Best Solar Companies in Oregon

Which solar companies in Oregon had the best sales?

With over 50 local installation businesses, Oregon is home to the 21st most solar adoption nationwide, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
1 It might be difficult for homeowners to choose the finest supplier because there are so many options available in their thriving local market.

We’ve already done the legwork for you by researching, evaluating, and reviewing the local service providers. The installers listed below have been chosen as the finest choices for Oregonians looking for a quality and reasonably priced PV system.

• Sunlight Solar: An Expert in Solar
• Best Financing Options for SunPower
• Best Emerging Company: Purelight Power
• Blue Best Warranty: Raven Solar
• Best Availability: Tesla

We’ll provide some extra details on each installer we’ve selected for OR solar customers in the areas that follow in the drop-down choices. Additionally, we’ll provide a quick overview of each business, detailing its comparable costs, warranties, and other details.

Houses in a neighborhood with solar panels: How Can You Save Money When Hiring a Solar Company in Oregon?

Based on an average system size of 9.5 kW and a $2.60 average local price per watt, solar power systems in Oregon cost about $24,700 before tax incentives. Despite being below the national average, this nevertheless represents a significant expense in the context of house modifications.

Even though solar energy systems typically save over $15,000 in utility costs after they pay for themselves, many customers continue hunt for ways to reduce system costs to keep solar energy accessible and affordable.

We’ve provided a short list of some actions you may take to keep your system total low below. Then, we’ll go into greater detail about each tip.

• Benefit from Oregon’s solar incentives.
• If possible, avoid solar batteries.
• Select high-efficiency solar panels.
• Benefit from OR Solar Incentives

Utilizing the solar benefit programs in your area is the greatest way to minimize short-term costs and increase long-term savings with your solar system. Fortunately, OR is a highly solar-friendly state in terms of incentive schemes, so you should have no trouble finding advantages and advantages to investigate.

Think About Solar Batteries Seriously

In general, we don’t advise solar customers to install solar batteries in addition to their panels. They significantly increase the cost of your system, frequently by tens of thousands of dollars, and offer little benefit in places like Oregon where net energy metering is available.

Batteries can store your generated energy for later use in jurisdictions without net energy metering, thereby offering the same benefit as net metering. Batteries are mostly rendered obsolete by net energy metering at the moment, though it may disappear in OR or become less advantageous if it drops below the full retail rate for energy credits that is now required.

In light of this, batteries can enable you to go off-grid and provide electricity for your home during blackouts. During power outages, systems with merely panels cannot maintain electricity.

Even though OR has the tenth-highest number of outages in the nation, installing batteries to keep the electricity on during blackout situations is typically not worth the extra cost.

Select solar cells with a high efficiency rating.

Last but not least, it’s crucial that you install PV panels with a high efficiency rating. This statistic, which indicates the portion of solar energy that may be used to generate electricity, should be listed on the specification sheet for your solar panels.

Because Oregon residents see significantly less sunshine than homeowners in other parts of the country, panel efficiency is crucial there. Oregon is really the seventh cloudiest state in the nation. In gloomy situations, the efficiency of 5 PV panels can fall to around 10%.

High-efficiency panels consistently provide more energy, which enables them to reduce your energy costs in foggy weather. In a place like OR, this translates to bigger savings and a better possibility of lowering your energy costs.

Will Solar Boost Your Oregon Home’s Value?

Yes! According to property statistics made accessible by Zillow, adding PV panels to your home is predicted to increase its value by about 4.1%. 6 In Oregon, the average home price is roughly $515,000, and in the last 12 months, that figure has increased by about 9%.

Solar equipment is more attractive than ever because to rising real estate values and a 50% decrease in local solar expenses in OR over the past ten years.

In The Beaver State, 8 Panels are projected to increase your home’s value by about $21,100. Your solar PV system is almost immediately repaid when you take into account the value increase and the federal tax credit.

The variety of solar subsidies offered has further increased the value of solar to OR residents. Most knowledgeable consumers will place a higher value on PV equipment than consumers in other states since they will be aware that they will have access to benefits such net energy metering (NEM).

Should Oregonians do it themselves when installing solar panels?

You probably already know that a DIY solar installation is far less expensive if you’ve been researching the costs of building your own solar array versus hiring a professional to do it. That does not imply, however, that performing a DIY installation is a superior idea.

