Solar Proposal Reviews and Second Opinions

You have a quote. Maybe two. Something in it does not sit right, or the person who handed it to you wanted an answer that same evening. A review is exactly what it sounds like: somebody with no stake in whether you sign reads the document line by line and tells you what it says, what it does not say, and what to ask before it becomes a contract.

The most common finding is not fraud. It is omission. A proposal arrives with a monthly payment and a large savings figure on the front page, and behind it there is no itemized equipment list, no stated production assumptions, no clear ownership structure, and warranty terms that appear nowhere. A proposal that will not itemize those things is not a proposal you can compare against anything else, which is often the point of writing it that way.

What a review looks at, in order

• Equipment, itemized. Specific components and quantities, not categories. If a proposal says panels and an inverter without identifying exactly what is being installed, you cannot compare it against a second quote at all.
• Production assumptions. Where the production estimate came from, what shading and orientation inputs were used, and whether the monthly shape is shown. An annual number on its own hides the winter.
• Ownership structure. Cash purchase, loan, lease, or power purchase agreement. These are different products with different consequences at tax time and at resale, and the front page rarely makes the distinction obvious.
• Financing terms in full. Term length, rate, any fees folded into the amount financed, and whether the payment shown assumes you apply an incentive back to the loan. That assumption is load-bearing and rarely highlighted.
• Warranty terms and who honors them. Equipment, workmanship, and any production guarantee are three separate promises with separate terms and separate parties behind them. All three should appear in writing with durations attached.
• Roof and electrical assumptions. Whether the proposal assumes your roof and electrical panel are ready as they are, and what happens to the price if they are not. This is where change orders come from.

How a second opinion works

1. Send the proposal as you received it. The whole document, including the pages nobody reads. What is missing matters as much as what is present, and edited excerpts tend to hide exactly the parts worth examining.
2. A line-by-line read. Equipment, production assumptions, ownership structure, financing, warranties, and the roof and electrical assumptions all get checked against one another for internal consistency and for anything the document has left unstated.
3. You get a list of questions. Not a counter-offer. A written set of questions to put back to the original company, phrased so that a vague answer is obvious the moment it comes back.
4. You decide, including deciding not to. Sign with the original company, take a competing quote, fix the roof first, or do nothing this year. All four are legitimate outcomes and we treat them that way.

What drives the cost

A review's cost follows its scope, and a system's cost follows things a review can surface but not set. The underlying drivers are the same on every proposal: how much system your usage actually justifies, roof complexity and pitch, whether your electrical panel needs upgrading, whether storage is included, and whether the deal is a purchase, a loan, a lease, or a power purchase agreement. The job of a review is to make those drivers visible inside a document that may well have been written to keep them out of view.

Questions people ask