Solar sales regulation by state: who licenses the salesperson

The gap this page is about

Every state regulates who may install a solar system, because installation is electrical and structural work and contractor licensing is old, settled law. Far fewer states regulate who may sell one.

That asymmetry matters because the two roles have come apart. The person who arrives at your door is frequently not an employee of the company whose licence will appear on the permit, and may work for a business that never touches a roof. When the seller is unregulated, the only accountability runs through the contractor, who did not make the representations that got you to sign.

Three states have closed the gap, by two different routes and with different coverage. One state that regulates solar heavily has pointedly not closed it. That is the map, and it is genuinely small.

Texas built a whole regulatory chapter, and it just switched on

In 2025 the Texas Legislature passed SB 1036, the Residential Solar Retailer Regulatory Act, now Chapter 1806 of the Occupations Code. It passed the Senate 22 to 8 and the House 94 to 37. It is the most substantial piece of solar sales regulation any state has enacted, and it arrived in two stages.

The contract rules came into force on 1 September 2025. The registration regime and the enforcement powers came into force on 1 September 2026, which was yesterday relative to this page's publication date. Anyone writing about Texas solar sales from a source older than this week is describing a different legal position.

The chapter applies to contracts entered into on or after the effective date, so it does not reach back over agreements already signed.

What Texas can do about it

Enforcement sits with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The civil penalty is capped at $2,500 per violation, or $50,000 in the aggregate for all violations of a similar nature. Where a court finds that an individual over the age of 65 was harmed at the time of the violation, those caps rise to $10,000 per violation and $100,000 in the aggregate. The same age factor may be considered in setting an administrative penalty.

TDLR may also order cancellation of the agreement and refund of amounts actually paid after notice and hearing, and doing so does not bar a separate court action for other damages. It may issue a warning letter directing corrective action before penalising, and it may issue a cease and desist order.

One precision point, because it is routinely got wrong in summaries. The statute does not name a dedicated penalty for selling without a registration. Unregistered selling is caught by the general prohibition on violating the chapter, which routes to the caps above. Those are caps rather than fixed fines.

Two things a Texas homeowner can do with this today: check a retailer or salesperson against the TDLR licence search before signing anything, and file a complaint with TDLR if something has already gone wrong.

California got there first, without ever saying the word solar

California does not have a solar salesperson licence. It has something older that catches solar sellers anyway, and in one respect it bites harder than the Texas scheme.

The route is a definition. "Home improvement" in the Business and Professions Code "shall include, but not be limited to, the construction, erection, installation, replacement, or improvement of… solar energy systems". Once solar is a home improvement, the home improvement salesperson rules apply to the person selling it.

A home improvement salesperson must register with the board in order to engage in the business of "soliciting, selling, negotiating, or executing contracts for home improvements… on behalf of a home improvement contractor". Before any solicitation, that person must identify to the homeowner "the business name and license number of the contractor they are representing for the purposes of that transaction". Applicants must furnish a full set of fingerprints, and the board obtains state and federal criminal history including subsequent arrest information.

Selling without that registration is a misdemeanour. And there is a consequence that runs directly to the homeowner rather than to the state: any security interest taken by the contractor is unenforceable if the person who solicited the contract was not a duly registered salesperson, or exempt, at the time you signed.

That last provision is unusual and worth understanding. Most licensing rules are enforced by a regulator against a licensee. This one changes what the contract is worth in the homeowner's hands.

Two limits to note. There is an appointment-setter exemption: a canvasser contacting you "for the exclusive purpose of scheduling appointments" for a registered salesperson does not themselves need to register. The person who actually pitches and closes does. And corporate officers of record, LLC managers and members of record, general partners on the licence record, and the licence's qualifying person are all exempt.

Maryland licenses the seller, with a carve-out you have to read alongside it

Maryland requires a licence to sell. "Except as otherwise provided in this title, a person must have a salesperson license or contractor license whenever the person sells a home improvement in the State." Selling is defined broadly: to negotiate or offer to negotiate a home improvement contract, or to seek to get one. Applicants must pass an examination before applying, and every home improvement contract must state the name and licence number of each salesperson who solicited or sold it. The Maryland Home Improvement Commission lets consumers check a contractor or a salesperson.

Solar is in scope, and the statute presupposes it directly: a separate provision requires that "a home improvement contract for the installation of a solar energy generating system on the roof of a building shall include the installation of a barrier… to prevent wildlife intrusion".