DIYers have a problem with this. Even though you can do the actual installation yourself, a professional will still need to approve the system. Because of this, it’s crucial to take the electrical underwriter’s certificate into account when determining the cost of a DIY installation.

If you make mistakes when installing your panels, getting a permit obtained and approved in OR may also be difficult. We believe that hiring a professional to complete the task will ensure that it only needs to be done once.

Panels with High Efficiency

As we have stated, it’s critical to select a panel brand with a high OR efficiency rating. By doing this, you can be confident that your system will produce enough electricity to pay for itself even during the region’s frequently foggy days.

Unfortunately, the efficiency of the majority of DIY solar companies, such as Renogy and Grape Solar, is insignificant in comparison to that of top brands like SunPower, Tesla, Panasonic, and others that call for expert installation. Given the lower efficiency ratings of DIY equipment, residents of OR might not be able to use it to offset a sufficient amount of their electricity costs.

Possible Roof Leakage

Residents of OR endure higher-than-average rainfall, and many communities, particularly those in the state’s east, also see higher-than-average snowfall.
9 Roof penetrations through the shingles, which are necessary for solar panel installations, place OR homes at an increased danger of roof leaks due to an overall above-average quantity of precipitation.

One of the most common problems with solar panel systems installed by qualified providers is roof leaks. If installations carried out by experts with years of experience are susceptible to roof leaks, then there is obviously a bigger likelihood that you will encounter leaks when you install panels yourself.

Another important factor that makes hiring a contractor over doing it yourself for most homeowners is the higher risk of roof leaks in OR.

Superior Warranty Protection

Finally, solar installation businesses often offer equipment and panel efficiency warranties that cover them for 20 to 30 years. In contrast, the vast majority of DIY panel brand warranties typically run between five and ten years.

Additionally, there is no workmanship warranty when you install your own PV panels. You might receive up to 25 years of coverage for the craftsmanship when you employ a professional.

Overall, if you hire a professional to install your panels rather than attempting to do it yourself, you’ll have far better warranty coverage and more peace of mind.
What Qualities Should Oregon Residents Seek in a Solar Installer?
It’s helpful to have a list of attributes to consider when choosing a firm to engage for your solar project because there are many solar providers in OR, and you might not want to choose one of the businesses above.

The most important criteria are listed below, and each is explained in more detail in the sections that follow.

• Available panel brand names
• Effectiveness guarantees
• Size of business Year established Industry affiliations
• Panel Brands in the Market

Different solar panel installation businesses carry various brands of machinery. While some businesses only provide one or two brands, others offer a wide variety. Companies that offer a greater variety of equipment brands often perform better in our rankings because they give more clients the opportunity to balance different energy needs, durability requirements, and price points.

We strongly advise finding a business that sells high-efficiency solar panels, such as Maxeon from SunPower, Panasonic, and Tesla, in Oregon and much of the Pacific Northwest. These businesses all offer panels with efficiency ratings above average, which are more likely to generate enough electricity in Oregon’s low-sun conditions.

Performance Guarantees

The effectiveness of the panels you install is a crucial factor because residents of OR experience less than 75% of the country’s annual bright days.

High panel efficiency ratings are crucial, but we also advise taking into account the efficiency warranty that comes with your PV equipment. This informs you of the percentage of that efficiency that your panels are assured to hold onto for the first 15 to 30 years that you own them.

Size of the Business

Your experience may be significantly impacted by the scale of the solar provider you choose to engage with.

Because they purchase equipment in bulk and have more resources for arranging and installing, larger national companies frequently have lower prices and better availability. However, they frequently offer less desirable customer service and might not be as knowledgeable about available solar benefits in the area.

Generally speaking, smaller local businesses provide better customer service and keep better contact throughout the process, but they are nearly always more expensive and less accessible. Smaller businesses typically have more customization possibilities for your solar installation, making them better for those homeowners who want more assistance when applying for the federal tax credit (ITC) or municipal rebates.

Some are able to speed up grid connection or net metering because they have more intimate ties to regional utility companies like PGE.

Founded in

More fly-by-night businesses are springing up all throughout Oregon as solar power becomes more and more popular there, hoping to profit from the demand. Unfortunately, these businesses frequently have no other motivation than making money, which means that they have very little chance of remaining in business for very long.

