The rules changed twice in three years, and most of what you'll read online predates both. Here's what solar actually does for a Santa Cruz County home in 2026 — and whether your electrical service can take it.
Two things changed that make most solar advice you'll find online out of date, and you should know both before anyone quotes you.
NEM 3.0. Since April 2023, California credits the solar you export to the grid at the utility's avoided-cost rate rather than the retail rate — a great deal less than what you pay for the same electricity. Solar-only payback stretched out considerably as a result. What still works is using your own production yourself instead of exporting it, which is why solar and battery storage have become one conversation rather than two.
Section 25D is gone. The 30% federal residential credit on owned solar — the headline incentive for nearly two decades — terminated on 31 December 2025. For 2026 installs of owned systems it no longer applies. Third-party-owned and leased systems sit under different rules. Anyone still quoting you a 30% federal credit on an owned system is working from last year's script.
None of that makes solar a bad idea. It makes it a different calculation, and one worth doing honestly rather than optimistically. We'd rather talk you out of a system that won't pay for itself than sell you one that doesn't.
Where a C-10 contractor is worth more than a solar salesperson: the part of a solar project that goes wrong is almost never the panels. It's the electrical service. Whether your main panel can accept a backfeed at all, whether the busbar has the headroom, whether the service needs upgrading first — these decide the real cost of a project and they get discovered late by companies that only do solar. We look at them first.
We look at the roof, the panel, and twelve months of your bills, then model what a system would actually save you under NEM 3.0 — with and without a battery, so you can see the difference the battery makes. If the numbers don't work for your house, we say so.
Final design and the building permit. This is where solar projects sit waiting, and the timeline is largely outside anyone's control — we give you the realistic date rather than the one that sounds good.
Racking, modules, inverter, DC and AC runs, and any panel or service work that goes with it. Doing the electrical ourselves is what keeps a service upgrade from becoming a separate project with a separate contractor and a separate wait.
Building-department inspection first, because PG&E approves the interconnection only once the final inspection sign-off is with the application. Then permission-to-operate from PG&E — the array cannot legally produce until that lands. Then commissioning, monitoring set up, warranties registered, and a walkthrough of what the numbers should look like so you'd notice if something stopped working.
We give you a real number at the free inspection rather than a range on a web page. Solar varies more than almost anything else we quote — roof type and pitch, shading, how far the array is from the panel, and above all whether your electrical service can take the interconnection as it stands. That last one is where solar quotes go wrong. A quote that doesn't say what happens if your panel can't accept the backfeed isn't a complete quote — it's a quote with a service upgrade hidden behind it. We check that first and put it in writing either way. On incentives, plainly: Section 25D terminated on 31 December 2025, so there is no 30% federal credit on an owned system for 2026 installs. Under NEM 3.0 your exported power earns the utility's avoided-cost rate rather than retail. SGIP, the state battery rebate, closed its general budgets to new applications at the end of 2025, and its income-qualified rebate is closed in PG&E territory too: eligible households can only join a waitlist, and funding isn't assured. Both of those are facts to plan around, not reasons to avoid solar — but a projection that ignores either is not worth reading.
“We were having serious problems with our Tesla, solar system, and Carlos came out to evaluate the problems. He was right on target with what the problems were, and he called his boss just to confirm which I appreciated the second opinion. They will be installing the solar system correctly and I’m so relieved. Carlos was wonderful. He is so personable and so intelligent, and I admire him. Can’t wait to get this whole system fixed”
“We've had an exceptional experience with Sunrise Electrical Contracting. In the middle of winter with a 5 week old baby - we found ourselves without power once again in the Santa cruz Mountains. We had already purchased a solar system but hadn't set it up. My husband called Sunrise Electrical Contracting and connected with Branden who came on an emergency call on short notice. He was able to set up our solar system in a few hours and took a lot of time to explain things to my husband who asks a lot of questions and give him advice on the system. Branden was professional and friendly, as well as extremely knowledgeable and friendly while he met at our home. He got us out of a bind and now we can keep our house warm. The rate was great and out of the companies we called, they were the most responsive. We definitely trust this company with our electrical needs moving forward and recommend them to anyone who needs work.”
Pulled from what we actually hear on quotes and on-site. If yours isn't here, ask us — we'll answer in plain English.
We'd rather you get the right outcome than the Sunrise outcome. Some of this points away from us on purpose.
Ask any solar company two questions before you sign: what happens if your main panel can't accept the backfeed, and what their projection assumes about NEM 3.0 and the expired 25D credit. Answers to those separate the current from the out-of-date. Verify any licence at cslb.ca.gov.
Browse our field guidesIf the real goal is keeping the lights on rather than cutting the bill, a battery on its own does that — and it does it without a roof array. Worth reading before you commit to solar you don't need.
Home battery backupA free whole-home inspection tells you whether your service can take an array before you spend anything on design. You keep the written report either way.
Schedule a free inspectionFrom Davenport to Pajaro Dunes, San Lorenzo Valley to Pleasure Point. Same crew, same warranty, same pricing.
Free on-site inspection, twelve months of your bills modelled under the current rules, and a straight answer on whether it pays off.