Solar Proposal
A customer-facing document that presents a proposed solar installation, covering system size and layout, production estimates, equipment list, pricing, financing options, incentives, savings projection, and terms, used as the primary sales artifact in a solar buying decision.
A solar proposal is the single most important customer-facing document in a residential or small commercial solar sale. It is the moment the abstract ("we would like to go solar") becomes concrete ("here is your system, here is what it costs, here is what you save"). The quality, clarity, and speed of a proposal often matters more to close rate than the price itself.
The document has to succeed at two opposite jobs. On one hand, it has to be legible to a homeowner who has never read an energy contract, so the savings math, warranty terms, and payment schedule need to fit on one page. On the other hand, it has to answer the technical questions a buyer brings to a second opinion (panel brand, inverter topology, expected degradation, roof penetration method, monitoring access). Proposals that win do both.
What makes a proposal persuasive
The strongest proposals lead with savings expressed in the customer's terms, not the installer's. A homeowner tracks electricity by the monthly bill, not the kWh, so the best proposals headline with "Your bill goes from 240 to 40 USD" before citing annual kWh production. Commercial proposals lead with payback period and internal rate of return, because the decision-maker is comparing solar against other capital projects.
The other differentiator is showing work. A proposal that simply states "25,000 USD savings over 25 years" loses to a proposal that shows the utility rate escalator assumption, the panel degradation curve, and the monthly payment under each financing option. Buyers trust math they can follow.
Why it matters for solar installers
A slow, generic proposal is where good leads go to die. Every day between meeting and proposal is a day the customer is getting quoted by competitors, and every line the customer does not understand is a friction point they will resolve by not signing. SolarVis generates proposals directly from the design and financing model, so a rep can produce, present, and capture signature on the same day a lead qualifies.
Common questions
- What does a complete solar proposal include?
- A strong residential proposal covers system size and layout, 25-year production forecast, utility bill offset, equipment brands and warranties, pricing with federal and state incentives applied, monthly payment for each financing option, installation timeline, and what happens if the system underperforms. Missing any of these sends the customer hunting for the answer elsewhere.
- How long should a solar proposal be?
- Residential proposals usually run 10 to 20 pages as a PDF, split roughly into a 3-page executive summary, a design section with the panel layout, a financial section with each payment option, and appendices (warranties, datasheets, company background). Customers decide on the first 3 pages, the rest supports due diligence.
- Is a solar proposal legally binding?
- Typically no. Most proposals explicitly state they are an offer, not a contract. A separate agreement with signed terms, price, and installation schedule is what creates the legal commitment. Some installers embed a conditional-acceptance signature on the proposal, followed by a formal contract after site survey.
