Hiring Your First Solar Installer

Settle what your state lets a new hire do

Your state's licensing rules decide what your first hire may legally do on a solar job, so get those answers before you write the job ad. A rooftop install mixes roof work (attachments, flashing, racking, setting modules), PV wiring (module connections, wire management, the runs to the inverter) and the service connection (inverter output, disconnects, the tie-in to the home's panel, batteries). States draw their licensing lines between those differently.

Ask your state's electrical licensing board, and its contractor board if that's a separate agency:

1. Which of those tasks count as electrical work that only a licensed electrician, or someone working under one, may do?
2. May an unlicensed installer mount racking, set modules and plug module connectors together?
3. Must apprentices or trainees register before they start, how many may one electrician supervise, and must that electrician be on the roof, on the site, or only responsible for the work?
4. Is there a solar-specific or limited license for PV work?

Get the answers in writing from the board, because the rules differ by state and change. Ask the building departments where you pull permits too; a city or county can add registration rules of its own.

Don't let a certification stand in for a license. NABCEP says its certifications are voluntary, are not a license issued by a government agency, do not authorize anyone to practice and do not replace state licensing requirements ¹. If the electrical work needs a license you don't hold, hire a licensed electrician or subcontract that portion to a licensed electrical contractor where your state allows it. Licensing for the company itself is covered in how to start a solar installation business.

Pick the role before you post the job

Each role changes what you screen for, what you pay and how much of your day goes to supervision.

If you're the licensed electrician on every job, an installer who handles attachments, racking and modules frees you for wiring, inspections and sales. If your state reserves PV electrical work for licensed electricians and you want to grow your own, ask your electrical board how an apprentice's hours count toward a license and whether they must be earned in a registered apprenticeship program. Then ask your state apprenticeship agency or a community college electrical program whether there's a registered program you can join as an employer.

Use the NABCEP PV Associate as the entry credential

For someone new to solar, the NABCEP PV Associate is a sensible credential to ask for or to pay for. NABCEP aims it at people new to solar or early in a solar career: candidates qualify through a course with a NABCEP registered training provider or through documented PV work experience, then pass an exam, and must be 18 or older ². NABCEP certifications and credentials are valid for three years, and holders apply to renew during the third year ³, so put the date in the hire's file. The NABCEP certification entry covers the wider family of credentials.

Treat it as proof of study, not of skill; the paid working day below tests the rest. If a promising candidate doesn't have it yet, offer to pay for the course and exam once they've proved themselves on your crew.

Show them the path to lead installer

The next step is the PV Installation Professional (PVIP) certification. NABCEP requires 10 hours of OSHA construction outreach training, at least 58 hours of advanced PV training (40 of them from an accredited institution), documented installations and an exam ¹. Installations count only if they are complete, permitted and passed final inspection, each rated at least 1 kW DC, and only where the applicant held a decision-making role such as lead installer, system designer, project manager or foreman ¹.

So your hire can't log a qualifying install until you let them lead one. Write down what it takes to get there, and keep a log for every job: address, system size, permit number, final inspection date and who led. A credential your installer can see coming is a reason to stay.

Fall protection on solar roofs

Fall protection is the rule OSHA cites most: its general requirements (29 CFR 1926.501) topped OSHA's list of most frequently cited standards in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 ⁴.

In residential construction, each employee working 6 feet or more above a lower level must be protected by a guardrail system, a safety net system or a personal fall arrest system, unless another provision of the rule allows an alternative ⁵. A written fall protection plan is allowed only if you can show those systems are infeasible or create a greater hazard ⁵. On a pitched roof the practical answer is usually a personal fall arrest system: harness, lanyard or rope grab, lifeline and roof anchor. The fall protection entry explains each system.

What's different on a solar roof

• Plan anchors with the array. Mark anchor locations on the layout before the first attachment goes in, so the crew can reach every row without unhooking and lifelines don't drag across finished modules. Tie off only to rated anchors, never to rails or module frames.
• Hoist the modules. A module is an awkward load on a ladder, and it catches wind like a sail. Send modules up by ladder hoist or lift with a ground person, and decide in advance who calls a stop for wind or a slick roof.
• Never step on a module. Make it a day-one rule, and have the hire read the module manufacturer's handling instructions.
• Mark openings. Point out skylights, vents and unprotected edges before work starts, and cover or guard openings near the work.

Train, certify and pay for the gear

Each employee who might be exposed to fall hazards must be trained by a competent person, covering the fall hazards in the work area and how to erect, maintain, disassemble and inspect the fall protection systems to be used ⁶. Train on your own anchors and harnesses, even if the hire has installed solar for years. Certify the training in writing with the employee's name, the training dates and the signature of the trainer or the employer, and retrain anyone you have reason to believe lacks the understanding or skill the training requires ⁶, for example after a switch to new anchors, a near miss or catching someone unhooked.

Protective equipment used to comply with OSHA's construction standards must be provided at no cost to employees, apart from narrow exceptions such as non-specialty safety-toe boots and prescription safety glasses that employees may wear off the job, and everyday clothing and weather gear ⁷. The harness, lifeline and anchors are on you. Buy a harness that fits the hire, not you.

