Guides
Solar installer bundles and pricing tiers in 2027
Seventeen solar installer service packages, each listed with the approval it depends on, the crew it needs, and the reason it can stall your schedule.
What to take away
- Seventeen sellable scopes are listed below. Each one is tagged with the approval it needs and the crew skill it consumes, because those two things decide whether it is worth selling.
- A scope that adds a second inspection or a second utility interaction does not add a line to an invoice. It adds weeks to a job.
- The first four in the list are the core. Everything after them is a decision about whether you want that trade in your company.
- No amounts appear here. What each scope is worth depends on your labor cost, your territory, and your refusal rate.
How to read the list
Two tags follow each entry. Gate is the outside approval that can stop it. Crew is the competence it consumes, which matters because most small solar companies are short of one particular skill rather than short of people.
Show the numbers
| The core four | 1–4 |
|---|---|
| Second-approval scopes | 5–10 |
| Roof and structure | 11–14 |
| Service and aftercare | 15–17 |
The reasoning behind grouping any of these into a bundle sits in the services and packages guide for solar contractors, and the mechanics of drawing the boundary in a proposal are in how to package solar work for customers.
The core four
1. Paid site survey and feasibility report. Roof condition and remaining life, attic inspection, shade across the year, service panel capacity, and a layout. Gate: none. Crew: your most experienced surveyor.
2. System design and permit package. Plans, load calculations, equipment data, and whatever the jurisdiction's submittal list requires. Gate: the building department's plan review. Crew: design, plus an engineer where a structural letter is required.
3. Roof-mounted array installation. Racking, flashing, modules, module-level electronics. Gate: building inspection. Crew: roof lead and installers.
4. Electrical tie-in and commissioning. Conduit, conductors, inverter, disconnect, labeling, connection at the service equipment, then commissioning. Gate: electrical inspection. Crew: licensed electrician, where the local authority requires one.
Scopes that add a second approval
5. Interconnection application handling. Preparing and chasing the utility application on the customer's behalf. Gate: the utility, on its own timetable. Crew: an administrator who will not let it sit.
6. Service panel upgrade. Gate: electrical inspection, and often the utility, because the meter and service conductors are involved. Crew: licensed electrician. This is the scope most likely to double a job's calendar time.
7. Main panel derate or line-side tap. An alternative to a full upgrade where the code the jurisdiction has adopted allows it. Gate: the electrical inspector, who decides what is acceptable. Crew: licensed electrician.
8. Battery storage. Gate: electrical inspection, sometimes a fire authority review, plus its own utility paperwork in many territories. Crew: electrician plus a technician who has commissioned storage before.
9. Backup subpanel and critical loads. Selecting and rewiring the circuits that stay live. Gate: electrical inspection. Crew: electrician. Sell only alongside storage, and only with the circuit list in writing.
10. Ground-mounted array. Gate: building department, plus zoning or setback review in many jurisdictions. Crew: a groundwork capability most roof crews do not have.
Roof and structure scopes
11. Roof repair before mounting. Gate: building department, sometimes under a separate permit. Crew: roofers.
12. Full roof replacement with array installation. Gate: two permits and two inspections in most places. Crew: a roofing crew you either employ or subcontract and stand behind.
13. Panel removal and reinstallation for reroofing. A service, not a favor, and a good source of work on other companies' installations. Gate: building inspection where the jurisdiction treats it as new work. Crew: installers, plus an electrician for recommissioning.
14. Structural reinforcement. Gate: the building department, on an engineer's letter. Crew: framing, and an engineer you have a relationship with.
Service and aftercare scopes
15. Monitoring setup and a first-year production review. Gate: none. Crew: a technician who can read production data and explain a shortfall honestly.
16. Diagnostic service call on any system. Including systems installed by companies that are no longer trading. Gate: none, unless the repair is permit work. Crew: a technician with test instruments, which the equipment checklist for new solar owners covers.
17. Array cleaning and inspection visit. Gate: none. Crew: anyone trained in fall protection, which is the constraint that makes this less casual than it sounds. Working at height is governed by federal and state occupational safety rules; check what applies to your crews before selling recurring visits.
The pattern in the table is worth stating plainly: the scopes that add revenue per job are mostly the ones that add an approval, and an approval is calendar time you do not control. The scopes that add revenue per week are mostly in the last group, because nothing outside your company has to say yes.
Choosing from the list
Work through it once with your own team and mark each entry with one of three answers: we do this now, we could do this with one hire, we will never do this. Most owners find the middle group is larger than they expected and the first group is smaller.
The Department of Energy's solar permitting guidebook is a useful description of how documented system information, local review, inspection, and utility coordination fit together, which is what the gate tag on each entry above refers to. Your jurisdiction's adopted codes and process control the detail.
Whatever you publish about these scopes has to be accurate before you publish it. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses sets out the standard: claims truthful, supported by evidence at the time they are made, and disclosures clear enough to be read. A price list that implies the panel upgrade is included when it is not fails that standard.
Keep the cost of each scope separately, whatever the customer sees. The Internal Revenue Service's guidance on records a small business should keep asks for a system that clearly shows income and expenses with supporting documents, and job-level costing per scope satisfies that while telling you which entries in this list are actually worth their gate. Which lines return the most is a question about your records, not about the industry, and profitable solar service lines explains how to run that analysis. The tools and vehicle capacity each scope demands are in the equipment and setup guide for solar crews.
Common questions
Which of these should a one-crew company sell?
The core four, plus interconnection handling, plus diagnostic service calls. That set uses one crew, one inspection cycle, and one utility interaction per job.
Is it worth offering roof replacement?
Only if you can staff or subcontract it reliably. The customer will hold you responsible for the roof either way, so the question is whether you would rather control it or refuse it.
Why is array cleaning listed last?
Because it looks like an easy recurring product and is not. It puts people on roofs repeatedly for small revenue, and the safety obligation does not shrink with the size of the job.
Can I add a scope mid-year?
Yes, but add one at a time and give it a full season before adding another. Each new scope changes your scheduling, your inspection load, and your warranty exposure at the same time.
