The opening checklist of rules for a solar installer business, explained

What to take away

• Every item below has a consequence column, because a compliance list without one is just a list. The consequences are real: refused permits, failed inspections, systems that cannot be energized, and work that was never lawfully contracted.
• Four items must be settled before you sign a single customer contract. They are marked as gates.
• Nothing here states a requirement as fact. Each line names the body that decides it for your area.
• Work through it once before opening, then again before entering any new jurisdiction or utility territory.

Gate items: settle these before the first contract

• Contractor licensing. Which classification covers residential photovoltaic contracting where you are, and who in the company must hold it. Decided by the state contractor board. Consequence of skipping: work contracted unlawfully, exposure to penalties, and contracts that may be unenforceable.
• Electrical authority. Who may perform and supervise the electrical portion, and whether a licensed person must be on site. Decided by the state or local electrical authority. Consequence: failed inspection, work ordered removed, and a company structure that has to be rebuilt.
• Insurance in force. Coverage appropriate to work at height, on customers' property, and around energized equipment. Decided with a broker who writes contractors. Consequence: a single incident ends the business.
• Employer obligations, if hiring. Wage, hour, classification, and record requirements. Decided by federal and state labor agencies. Consequence: back pay assessments and penalties that arrive years later.

Before the first permit application

• Confirm the code editions your building department has currently adopted, and what its submittal list contains
• Establish when a structural engineer's letter is required and have an engineer available
• Confirm the current plan review time and build it into your customer commitments
• Learn the inspection sequence and who must be present at each

The Department of Energy's solar permitting guidebook describes how documented system information, local review, inspection, and utility coordination relate to each other, which is the shape of what you are preparing for. It is dated and general, so the jurisdiction's own adopted codes and process are what control.

Consequence of skipping: a returned permit application on your first job, which the customer experiences as your delay whatever caused it.

Before the first interconnection application

• Read the utility's own interconnection standard, not a summary of it
• Confirm whether contractors must register with the utility
• Confirm any equipment or inverter setting requirements before standardizing on a product line
• Record the current published processing time and start tracking your own actual times

Consequence of skipping: a system installed, inspected, and unable to be energized, with a customer who has paid a deposit and cannot use anything.

Before the first day at height

• A written approach to fall protection, appropriate to how your crews access and move on roofs
• Training delivered and recorded, per person, with dates
• An inspection routine for fall protection equipment, with a rule for taking it out of service
• A procedure for verifying circuits are dead before work begins
• Knowledge of whether your state runs its own occupational safety plan, and what it adds

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's electrical contractors industry page collects the standards and hazard material for this kind of work. What binds you is the standards themselves and any state plan, so confirm locally rather than assuming the federal minimum.

Consequence of skipping: the worst outcomes in this trade, followed by citations and by an insurance conversation you do not want to have.

Before the first customer proposal

• A contract reviewed by an attorney, covering scope boundaries, change orders after survey, delays outside your control, and production estimates
• A written position on what you will and will not say about incentives
• Written exclusions for roof repair, service equipment work, and anything discovered inside a structure
• A record-keeping system for job costs and supporting documents

Consequence of skipping: the dispute that ends up in front of a lawyer is almost always about a boundary the contract left vague.

Before opening a place the public visits

• Consider accessibility obligations for premises and for services offered to the public

The Department of Justice's ADA guide for small businesses is a plain-language orientation to what those obligations look like for a small operation. It is an older document, so treat it as an introduction and confirm current requirements with the Department of Justice.

Consequence of skipping: a complaint, and a retrofit that costs more than doing it at fit-out.

The register and the calendar

• One register listing every obligation, its authority, its reference number, its expiry date, its owner, and where the evidence sits
• Those expiry dates on a calendar with reminders well ahead of the date
• A standing review before entering any new jurisdiction or utility territory

Item	Renews on	Missing it means
Contractor license	The board's cycle	You cannot lawfully contract
Electrical credential	The authority's cycle	You cannot lawfully perform
Insurance certificates	Policy year	Customers and partners cannot verify you
Safety training	Your own interval, or a required one	No defensible record if anything happens
Instrument calibration	Manufacturer or your policy	Test results you cannot rely on

Almost everything on this list expires, and companies miss renewals in their busiest month. The calendar is the control.

Where the detail sits

How to find your own answers, authority by authority, is in the licensing and compliance guide for solar contractors.

The specific call list is in the page on which licenses a solar business needs. What each coverage on the insurance line actually protects against is in the insurance coverage guide for solar contractors. The labeling and documentation the inspector expects on site is equipment as much as paperwork, and it is covered in the equipment and setup guide for solar crews.

Common questions

How long does the gate list take to clear?

The licensing items are the slow ones and depend on your state's processing. Start them first and do everything else while they run.

Can I open with some items outstanding?

The four gate items, no. The rest can run in parallel with early work, as long as nothing on a job depends on an item that is not yet in place.

Who should own this list inside the company?

One named person, and in a new company that is the owner. It can move later, but it should never be shared between two people, because that is how items fall between them.

What triggers a re-run of the whole list?

A new jurisdiction, a new utility territory, a new service line, a change in company structure, or a new code edition adopted where you work.