Electrical safety on a system the sun keeps live

Modules produce electricity whenever light hits them, and opening a disconnect doesn't stop the modules upstream of it from producing voltage. Train for that before the hire touches a connector:

• Test before touch with a meter rated for the DC voltages in your systems, checked on a known live source before and after.
• Know what stays live. Using the manufacturer's documentation, walk through how rapid shutdown and the disconnects work on your equipment and which conductors can still carry voltage afterward.
• Never unplug under load. Pulling a PV connector apart while current flows can draw an arc. Shut down first, in the order the inverter manufacturer specifies.
• Treat damage as live. A cracked module or a cut cable gets reported, not handled.
• Lock out the AC side. Write down how your crew locks and tags the breaker and AC disconnect before work on the interconnection, and who removes the lock.
• Batteries. Train on each manufacturer's installation procedures, and find out whether its warranty depends on installer training.

Teach it on your own equipment (you or your licensed electrician), add a formal electrical safety course if you aren't confident teaching it, and keep a training record like the fall protection one. Whatever the hire's experience, keep them off tasks your state reserves for licensed electricians, and teach to the edition of the electrical code your inspectors enforce.

Heat and the first week

OSHA says more than 70 percent of heat-related deaths happen during a worker's first week, and almost half on the first day on the job or the first day back after an extended absence ⁸. Its guidance for new and returning workers is to start with 20% of the usual time in the heat on day one and add no more than 20% on each day after ⁸. On a solar crew that schedule is easy to keep: put the new hire on the roof in the cooler morning, then on staging, prep and training on the ground in the afternoon. Build water, rest and shade into the schedule.

Hiring under 18

Federal child labor rules generally prohibit anyone under 18 from roofing occupations and from other work on or about a roof, including from ladders and scaffolds at or near it, with a narrow exception for 16- and 17-year-olds in a bona fide apprenticeship or student-learner program ⁹. Before you hire a minor for any job near a roof, ask the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division how that applies to your work, and check your state's child labor law. The PV Associate also requires candidates to be 18 or older ².

Employee or subcontractor

A 1099 doesn't make your installer a subcontractor; how you work together decides it. Answer these honestly:

• Who decides which job they're on and when they start?
• Who designs the layout and attachment spacing they follow?
• Who supplies the modules, racking, harnesses and anchors?
• Whose license and permit cover the work?
• If an attachment they installed leaks two years later, who fixes the roof?
• Do they install for other companies, under their own business name and insurance?

If most answers point to you, plan on an employee, and have a CPA or employment lawyer review any contractor arrangement before you rely on it: the IRS and the states apply their own tests, and the facts decide. The independent contractor entry covers the basics. For a real subcontractor, collect certificates for their workers' comp and liability coverage, confirm any license your state requires for their tasks, and put in writing who carries the workmanship warranty, who repairs leaks from their attachments and what fall protection you expect.

Workers' comp, pay and cost per watt

Workers' compensation is set by state law and the rules differ from state to state, so confirm yours with your state's workers' comp agency or a licensed agent before day one. Describe the whole job (roof attachments, electrical work, battery installs) and ask how the carrier classifies rooftop solar work, since that drives the premium. The workers' compensation insurance entry explains the basics.

For pay, start with the national picture, then go local. BLS reports May 2025 median pay of $53,140 a year for solar photovoltaic installers, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $41,600 and the highest 10 percent more than $79,970, and projects employment in the occupation to grow 37 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average ¹⁰. Pay varies by area, so check the BLS state wage estimates for solar photovoltaic installers, and for electricians if your hire will do electrical work ¹¹. Then settle these in writing:

• Overtime. Rain delays and inspection dates bunch work into catch-up weeks, and covered non-exempt employees must be paid at least one and one-half times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek ¹².
• Training and tools. Who pays for the PV Associate and OSHA training, and which tools the company supplies: torque wrenches, meters, crimpers, the hoist and all fall protection gear.

Solar jobs are priced and compared per watt, so convert the hire's cost into the same unit.

Example: You pay a new installer $25 an hour for a 40-hour week, so $1,000 in wages. Suppose payroll taxes, workers' comp and gear add $300 a week (made-up numbers; get real ones from your payroll provider and your agent). That's $1,300 a week. If drive time, supply runs and weather leave 30 hours a week on actual installs, each install hour costs about $43.33. On an 8 kW (8,000-watt) job where the new hire works 20 hours, their labor costs about $867, or roughly $0.11 per watt, before your own time, overhead and profit.

Run your real numbers through how to set your labor rate, and see how to price solar installations for where labor sits among the other costs.

Test skills on a paid working day

Bring your top candidate along for a paid day of real work, confirm with your agent that your coverage extends to a working interview, and tell the candidate what you'll watch:

Questions that separate field experience from a good interview:

• How do you find rafters, and what do you do when an attachment lands on soft decking?
• On a sunny day, what's still energized after you open the DC disconnect?
• Which racking systems and inverters have you installed, and what was your part of each job?
• Tell me about a leak or callback on a job you worked, and what changed afterward.

The first 90 days

1. Week 1: fall protection and electrical safety training with signed records, the heat schedule, ground work.
2. Weeks 2 to 4: attachments, flashing and racking beside you or your lead, photographing every penetration before it's covered.
3. Weeks 5 to 8: modules and wire management; electrical tasks only as your state allows.
4. Weeks 9 to 12: running parts of the job, reviewing callbacks together, booking the PV Associate exam and starting their install log.

Keep photos, serial numbers, permit numbers and the install log where the whole crew can find them, whether that's a shared folder, a group chat or chat-first field service software such as Redline. The same record answers the inspector, backs up a warranty claim and supports a future NABCEP application.