
- Trend
- +24.5% CAGR (2018–2025)
- Share of U.S. generation
- 1.5% (2018) → 6.7% (2025)
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Operational Data, 2025 (net generation, all sectors). U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-860M, December 2024 (operating generators). U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Operational Data, 2018–2025.
The steepest growth of any segment in this sector, roughly tripling over five years off a small base. Economics have inverted from subsidy-dependence to genuine cost leadership in most of the country, so the binding constraint is now interconnection queues and land, not the cost of a panel.
NAICS 221114. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.
Business model & economics
Revenue model
Development, PPAs, generation sales, and tax-credit monetization
Key economics
- Revenue per firm
- $10,385,520
- Revenue per employee
- $721,066
- Employees per firm
- 14.7
- Recurring revenue
- High
- EBITDA margin
- Strong
- Capex intensity
- High
long-term PPAs and generation
contracted, infrastructure-like economics
Characteristics
- Scale-driven: payroll is only 16% of revenue, so the cost base is assets, not headcount
- Thin strategic-buyer pool: only 20 firms exceed 500 employees, so exits skew sponsor-to-sponsor
- Cheapest new electricity in many markets.
- Largest source of new U.S. capacity additions.
- IRA credits, corporate PPAs, and data-center demand.
NAICS 221114. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.
M&A deal context
Who’s acquiring
- Solar developers & IPPs
- Infrastructure funds & asset owners
- Energy majors & corporate buyers
What’s driving deals
- IRA credits and corporate PPA demand.
- Developer and asset-portfolio consolidation.
- Data-center-driven electricity demand.
Find Commercial & Industrial Solar (C&I) acquisition targets
Search Acquisera’s index for companies classified under Commercial & Industrial Solar (C&I) (7.8.9.1) and build a targeted deal pipeline.
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