Why Do not Extra Individuals Really feel The Photo voltaic Trade Is Reliable?

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

The solar energy business 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, and so they 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 deliver 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 generally get overshadowed by shopper discontent with the photo voltaic business.

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 1 query notably placing.

When requested to explain the diploma to which they agreed with the assertion, “I believe the photo voltaic business is reliable,” the common score was solely 3.5 out of a attainable 5. Stated 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 business representatives? What has occurred to make the identical people who love rooftop photo voltaic really feel a lot much less constructive in regards to the business itself?

In case you have an evidence based mostly by yourself private expertise, will you please write it within the feedback part on the finish? It’ll assist us to know this malaise in response to the photo voltaic business.

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

From Early Days to a Thriving Trade

A lot of milestones monitor the evolution of the photo voltaic business. Listed here are some highlights.

• With bettering expertise, falling prices, and federal coverage help, 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 totally powered by renewable sources in September 2014.
• In 2017, the US photo voltaic business hit a SunShot Initiative purpose three years forward of schedule when common utility-scale photo voltaic costs fell beneath $1/watt for the primary time ever. Contemplating this early success, the DOE started wanting in 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 vitality has develop into the #1 supply of recent electrical energy era capability within the US, like in different markets world wide.

What started as a bunch of well-meaning hippies who cherished the concept of getting electrical energy from the solar remodeled into a whole bunch of viable photo voltaic corporations within the mass market. Many of the corporations at the moment are respected and dependable.

A handful, nonetheless, 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 business’s status.

Buyer dissatisfaction with the US residential rooftop photo voltaic business have elevated over time.

Disgruntled photo voltaic clients have cited quite a few complaints together with exaggerated financial savings claims, excessive stress 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 help, inaccurate or unclear efficiency information, issues with financing and mortgage phrases, unclear or deceptive guarantee info, and misunderstanding or misrepresentation of tax credit.

Complaints towards the Photo voltaic Trade Elevated with Photo voltaic Adoptions

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

The Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau (CFPB) outlines that the marketplace for residential photo voltaic panels continues to develop, largely as a result of declining photo voltaic panel prices. With that progress, the CFPB famous in 2024 that advertising and marketing and door-to-door gross sales of solar-related monetary merchandise had develop into extra prevalent. It warned photo voltaic clients about hidden charges and deceptive statements in regards to 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 bought concerned.

In July 2024, Connecticut Legal professional Basic 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 methods. “The complaints we’ve seen—together with solid signatures, impersonations of customers, non-permitted work, and non-functioning methods—are past stunning,” 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 Legal professional Basic Keith Ellison obtained Assurances of Discontinuance towards Ambia Power 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 setting and does save individuals cash. We don’t need individuals deceived, although,” Adam Welle, a lawyer with the Minnesota Legal professional Basic’s Workplace, advised NPR.

Workplace of the Legal professional Basic for the District of Columbia Brian L. Schwalb issued a Shopper Alert final week to assist inform District residents about predatory practices within the house photo voltaic system gross sales and mortgage business. “District residents needs to be on excessive alert that some house photo voltaic system corporations use deceptive, high-pressure gross sales techniques to get them to signal predatory contracts,” Schwalb warned.

Photo voltaic Trade Advocates tackle Unscrupulous Gross sales Reps

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

Some of the essential requirements requires every photo voltaic business firm to repeatedly look at and take into account the potential of violations in all features of its enterprise that contact on customers or their pursuits. These might embody advertising and marketing, gross sales, origination, contract phrases, contract choices, set up, servicing, and loss mitigation.

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

A current federal program known as Photo voltaic for All affords 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 business gross sales reps are essential. We have to assist photo voltaic to develop into as commonplace as attainable. In spite of everything, as local weather activist Invoice McKibben reminds us, “Paradigm shifts like this don’t come alongside usually.” The Industrial Revolution and the pc revolution are different big-time however rare examples of comparable systemic change.

We are able to’t let a couple of unhealthy eggs sully the photo voltaic business, can we?