Every claim on this page checked against primary sources on July 29, 2026

How to verify an installer’s licence

What each state requires

One row per state, with the credential to ask for and the date we last read the regulator's own document. The lookups themselves are on the Installers page.

The five patterns, and the sharpest example of each

A solar licence of its own

Two states license solar as its own trade. Utah's S202 Solar Photovoltaic Contractor may fabricate, construct, install or replace photovoltaic modules — and the same rule expressly excludes the wiring, connections and wire methods governed by the National Electrical Code, which must be done by a general or residential electrical contractor. Utah Admin. Code R156-55a So a compliant Utah job involves two licences, and a company holding only the solar one cannot lawfully do its own interconnection. California's C-46 Solar Contractor is written the same way and carries the same kind of limit: a C-46 licensee "shall not undertake or perform building or construction trades, crafts, or skills, except when required to install a thermal or photovoltaic solar energy system." CSLB — C-46 Solar Contractor

This is the pattern where checking the class matters most, because the register will show a company with only the solar licence as validly licensed. It is.

The ordinary electrical licence

Three states have no solar class and treat the array as electrical work. Arizona is the one that catches people out: the Registrar of Contractors does run solar classifications, and they are for solar thermal — plumbing including solar, air conditioning including solar, solar plumbing liquid systems. Those are the ones requiring the Registrar's Solar Exam. Rooftop photovoltaic work runs under the ordinary electrical classifications, none of which require it. AZ ROC — License Classification Requirements A claim that Arizona photovoltaic work needs a solar exam is one of the two secondary licensing claims this site has had to correct.

Maine draws the most precise line found anywhere. Its Electricians' Examining Board rule makes a complete photovoltaic installation an electrical installation, and then carves out the other half of the job:

That single sentence explains a crew where not everyone on the roof is an electrician, and it is the clearest statement on this site of who must be licensed for which task.

A building trade licence

Two states reach solar through construction licensing rather than electrical licensing. Alabama is the surprise: its Home Builders Licensure Board was asked whether a residential home builders licence is needed to install solar panels, and answered that it is — an unlimited one. The reasoning turns on the roof. The Act reaches a residential roofer once the cost exceeds $2,500, a rooftop array is fixed to the roof, and the Board considers that the work spans more than one trade and may affect the structural integrity of the roof:

The Board is careful about its own reach: the opinion states that it "is not binding on a court of law" and encourages review with legal counsel. It is still the issuing body's published position, which is what a homeowner would be measured against.

Minnesota gets to a building trade licence by a different route and for a reason worth knowing: since July 1, 2023 a company contracting with a Minnesota homeowner for a rooftop system must hold a residential building contractor or remodeler licence, while the electrical work itself must be done by a licensed electrical contractor. Minnesota DLI That first licence is what gives the homeowner access to the state's Contractor Recovery Fund if the company fails mid-project — the one case on this site where the licence is directly worth money to the customer.

Nothing statewide

Two states license nothing at the state level that reaches a residential solar job. Ohio is the cleaner example and it goes further than having no solar class: the state licenses no residential contractors of any trade. Its Construction Industry Licensing Board covers five commercial trades, and residential requirements are set by municipalities. Ohio Dept. of Commerce — OCILB

Missouri has a statewide electrical contractor licence and the office that issues it answers the obvious question directly: asked whether the licence is required, it says "No. The statewide electrical contractor license is optional, not mandatory." Missouri Office of Statewide Electrical Contractors The state issues no permits and inspects no work. In both states the questions worth asking are which local licences the contractor holds and which authority will inspect the job.

Not established

In three states we could not establish which licence covers photovoltaic work, and each says so on its own page rather than being rounded to whatever its neighbours require. In one, the licensing authority's own profession list would not load and we declined to infer a negative from a page that failed to render. In another, the state's rules approach installer competence through the interconnection requirements instead of a trade licence, so what the utility will check is documented and what the state requires is not. In the third, the regulator publishes a searchable list of licence classes with no solar class among them — and naming one of the others without reading the scope-of-practice document behind it is exactly the guess that produced the two wrong licensing claims this site has already had to correct.

What to do before you sign

1. Get the licence number in writing, held by the entity that will sign your contract. A number belonging to a subcontractor, an owner personally, or a related company is a different fact from the one you asked for.
2. Search the legal name, not the trading name, in the regulator's own lookup. These differ more often than people expect.
3. Check the class against the work. This is the step almost nobody takes and it is where the failures are. In a state with a dedicated solar licence, ask who is doing the electrical connections and under which licence.
4. Ask what happens if the company fails mid-project. The answer is a recovery fund in one state on this site and nothing at all in several others.
5. Ask who pulls the permit and who inspects. In the states with no statewide licensing this is the layer that actually governs the job, and in one state a mandatory state inspection stands between a finished array and a working net metering arrangement. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 70-2004(1)
6. Separate the licence question from the contract question. Licensing tells you the work may lawfully be done. It tells you nothing about the production estimate, the financing, or what happens to your incentives — and in 2026 that last one is where the money is. Buy versus lease is here.

Worth knowing that some states legislated the customer's side rather than the installer's. Georgia's Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act bars your utility from demanding safety or performance standards, tests or liability insurance beyond the national codes. Georgia HB 57 (2015) Indiana wrote a customer bill of rights the attorney general enforces, including the right to be told the value of every tax credit and incentive you may receive — which is precisely what a 2026 pitch still quoting a 30% federal credit gets wrong. What actually happened federally.

What this page does not cover yet

• Three states remain unresolved, as set out above. Each is queued for a session that reads the regulator's own scope-of-practice document.
• Bonding and insurance minimums. Several of the documents behind this page state them. We did not read them systematically across all 12 states and will not publish a partial set as though it were a comparison.
• Reciprocity between states. Whether a licence held in one state helps in another came up in none of the sources we read and has not been researched.
• Standing and discipline. We do not check whether any licence is in good standing, and we have read no enforcement records anywhere.
• Municipal licensing. In the two states where the binding requirement is local, we have not collected the city and county rules.
• Thirty-eight states. The comparison covers the 12 states with data files here. Absence means unread, not unregulated.