Procurement Consulting
Solar procurement consulting from a firm that takes nothing from vendors. We write the request, level the bids and organize the paperwork, so every installer and supplier is measured against the same tape.
Off-the-rack quotes fit nobody well. Good procurement is tailoring: the same measurements, applied to every vendor.
Most solar buyers in Kentucky collect quotes the way they’d collect quotes for a new roof. A few companies come out, each one measures differently, and you’re left comparing documents that were never built to be compared. Solar procurement consulting fixes the order of operations. You decide what you need first. Then every installer or supplier answers the same request, in the same format, under the same rules.
That’s the whole idea. A good quote isn’t a lucky find. It’s the product of a good request.
We work for the buyer only. We don’t sell panels, we don’t install, and no bidder pays us. Our independence pledge spells out what that means in practice.
Four things changed the math this year.
Deadlines got real. Under the 2025 federal budget law, solar projects that didn’t begin construction by July 4, 2026 must be placed in service by December 31, 2027 to claim the commercial clean electricity credits. A bid process that drifts for four months can now cost more than any price difference between bidders. Our credit deadline timeline walks through the sequence. Confirm your own project’s position with your tax adviser.
Where equipment comes from became a line item. For projects beginning construction after 2025, the “prohibited foreign entity” rules look at how much of a project’s equipment cost traces to restricted suppliers. Trade measures keep moving prices too: final antidumping and countervailing duty determinations on solar cells from India, Indonesia and Laos in September 2026, and a Section 232 action on polysilicon and its derivatives that takes effect December 4, 2026. Quotes expire faster than they used to.
Bigger isn’t automatically better. New net-metering customers of LG&E and KU are credited for exported energy at a rate set by the Public Service Commission that is below the retail rate. Kentucky Power and Duke Energy Kentucky have also moved new customers to lower export credits. A bid that oversizes the system to export more is selling you its least valuable kilowatt-hours. Your request should state the sizing goal so every bidder designs to it.
Warranties depend on survivors. Several large residential installers and financiers went bankrupt in 2024–2026. A 25-year workmanship warranty is a promise from a company, and part of procurement is asking whether that company will be around to keep it.
Installer RFP & Bid Leveling is about choosing who builds your project. We write the request from your requirements, invite installers, run a shared Q&A and turn differently formatted bids into one comparison: price per watt DC, equipment, warranties, production assumptions, exclusions and payment terms. It ends with a scored shortlist and finalist interviews.
Equipment Sourcing & Documentation is about the components and their paperwork. It fits buyers who purchase major equipment directly, or who need a clean file of manufacturer and country-of-origin documents no matter who installs. We research suppliers, compare specifications and commercial offers, track lead times and keep the documentation log.
Many commercial projects use both. A homeowner holding two straightforward quotes usually needs neither; a Proposal Second Opinion is faster and simpler.
If a quote-comparison service is free to you, ask who pays for it. Many are paid by installers, per lead or per signed contract. That isn’t a scandal, but it is a reason their shortlist may not be yours. Our fee is flat, quoted in writing after a free fit call, and it is the only money we receive.
Lucía Brandt leads our procurement work. Her working rule: the most valuable line in any bid is the one that isn’t there.
In this practice
4–8 weeks from complete documents, depending mostly on the length of the bid window
We write an RFP from your requirements, invite installers you choose or we research, run the Q&A and level every bid into one scored comparison and shortlist.
Explore Installer RFP & Bid Leveling
2–6 weeks, depending on the number of components and how quickly suppliers respond
Supplier research, spec and quote comparisons, lead-time tracking and an organized file of manufacturer and country-of-origin documents for commercial solar and storage buyers.
Explore Equipment Sourcing & DocumentationWhat you walk away with
Every bidder prices the same scope in the same format, so the differences you see are real differences.
A scoring matrix and memo show who was invited, what each one offered and why the shortlist looks the way it does.
Supplier and origin documents are requested early, logged by component and handed to your tax adviser in one organized file.
We take no fees, commissions or margins from installers, manufacturers or distributors, so our only interest is the fit for you.
How it works
Installer RFP & Bid Leveling runs 4–8 weeks, depending on the bid window. Equipment Sourcing & Documentation runs 2–6 weeks.. You'll know the scope and the fee before any work begins.
A free 20-minute call to learn the project, say honestly whether we can help and list the documents we'll need.
You receive the scope, deliverables, timeline and a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
We turn your goals into a request package, invite the installers or suppliers you choose or we research, and run the Q&A.
We normalize every response, score it against weights you approved in advance and flag what is missing.
You get the comparison, the memo and a recorded walkthrough call. One round of follow-up questions is included.
Deliverables
Where our work stops
FAQ
No. We accept no fees, commissions, referral payments or margins from bidders, manufacturers, distributors or lenders. You pay a flat fee quoted in writing, and that is the only money we receive for the project.
We can't promise a number. We can make bidders compete on the same scope, strip out the padding that hides in vague line items and show you where each price comes from. That usually makes negotiation easier, and the negotiation itself stays yours.
No. You can invite installers you already know, ask us to research licensed companies that serve your area, or both. Every bidder gets the same package and the same answers.
Sometimes not. For a single home with two clear quotes, a Proposal Second Opinion is usually the better fit, and we'll tell you so on the fit call.
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Tell us what you are weighing. A free 20-minute fit call is enough to know whether we can help and what it would take.