Our Process

Step 1: Request Quote

Your Schedule. Your Terms.

Getting started is simple — just call our office or use our Easy Quote form to book a time that works for you.

During your first call:

You’ll get answers to your initial questions.
We’ll gather a few details about your home and energy goals.

From there, we’ll create a customized solar design to review with you at our next meeting.

[Next Step In 1-3 Days]

Get Started

Step 2: Solar Design Review

See the Numbers. Know the Value.

Your Valley Solar designer will walk you through a fully interactive solar design, where you can explore “what-if” scenarios – like adding panels or removing trees – and instantly see the results.

Your design review includes:

Solar Shade Report: A detailed analysis of your home’s solar potential.
Production Estimate: Month-by-month projections of expected energy output.
Equipment Options: Recommendations tailored to your goals and budget.
Savings Projections: A clear breakdown of your solar ROI and financing options. If we can’t show you at least 30% savings, we won’t take the project.

With your approval of the preliminary design, we’ll schedule a detailed Engineering Assessment — where our team comes to site to verify every detail.

[Next Step In 3-6 Days]

Step 3: Engineering Assessment

Engineered for Accuracy. Performance Guaranteed.

After thousands of installations, we’ve honed every detail of our Engineering Assessment for accuracy and repeatability — giving us the confidence to guarantee your system’s performance.

Time on site: plan for ~2 hours (complex sites may take longer).

During the visit, we:

Review the plan with you — We take time on site to review every aspect of the project with you — confirming equipment placement, conduit paths, and aesthetic preferences — so your final design reflects exactly what you expect on installation day.
Inspect electrical systems and roofs conditions — Evaluate service equipment, roof structure and condition; verify electrical code compliance and confirm readiness. All data is recorded for engineering stamps and permits.
Capture high-fidelity data — Collect 200+ high-resolution photos and precise measurements, all uploaded directly into our engineering system.
Create a 3D model by drone — Use high-precision drone imagery to safely model your roof and surroundings.
Validate design with dual modeling — Reconcile the drone-based 3D model against the design from Step 2. By cross-verifying two data sources, we achieve exceptional accuracy and consistency.

The result: A construction-ready design with exceptional precision. That accuracy is why we back your system with a 95% Solar Production Guarantee — we only guarantee what we can deliver.

[Next Step In 4–7 Days]

Step 4: Final Design Approval

Clarity Before Commitment

Your designer will meet with you one more time to review the updated system design and walk through the construction agreement. This step ensures you have complete clarity before giving the go-ahead to proceed.

In this meeting, you’ll see:

Any updates to your system design based on the Engineering Assessment
Adjustments for structural or electrical upgrades (if needed)
Your system’s Guaranteed Annual Production, backed by our 95% Solar Production Guarantee
A detailed review of the Construction Agreement, warranties, and scope of work
A clear explanation of pricing, payment terms, and incentives

No last-minute surprises. Just the full picture — so you can move forward with confidence.

[Next Step In 4-6 Weeks]

Step 5: Permitting Approval

We Handle the Heavy Lifting

With your final design approved, Valley Solar manages all permits and utility applications.

We take care of:

Engineering stamps and interconnection applications
Building, electrical, and fire permits
Procurement of all system materials

As each milestone is completed, you’ll receive status updates and see real progress in your customer portal — keeping you in the loop as we move smoothly towards installation.

[Next Step In 4–8 weeks]

Step 6: Installation

Smooth, Professional Installation

Every installation begins with a project walk-through led by your installation lead. Together, you’ll review equipment mounting locations, wire paths, and site logistics to make sure everything proceeds exactly as planned.

Because we never use subcontractors, every person on your roof is a licensed Valley Solar electrician or apprentice — trained, background-checked, and committed to delivering quality work.

Our installation standards include:

Professional, courteous crews who respect your home and property
Strict adherence to Valley Solar and OSHA safety standards
A clean job site at the end of each day
A post-installation orientation to introduce you to your new system

As the region’s largest solar contractor, we’ve perfected our process through thousands of installations. That experience shows in every detail — precise workmanship, reliable scheduling, and systems built to last. It’s no coincidence that many local building inspectors choose Valley Solar for their own homes.

[Step Completed in 2–3 Days – You’re Installed!]

Step 7: Post-Installation Support

Quality & Support That Lasts

Your relationship with Valley Solar doesn’t end when your panels go up. Once your system is online, we audit its performance and enroll you in 10 years of SunAlert™ monitoring at no extra cost. You’ll receive proactive, local support from the same team that installed your system — never a call center or subcontractor. And with our 95% Solar Production Guarantee, you can be confident your system will perform exactly as promised.

What you can expect:

Performance audit: Within weeks of activation, we verify your system is producing as projected — and make immediate corrections if it’s not.
Personal follow-up: You’ll receive a courtesy call once your system receives permission to operate (PTO).
24/7 monitoring: SunAlert™ tracks your system continuously and alerts our team at the first sign of underperformance, so we can act before you even notice.
Guaranteed results: Your 95% Solar Production Guarantee ensures your system delivers the energy we promised — backed by our commitment to make it right if it doesn’t.
Dedicated local service: Our in-house service team supports hundreds of systems across Western Massachusetts and will be here to maintain yours for decades.

This long-term commitment is why Valley Solar is the name homeowners recommend to friends and neighbors — and why most of our new customers come through referrals.

Get Your Process Started

Don’t Just Take Our Word For It

4.9

Google Reviews

Verified Google reviews from homeowners across Western Massachusetts.

