Everything you need to know about going solar

UPDATED January 2024

Friends often ask me about going solar, so I’ve consolidated some information here.

Some general information on going solar:

• Go with a smaller local installer, not a large national company, for better service.
• You can learn a lot of what you need to know in this Solar 101 (PDF) and this presentation (PPT). (Here are downloadable versions of the Solar 101 and the presentation.) Just don’t try contacting a MyDomino energy savings concierge, because MyDomino closed in June 2017.
• Get several quotes and compare. Slide 17 in above presentation shows an easy way to do this. You need to compare $$/watt, not total price.
• According to EnergySage, as of of January 2023, the average cost in California is $2.86/watt. A 5 kW solar installation in California rangesfrom $12,155 to $16,445, with the average gross price at $14,300. That’s before the 30% federal investment tax credit (ITC), which the Inflation Reduction Act has extended for another 10 years. Note: My experience with prices in the Bay Area is that they’re higher than the EnergySage average.
• Canary Media published this helpful article on questions you should ask before going solar and this article with some useful resources.
• Nonprofit Solar United Neighbors has a Solar Help Desk that can help you through the process of going solar.

Good installers I know in the San Francisco Bay Area — you can tell all these folks I sent you:

• SunWork: If your average electric bill (just the electric part, not gas) is $100 a month or less, I highly recommend SunWork, a local nonprofit. SunWork works with people who have low bills, regardless of income. Because they’re a nonprofit, they’ll give you a better price than anyone. And they’re good and reliable, have been around a while, and will even let you help with the installation if you want. Ask for Reuben, the founder.
• Luminalt: Woman-owned local SF company, really good, trustworthy people. Jeanine and Noel Cotter run it. They are both super awesome, and they run a great company.
• Cinnamon Solar: Barry Cinnamon is a real solar pro and industry veteran. They’re based down the peninsula. He’s gone in to San Francisco for two friends who needed maintenance on their old systems, something that wasn’t going to make him money — but he knows the value of good service.

Special note for Californians:

• Because of an unfortunate December 2022 decision by the California Public Utilities Commission, the credit you get for sending solar back to the grid (in a system known as net energy metering, or NEM) got much worse on 15 April 2023. You might hear the new policy referred to as NEM 3.0.

Specific to PG&E territory:

• To get your power bill history, sign in to your PG&E account, go to Usage, and click the Green Button, and export your data. That will download two spreadsheets with your usage and billing info: one for gas, and one for electric. Only the electric one is relevant, of course. You want to get your average over about a 12-month period.

Originally published at projectgreen-a2z.com on October 22, 2018.