Why Do not Extra Folks Really feel The Photo voltaic Business Is Reliable?

Help CleanTechnica’s work via a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

The solar energy trade is hovering. Builders added 12 gigawatts (GW) of recent utility-scale photo voltaic electrical producing capability within the US in the course of the first half of 2025, they usually plan so as to add one other 21 GW within the second half of the 12 months. The buildout to 64 GW that builders plan to carry on-line this 12 months signifies that photo voltaic helps the world meet its local weather targets by changing fossil fuels. But, sadly, photo voltaic inroads typically get overshadowed by client discontent with the photo voltaic trade.

A current CleanTechnica survey was designed to get a way of how our readers really feel about photo voltaic. Whereas we’re nonetheless crunching the info, we discovered the response to at least one query significantly hanging.

When requested to explain the diploma to which they agreed with the assertion, “I feel the photo voltaic trade is reliable,” the common score was solely 3.5 out of a potential 5. Mentioned one other manner, over 35% of respondents answered within the poor to center vary.

Why is that? What sorts of interactions have potential or precise photo voltaic clients had with photo voltaic trade representatives? What has occurred to make the identical people who love rooftop photo voltaic really feel a lot much less optimistic concerning the trade itself?

You probably have a proof based mostly by yourself private expertise, will you please write it within the feedback part on the finish? It can assist us to know this malaise in response to the photo voltaic trade.

In the meantime, here’s a complication of analysis that provides some rationale why customers are reluctant to time period the photo voltaic trade “reliable.” How do these conclusions jive with your personal exchanges with the photo voltaic trade?

From Early Days to a Thriving Business

A lot of milestones observe the evolution of the photo voltaic trade. Listed here are some highlights.

• With enhancing expertise, falling prices, and federal coverage assist, the US formally eclipsed one gigawatt of photo voltaic electrical producing capability in 2008.
• Burlington, Vermont grew to become the primary metropolis within the nation to be solely powered by renewable sources in September 2014.
• In 2017, the US photo voltaic trade hit a SunShot Initiative objective three years forward of schedule when common utility-scale photo voltaic costs fell under $1/watt for the primary time ever. Contemplating this early success, the DOE started wanting in the direction of their SunShot 2030 targets, which aimed to cut back the price of solar-generated electrical energy by 50% between 2020 and 2030.
• Now in 2025 photo voltaic power has turn out to be the #1 supply of recent electrical energy technology capability within the US, like in different markets world wide.

What started as a gaggle of well-meaning hippies who cherished the thought of getting electrical energy from the solar reworked into lots of of viable photo voltaic corporations within the mass market. Many of the corporations at present are respected and dependable.

A handful, nevertheless, have leaned extra towards revenue than integrity and launched questionable gross sales and financing practices. That minority appears to have had an enduring maintain on the photo voltaic trade’s fame.

Buyer dissatisfaction with the US residential rooftop photo voltaic trade have elevated through the years.

Disgruntled photo voltaic clients have cited quite a few complaints together with exaggerated financial savings claims, excessive strain gross sales and unclear contracts, sudden prices and hidden charges, set up delays and scheduling issues, poor set up high quality and security issues, poor customer support and lack of assist, inaccurate or unclear efficiency knowledge, issues with financing and mortgage phrases, unclear or deceptive guarantee info, and misunderstanding or misrepresentation of tax credit.

Complaints towards the Photo voltaic Business Elevated with Photo voltaic Adoptions

Complaints to the Federal Commerce Fee’s ReportFraud.ftc.gov that comprise the phrase “photo voltaic” elevated four-fold over as a few years.

The Client Monetary Safety Bureau (CFPB) outlines that the marketplace for residential photo voltaic panels continues to develop, largely as a consequence of declining photo voltaic panel prices. With that progress, the CFPB famous in 2024 that advertising and door-to-door gross sales of solar-related monetary merchandise had turn out to be extra prevalent. It warned photo voltaic clients about hidden charges and deceptive statements concerning the monetary advantages of photo voltaic. (Observe: Sure, the CFPB continues to be open, even with Trump administration makes an attempt to shutter it.)

As complaints towards photo voltaic corporations mounted, state attorneys basic obtained concerned.

In July 2024, Connecticut Lawyer Normal William Tong sued SunRun and two smaller corporations to which it subbed work. The lawsuit alleged misleading, unfair, and unlawful gross sales of solar energy techniques. “The complaints now we have seen—together with solid signatures, impersonations of customers, non-permitted work, and non-functioning techniques—are past surprising,” Tong stated in an announcement. In October 2024 Tong introduced a $20,000 settlement with EnergyBillCruncher.com, resolving an investigation concerning false claims on social media.

This month Minnesota Lawyer Normal Keith Ellison obtained Assurances of Discontinuance towards Ambia Vitality and Everlight Photo voltaic, alleging their door-to-door salespeople engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct of their makes an attempt to promote residential photo voltaic arrays to Minnesotans and violated state legislation concerning door-to-door gross sales. “We expect that having rooftop photo voltaic is nice for the surroundings and does save individuals cash. We don’t need individuals deceived, although,” Adam Welle, a lawyer with the Minnesota Lawyer Normal’s Workplace, informed NPR.

Workplace of the Lawyer Normal for the District of Columbia Brian L. Schwalb issued a Client Alert final week to assist inform District residents about predatory practices within the dwelling photo voltaic system gross sales and mortgage trade. “District residents must be on excessive alert that some dwelling photo voltaic system corporations use deceptive, high-pressure gross sales techniques to get them to signal predatory contracts,” Schwalb warned.

Photo voltaic Business Advocates tackle Unscrupulous Gross sales Reps

The commerce group Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA) has confronted the trustworthiness challenge head on by creating requirements member corporations can conform to comply with. “We need to guarantee that there are not any exploitative or unfair gross sales practices taking place in our trade,” says Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA president and CEO. The accredited requirements have coaching necessities for photo voltaic salespeople and guarantee clients have the knowledge they should make an knowledgeable choice.

One of the vital essential requirements requires every photo voltaic trade firm to recurrently look at and think about the potential for violations in all features of its enterprise that contact on customers or their pursuits. These may embody advertising, gross sales, origination, contract phrases, contract choices, set up, servicing, and loss mitigation.

A number of corporations within the photo voltaic trade have signed onto a service referred to as Recheck, which is able to enable “corporations to vet gross sales companions, forestall poor practices by unregistered salespeople, and establish people with a historical past of client safety violations who attempt to transfer from firm to firm.”

A current federal program referred to as Photo voltaic for All gives photo voltaic to low-income households. To keep away from “unscrupulous characters,” the Environmental Safety Company plans to fund efforts to create lists of respected photo voltaic installers who take part in this system.

Efforts to weed out corrupt photo voltaic trade gross sales reps are essential. We have to assist photo voltaic to turn out to be as commonplace as potential. In any case, as local weather activist Invoice McKibben reminds us, “Paradigm shifts like this don’t come alongside typically.” The Industrial Revolution and the pc revolution are different big-time however rare examples of comparable systemic change.

We are able to’t let just a few dangerous eggs sully the photo voltaic trade, can we?