Maryland also does something no other state we checked does. The same section requires that a home improvement contract for rooftop solar "shall include the installation of a barrier that meets industry standards to prevent wildlife intrusion and damage to the solar energy generating system or the underlying roof". Birds and rodents nesting under an array is a real problem that damages both the system and the roof beneath it, and one legislature thought it serious enough to write a barrier into every contract.

With an escape hatch that is usually omitted when this is described. The following paragraph lets the customer waive the barrier in writing, after being told its cost and the risks of going without it. So the requirement is a default rather than a mandate, and a Maryland contract without a barrier is not necessarily unlawful, it may be waived. If you are in Maryland, the question is whether you signed that waiver and whether anyone explained what you were giving up.

We looked for a second state with an equivalent requirement and found none. Virginia has a solar contract disclosure statute running to twenty-four required items covering pricing, specifications, warranties, cancellation and certificate ownership, and it contains no mention of wildlife barriers at all. That is a verified absence rather than an exhaustive search: several state legislature sites refused us, so the honest statement is that no other state requirement was found rather than that none exists.

Now the carve-out, which has to be published in the same breath. The licence requirement does not apply to a person licensed in an occupation with state or local competency standards, acting within that scope. The statute expressly names electricians among them. And it separately exempts a person selling a home improvement that will be performed by one of those exempt tradespeople.

Maryland solar installation is commonly performed under an electrician's licence. So whether a given Maryland solar seller needs an MHIC salesperson licence turns on who performs the work. We verified the statute and the exemption text. We were unable to establish how the Commission actually applies that carve-out to solar, and we are not going to guess at it. If you are in Maryland, ask the Commission rather than relying on this page, and ask your seller which exemption they are relying on if they are unlicensed.

Washington took the other route, and went furthest

Washington enacted a dedicated Solar Energy Consumer Protections statute in 2024, and it is the most demanding solar sales law we read anywhere. It is also the clearest example of the second regulatory design, because it does all of this without licensing salespeople at all.

It defines a "solar energy salesperson" as a person who "solicits, negotiates, or otherwise endeavors to procure a solar energy installation contract with a customer… on behalf of a solar energy contractor", and it defines soliciting broadly enough to catch modern practice: door-to-door contact, telephone contact or text messages, flyers left at a residence, and internet or social media advertisements.

Then it makes that person personally liable and names them in the contract, rather than issuing them a licence. That is a different theory of accountability from Texas's, and arguably a more direct one.

The provisions that go furthest are about money and timing. No payments of any type may be charged by a salesperson or contractor before the customer's rescission rights have expired. Rescission is self-executing: if the customer emails or sends a certified letter postmarked in the window, the contractor may not enforce the contract "even if the solar energy contractor or solar energy salesperson has not responded", and may not charge a cancellation fee. Any security interest must be terminated or statutory lien released within twenty days.

And it requires the disclosure the federal regulator identified as missing. The contract must disclose "the exact amount paid, if any, by a solar energy contractor or solar energy salesperson to any lender or third-party financing company in the form of a dealer fee, or other similar inducement to obtain financing". That is precisely the hidden markup the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau described in 2024, and Washington requires it as a number on the contract.

The contract must also state cost per watt, constrain production projections to a nationally recognised industry-standard tool that accounts for shading and orientation and shows December against June and may not exceed the manufacturer's optimal inverter performance, carry an initialled warning that a customer on government assistance or a fixed income may not be eligible for the federal tax credit, itemise roofing separately, and require utility approval of the interconnection application before installation begins. Claims and defences survive assignment of the contract, so selling the paper on does not shed the liability.

Arizona is the informative no

Arizona is worth a section precisely because it does not regulate solar sellers, and it cannot be explained by the state not having thought about solar.

Arizona has a solar-specific contractor qualification. Title 32, Chapter 10 contains an entire article headed "Qualification of Solar Contractors", which prohibits installing, altering or repairing a solar device without that qualification and provides for an examination. Arizona also has a solar-specific contract statute requiring separately acknowledged rescission rights, ten-point type, disclosure of total lifetime cost, interest and fees, tax consequences, and whether warranty obligations may be transferred. It sets minimum warranty periods for solar equipment by statute.

We read the full Title 32 section index. The only salesperson licences anywhere in it are for real estate and for cemeteries. A state that has legislated this specifically about solar contractors, solar contracts and solar warranties has still not registered the person who knocks on the door.

That is the shape of the national picture in miniature. Regulating installation is normal. Regulating selling is rare, recent, and confined to a handful of states.