Who can install solar on my California house, and what must the contract say?

Which CSLB license may install solar on a house

CSLB's Solar Smart page names four classes that can legally install photovoltaic systems: A (General Engineering), B (General Building, tied to the Business and Professions Code 7057 definition of two unrelated trades), C-10 Electrical and C-46 Solar. C-4, C-36 and C-53 cover only solar heating. Ask the company for its CSLB license number and class, and check both on CSLB's license lookup before you sign.

The salesperson at your table needs a registration too. Under B&P 7153 and 7154, as CSLB bulletin 20-22 reads them, a home improvement salesperson registers with CSLB and with the solar contractor they sell for, unless the buyer starts the sale at a fixed retail storefront.

What a California installation costs: our model beside Berkeley Lab's median

Our model puts a rooftop installation at $21,500 to $29,600 for a typical 7 kW rooftop system, before any incentive. It adjusts two national cost ranges by California's installer wage ratio of 1.09 and adds a typical city solar permit fee of $372. That's a model, not a quote, and nothing is subtracted for a federal credit because none applies in 2026.

It leaves out a battery, a panel upgrade, roof repair, financing charges and dealer fees. Berkeley Lab's California median is printed beside it; the two come from different methods and we don't reconcile them. Ask each company for the cost per watt before incentives and the system size in kW DC, so two quotes can be set side by side.

Estimated range. Built from national published ranges (2 sources), adjusted by California's solar installer wage ratio to the US (1.09, BLS May 2025), plus the city solar permit fee where the city publishes one. Not a quote. One California installer publishes its own quoted range (per watt and per battery), too few to build a range from; the others print blog averages, which we do not count. We have no California company price for this job, so the range is our national estimate alone. Full method. Prices as of Oct 23, 2026.

The disclosure page that has to come first

B&P 7169 requires the Solar Energy System Disclosure Document on the front or cover page of every solar contract, in boldface 16-point type. It shows the total cost including financing costs, how and to whom you can complain, and your right to cancel. The contract and the disclosure must be written in the language the sales pitch was given in.

Complaints go to CSLB at 800-321-CSLB (2752) or P.O. Box 26000, Sacramento, CA 95826, and CSLB reports solar complaints every year. Check the cover page's total against the loan or lease papers before you sign.

The down payment cap and the cancellation window

CSLB treats a residential solar installation as home improvement. A contractor can't take a down payment above $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is less (B&P 7159.5), and no other payment may run ahead of the work performed or the materials delivered. The contract needs approximate start and completion dates.

You have three business days to cancel, or five if you're 65 or older on a contract entered since January 1, 2021, and the contractor must refund what you paid within 10 days.

Cash, loan, lease or PPA, and the claims to get in writing

Solar Smart lists three common ways to pay: buying (cash or a loan, including PACE-type programs), a lease and a power purchase agreement. With a lease or PPA you don't own the system, and CSLB's supporting-information form asks whether that contract can transfer to a new homeowner. PACE financing needs its own financing estimate and disclosure before you sign, and under B&P 7169(e) that document stands in for the cover page on the financing contract only.

The rest of CSLB's advice there is specific. Get three bids. Don't let your lender pay the contractor before the work is performed, get mechanics lien releases signed, and get every savings and production claim in writing, with the tool behind the production estimate named.

No federal credit, and what your utility pays for exports

For property installed 2022 through December 31, 2025, the IRS's Residential Clean Energy Credit was 30 percent, and the IRS says it isn't available for property placed in service after that date. A deposit paid in 2025 doesn't rescue a system finished in 2026, because the installation completion date controls.

In PG&E, SCE and SDG&E territory, interconnection applications since April 15, 2023 take service on net billing (the NBT, which the utilities call the Solar Billing Plan). The CPUC says exports are credited at hourly Avoided Cost Calculator values, usually lower than import rates, and can rise above retail on late summer evenings. It also says about 70 percent of NBT customers had paired a battery by the end of 2024.

NBT customers keep the tariff for nine years and must use an electrification time-of-use rate. Residential PG&E and SCE customers who apply before the end of 2027 get slightly higher export credits (an adder) for nine years, SDG&E customers don't, and SCE's first-year enrollees get an extra $0.04 per kWh export credit. The NEM tariffs are closed to new enrollments, and LADWP and SMUD, as municipal utilities, sit outside net billing and Rule 21.

Roof layout and the January 1, 2027 property tax date

The 2022 California Residential Code R324.6 asks for two pathways at least 36 inches wide on separate roof planes and a ridge setback of 18 inches (36 inches if the array covers over 33 percent of the roof). Roofs at 2:12 or flatter are exempt. The 2025 code took effect January 1, 2026 and may differ, so ask the city which edition its plan check uses.

Revenue and Taxation Code 73 excludes a new active solar system from reassessment only if it's completed before January 1, 2027, and it stays excluded until a change in ownership. A system finished on or after that date falls outside the exclusion as the statute stands, so put the completion date in the contract.

When a solar system is an emergency

What to gather before you ask for quotes

1. Note which utility serves the address, since net billing applies in PG&E, SCE and SDG&E territory only.
2. Look up each company's CSLB license number and class on CSLB's lookup.
3. Ask for the disclosure document and contract in writing before any deposit, and compare the first-page total with the financing papers.

Permits and the utility application for a new system

Gov. Code 65850.5 says a city or county shall approve a solar application administratively, through a nondiscretionary permit. SB 379 requires most cities and counties to run an online automated permitting platform for a residential system up to 38.4 kW AC with storage, by September 30, 2023 for those over 50,000 people and September 30, 2024 for smaller non-exempt ones. The CEC does not certify compliance. SolarAPP+ is one such platform, not a mandate, and, per their own permit pages, Fremont, Riverside and Sunnyvale print a $25 SolarAPP+ processing fee charged to installers.

The fee limit in Gov. Code 66015 is $450 plus $15 for each kilowatt above 15 kW, unless the city adopts a written finding. Utility fees and review times are on the interconnection and permits page.

Ask for the company's contractor license number and look it up with your state's licensing board before you sign.

Questions people ask

Keep reading

Guides

• Solar quotes: what to compare, and what to get in writing, before you sign
• The federal solar tax credit in 2026: what the IRS says and what it means for a quote
• Net metering, distributed generation and net billing: how each state credits the power you send out
• Utility interconnection timelines: what DTE, Consumers Energy, PG&E, SCE and SDG&E say
• Solar leases, PPAs and loans: the questions to ask before you sign any of them

Related services

• Interconnection and permits
• Solar battery storage
• Ground-mount solar
• EV charger with solar

California licensing, code and permit facts · Report a wrong price or rule