Urban tech resists consolidation

An odd thing is happening in the residential solar market—even as the market grows rapidly, the biggest firms are failing to make money, and a vast network of local and regional installers continue to prosper. "It is not clear if it makes economic sense for the solar business to be dominated by national operators like Sunrun and Sunnova. Hundreds of small installers around the United States have already figured out how to make money from what they describe as the kind of home improvement business that local firms typically dominate," says the New York Times. One experts notes, "the solar business is more like the heating, ventilation and air-conditioner business, which is made up of local firms installing and servicing products made by national or global manufacturers." This suggests that even over the long haul, the business of deploying urban tech—including home sensing and automation systems, because it is so consumer focused—will continue to be a decentralized affair.