It’s a problem for two reasons. First of all, it frequently denotes subpar customer service, particularly after installation. Second, it implies that if the firm fails, your guarantees would be void.

We advise picking businesses with more than five years of experience, especially those with decades of knowledge and a solid track record.

Sectoral Affiliations

Some PV companies have strong charitable missions that imply they care about more than just making money, while others are strongly involved in supplying clean energy for a healthy environment. Examining a company’s ties to associations and organizations dedicated to the solar industry is a smart method to assess whether it shares these valuable principles.

For these reasons, businesses that belong to groups like the Oregon Solar and Storage Industries Association (OSSIA) and the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association (OSEIA) typically place higher in our rankings.

Methodology: How We Will Grade Oregon’s Solar Companies In 2023

We invested a lot of time and effort choosing the top businesses to suggest to you out of the approximately 55 local installers that serve Oregon and even more national and regional businesses. The items we feel Oregonians value most are listed below in order of their importance. Below, we’ll also go over each of these factors’ rationales for selection.

• Brands of solar equipment (20%)
• Offers for Additional Equipment (20%)
• Warranty Protection for Solar (15%)
• Options for Solar Financing (15%)
• Certifications and credentials (10%)
• Environmental Friendliness Commitment (10%)
• (10) Availability

Brands of Solar Equipment

The selection and caliber of the solar equipment brands offered by Oregon solar firms is one of the first things we consider while evaluating them. Only 143 sunshine days a year are experienced by people of Oregon, which is significantly fewer than the country as a whole and among the lowest totals.

High-efficiency machinery is required when there is little sunlight so that your solar panels can offset your energy costs and save you money. We therefore strongly favor businesses that offer high-efficiency panel brands. A few of these are Maxeon, Panasonic, LG, REC, Tesla, and Q Cells. These will enable your solar installation in a location like OR to function at its best.

Offering Add-On Equipment

Power outages are more frequent in Oregon than in most other states. Solar batteries can provide power during blackouts, frequently for up to several days, although increasing the cost of your system.

In a state like Oregon, solar batteries are not only practical, but the state also offers incentives for their use. To minimize the cost of solar batteries and increase the benefits they receive from this equipment, residents can apply for the Oregon Solar + Storage Rebate.

Batteries are a fantastic alternative in Oregon, therefore we rate businesses that provide them a little higher than installers who only install panels.

Warranty Protection for Solar

The majority of solar installers provide warranties for labor, efficiency, and physical damage to equipment, and the top businesses typically provide a mix of all three. Efficiency ratings, in our opinion, are the most helpful in Oregon because they assist ensure that your panels will produce enough energy, despite the region’s low levels of sunshine.

We give preference to businesses with strong efficiency warranties, but we also appreciate labor warranties. When switching to solar energy, having a provider guarantee that the installation process will be carried out professionally and correctly provides much-needed peace of mind given the amount of rainfall OR experiences annually—well above the national average.

Options for Solar Financing

The average price of a solar panel system in Oregon is about $24,700, making the upfront cost unaffordable for the majority of people.

We give preference to businesses with reasonably priced financing options and accommodative down payment requirements because solar loans frequently result in initial payments falling to zero while still resulting in panel ownership and significant energy savings.

Additionally, we give businesses who provide leases and PPAs a slight advantage. Although we don’t typically advise these choices, they do contribute to the accessibility of renewable energy.

Experience, Certifications, and Qualifications

Over 50 installers provide services in OR, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Given the abundance of possibilities, it’s beneficial to focus your search by giving organizations with industry connections, credentials, and years of expertise priority. These installers are more likely to deliver excellent service, premium gear, and a skilled installation.

Companies certified by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), B-Corp, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and regional pro-solar organizations like the Oregon Solar + Storage Industries Association receive a higher ranking from us (OSSIA).

dedication to environmental protection

We naturally prefer to promote businesses who are committed to eco-friendliness and encouraging clean energy as a website devoted to promoting environmental friendliness. We search for installers that go above and above to make the planet a better, cleaner place to live. Of course, many solar companies at least partially fall into this category.

Access to additional energy-efficient home upgrades and ties to regional eco-friendly businesses and groups are a couple of things we look for in particular.

Availability

Last but not least, we search for installers who are readily available throughout Oregon. Since these are some of the most populated locations, many installers concentrate on the cities along Puget Sound. We rank companies that serve the entire state higher because they will logically appeal to more homeowners.