Solar Nerd articles about: Consumer Protection

There are thousands of rooftop solar installers across the United States, and most of them are honest companies that do good work. Unfortunately, like any industry, there’s always a few bad apples. There are great plumbers out there, but you could also end up with a company that tries to fix a leak with silly putty. This is why when you hire any type of contractor, whether it’s to install solar panels on your roof or fix a leaky toilet, it’s always a good idea to do a little research so that you can become a better informed consumer.

The residential solar industry in the US is dominated by a few very large companies, and one of the biggest is Momentum Solar. According to Solar Power World, Momentum installed almost 90 megawatts of solar panels last year. For perspective, the average home solar system is 6.4 kW in size. If Momentum installed only average sized systems, their installations in 2019 would be equivalent to 14,000 home systems. That’s a lot!

At one point, Sungevity was the 5th largest residential solar installer in the United States. In 2017 it died (Chapter 11 bankruptcy), sold its assets, was reborn as a new company called Solar Spectrum, merged with another California installer called Horizon Solar Power, and then it brought back the Sungevity name. Along the way, it used debt and private equity to pursue a strategy of high growth - presumably to keep up with other high growth rivals like Sunrun and Vivint.

If you’re a homeowner planning to go solar, the most important decision that you will make is choosing a solar installer for your project. Because of this, I give plenty of tips on how to pick a solar installer company and a 20 point checklist to use when comparing solar quotes. These are helpful tips to have when you’re looking at several quotes and aren’t sure how to choose between them.