We contacted Valley Solar late in 2023 in anticipation of our move from TX to MA. The request was more complex: install and connect solar panels to our newly purchased property in MA, install and connect our Tesla Powerwall we will bring from TX, and connect our car charger to the infrastructure in…

In this day and age it has becoming increasingly difficult to find contractors who walk the walk after they have talked the talk, but it has been my experience that Valley Solar is one of those contractors who knows what they are doing, and that what they say they will do is in fact what they do. …

I researched three solar companies for an installation of a solar system on our house. One company promised a lot but barely delivered on the first deliverable in the discovery phase. Another came in with an extremely high quote and a questionable design (installing 5 solar panels under the shade of a tree). While we cannot claim to be solar panel engineers, we have lived in our home for over 15 years and we have some sense of where the sun hits best on our property.

Valley Solar came in with a design that was spot on which would allow us to generate the maximum allowed power from our location. They gave a design. They gave us an estimate. Everything was very clear. As we planned to purchase the system and could not afford one outright, they connected us with UMass5 to help finance the system with a custom solar loan that helps us take advantage of tax credits to optimally fund the cost that translate into manageable monthly payments. When coupled with low to no electricity utility payments, we should be able to pay for the system well before the term of the loan with nearly no impact to our monthly cashflow.

In terms of the installation, the crew was amazing. There were three crews that came in to install the system over approximately 3 days. The first crew came in to install the framing for the system. The second crew came in to install the panels. The third crew was an electrician who worked through all phases of the project to connect the system to our existing electrical service. While I was impressed with everyone, I was extremely impressed with the electrician. He did a great job. We have an old house and our electrical service is not new and certainly could have been more neatly installed over the years. When he was the done, I feel the Valley Solar electrician greatly improved the state of our electrical service. Super professional.

When it came to turning on the system, we had to wait to get the green light from the power company. When we got it, all I had to do was literally flip a switch. We are using Tesla equipment for converting the electricity to AC and for tracking the flow of electricity into the house and back out to the grid. Despite it’s majority owner’s reputation ( and rightly so), the Tesla equipment is pretty darn impressive. I have a mobile app that monitors power generation and usage down to the hundredth kilowatt hour. In one month, with record heat and humidity and running the air conditioner more than we normally do, we still are making more power than we are using.

I guess I could have made this review shorter by simply saying Valley Solar has been nothing short of incredibly professional and making our investment into a supremely wise investment that will return us a direct financial and environmentally sustainable benefit for the next +25 years.

I have to say my experience with everybody at Valley Solar was thoroughly enjoyable and their professionalism was always in the forefront. From meetings to present their proposal, to regular and informative communication during the time leading up to the installation, to the awesome crew that spent…

The installation crew was impressive. The men on the roof, the electricians, and the support staff were all friendly, proficient, communicative, and responsive to all our needs. I’m retired, but if I were still in business, I’d be tempted to lure these guys onto my team 😉! Top shelf professi…

My family offers Valley Solar an unreserved recommendation for any solar/battery storage system that you might want for your home or business. They will do quick, excellent, and reliable work that will exceed your expectations, and someone is always available for any questions you might have before…

Google says I need to omit the quoting/initial part of the permitting process due to review length… Sam was a great expert that was thorough and patient as I learned about solar power.

Slightly more than a month after calling Sam during an “Easy Quote” (impressive with how many other people were doing the same thing I did), I reviewed and signed a full proposed construction agreement. However, Eversource delayed my project for a technical review of their own, and they demanded that I pay over $11,000 for a grid infrastructure upgrade that “would be needed to prevent overloading of secondary transformers.” Instead of hiding this or asking for more fees of their own, they immediately had me work with the vice president of sales. I was honestly ready to cancel the project until I talked to Mike; he knew there was a way to negotiate with the utility to make the project happen. Sure enough, less than 3 weeks later, they re-submitted the application for my system with an “export limit,” and Eversource approved the installation to proceed sans grid upgrade.

Now, at this point, Mike was sounding a little nervous; I was tentatively scheduled for early January with a “high likelihood of moving up.” Little did I expect Dawson to call me in the middle of November, asking if this team could have a head start on November 19th. Of course I accepted, and the men who arrived at my home on that day did amazing things in less than 7 hours. I do need to point out the dedication of this team; a solar installation with battery backup can take up to a week of electrical and structural work. The racking, hidden conduit, and swap-out of my entire electrical panel was done on that day, and I need to thank Andrew for refusing to leave the job site until he knew the power was back on after his full panel swap.

The team returned in early December (just like they said they would) and installed/wired the battery, every panel, disconnect, conduit, and wire (there was a lot of wiring) in just two days. The team was hard-working and meticulous; they even moved the 300 pound Powerwall from one mounting location to another over uneven and half-frozen ground, just because they were worried the fire department might not like it! Andrew even pointed out how much better the new location would allow him to hide conduit. Look at the pictures; everything looks great with ZERO exposed wires or conduit outside of my home. It’s a joke in construction that electricians are the messiest trade, but Valley Solar’s electricians respected my home and cleaned up every wire and sheath that they could. On December 11th, with hands freezing in the cold wind, Andrew and his team flipped the breaker going to my Powerwall, closed everything up, and then we watched the Tesla app report the first solar AC production occurring at my home.

In conclusion, Valley made the best system; it exceeds my expectations and reasonable production estimates from PVWatts and Gemini AI alike. They installed it quickly and at the best time, at the best price. They used highly efficient bi-facial panels, which are more expensive than what national competitors might use, but allow me to have much more production, including on cloudy days. They used construction practices and design practices (including certifications from outside contractors) that make me believe this system might actually last 25 or more years, like they warranted.

I am glad I called Valley Solar. I’m very pleased with their work. I would hire them again for any major electrical projects, and I trust that they will stand behind their work for a long time to come. If you call Valley Solar for your project, I hope that you find them as ambitious, excellent, dedicated and reasonable as I did.

Our Process — From Quote to Guaranteed Results