Fees

How our fees work: one flat fee, agreed before we start

Every project gets a flat fee, quoted in writing after a free 20-minute fit call. We don't publish prices, because the work depends on your documents, not on a menu.

Book a free fit call How it works

A glass price tag with clock gears inside, hanging from a solar panel — The idea
You pay us for hours of careful attention, not for the size of the system. That's why we're glad when the right answer is a smaller project — or none at all.

Our solar consultant fees work one way: a flat fee for a defined scope, quoted in writing before any work begins. You know the full cost up front. It doesn’t rise with the size of your system, the loan you choose or whether you buy anything at all.

Why our solar consultant fees aren’t on a price list

Two proposal reviews can look alike from the outside and take very different amounts of work. One homeowner has a single quote and a year of clean bills. Another has three quotes, a lease and a loan option, and a meter that was replaced halfway through the year. A fixed menu would overcharge the first or shortchange the second. So we quote after the fit call, once we’ve seen what’s involved.

How a flat fee gets set

Fit call. Free, about 20 minutes. We learn what you’re deciding and what documents exist.
Written scope. You receive the deliverables, the timeline and one fixed fee.
Your decision. Approve it and we start. Decline and you owe nothing.

The fee doesn’t move unless the scope does. If something new turns up, such as a second site or a lease amendment, we describe the change and its fee in writing first, and you decide. The full sequence is on how it works.

What’s included in every flat fee

A written report in plain English
An assumptions page listing every input that moves the answer
A recorded walkthrough call
One round of follow-up questions
Where relevant, questions to bring to your attorney, CPA, electrician or engineer

What we never charge for

Commissions on anything you buy, lease or finance
A percentage of system cost or project size
Referral fees, from you or from anyone else
The fit call
Hours we didn’t quote. There are no hourly surprises.

An advisor paid a percentage of project cost earns more when you buy more. That’s the incentive our independence pledge is built to remove.

Payment terms

Projects: 50% when you approve the written scope, 50% when we deliver the report.
Reporting subscriptions, such as Portfolio Performance Reporting: billed monthly.
We accept ACH bank transfer and check.

Why a fee-only review can be worth more than it costs

Illustrative example. The figures below are hypothetical. They show the math and don’t describe a real client or a typical result.

A 25-year solar lease starts at $129 a month with a 2.9% annual escalator. The proposal shows it as a single line.

	With a 2.9% escalator	With no escalator
Monthly payment, year 1	$129	$129
Monthly payment, year 25	about $256	$129
Total paid over 25 years	about $55,700	$38,700

That one line adds about $17,000 over the term, and it roughly doubles the monthly payment by the end. The useful part of a review is spotting the escalator, testing it against realistic utility-rate scenarios and listing it as a point to negotiate. A dealer fee folded into a “low-rate” solar loan works the same way. You only see it when you set the financed price beside the cash price.

Not every review finds a number like that. Sometimes the answer is that the proposal is fair, and that’s worth knowing before you sign too. To look for yourself first, try the free Proposal Red-Flag Checklist.

What shapes a fee

Fees depend on complexity. Here's what we weigh when we write your quote.

Scope

What you need answered. Reviewing one proposal is a different job from a 3–5 week commercial feasibility study with deadline scenarios.

Documents and sites

Three quotes take longer to level than one. Ten meters across four buildings take longer than one meter on one house.

Condition of the data

Clean interval data is quick to model. Missing bills, a replaced meter or a monitoring account locked by a closed installer take recovery work first.

Deadlines

A lease offer that expires in ten days, or a commercial tax credit deadline, can mean rearranging other work. If it changes the fee, we say so before you agree.

What it never depends on

System size, equipment cost, the financing you choose, or whether you go ahead at all. We're paid the same either way.

Learn more

FAQ

Questions about fees

Why won't you give me a price before the fit call?

Because we'd be guessing. The fit call is free and takes about 20 minutes. Afterward you get an exact fee in writing, and you can decline without owing anything.

Is the fee ever based on the size of my system?

No. Fees depend on scope, documents, sites, data condition and deadlines. A larger system costs no more to review unless it makes the work more complex, and we never take a percentage of project cost.

What if the work takes longer than you expected?

That's our risk, not yours. The fee covers the agreed scope. It changes only if the scope changes, and only after you approve the change in writing.

Do you charge for follow-up questions?

One round of follow-up questions is included with every report. If you later want help with a new decision, such as running an installer RFP, we quote that separately.

Will the review pay for itself?

We can't promise that. Sometimes a review finds an escalator, dealer fee or production estimate worth far more than the fee. Sometimes it confirms that the proposal is fair. Either way, you decide with the full picture.

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