Solar Companies in the Bay Area: Who Installed the Most Systems in 2025

Installers who connected the most home solar systems in the Bay Area in 2025

Counts from utility records, not a ranking or endorsement. Check each license's status and complaint history on the CSLB's Check a License page (checked Sept. 24, 2026). The counts cover PG&E customers across Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano and Sonoma counties; customers of city-owned utilities are not in the data.

Source: California Distributed Generation Statistics (CPUC), Interconnected Project Sites data set, data through May 31, 2026 (checked Sept. 24, 2026).

Home solar in the Bay Area by the numbers

PG&E approved 28,720 home solar systems in the Bay Area in 2025, from 693 installers; the top three were named on 38% of them. The busiest year since 2021 was 2023, with 52,148 (2025: -45%). Another 12,746 were approved from January through May 2026.

2025 mix: 35% leased or on a power purchase agreement, 65% owned by the household; 53% with a battery; median size 6.15 kW DC.

Bay Area providers and permit offices by city

The California Energy Commission's utility map shows PG&E as the delivery utility across most of the region, with a patchwork of community choice aggregators supplying generation on top of it, and three cities outside PG&E altogether: Palo Alto (City of Palo Alto Utilities), Santa Clara (Silicon Valley Power) and Alameda (the City of Alameda's own utility, listed on the map as Alameda Power & Telecom). Each community choice provider names its own member communities: Ava lists 16 cities plus unincorporated Alameda and San Joaquin counties, Silicon Valley Clean Energy 12 cities plus unincorporated Santa Clara County, and Sonoma Clean Power Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

The permit column shows each city's own report to the Energy Commission under SB 379: residential solar permits issued, the share with battery storage, and the share issued online, for 2024 unless another year is named.

Utility and CCA rows are from the Energy Commission's map, queried September 23, 2026, and each provider's own list of communities where it publishes one; the Marin, Napa, Solano, Brentwood and Antioch rows were checked against the map and MCE's member list on September 24, 2026. Permit counts are the jurisdictions' own SB 379 reports in the Commission's data file dated May 2026. A high count reflects demand and city size, not a faster process.

For what each of these utilities charges today, see Bay Area electric rates and community choice providers.

Hiring a solar company in the Bay Area

Solar companies in the Bay Area work across one delivery utility and many generation providers: PG&E's wires reach most homes, while Ava, MCE, CleanPowerSF, San José Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, WestLight and Sonoma Clean Power set the solar credits in their cities, and Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Alameda run their own utilities. Each city issues its own permit, some fully online and some not. Compare at least three written bids built on your own bill.

Start with your Bay Area electricity bill

Most Bay Area homes are on PG&E's wires, but PG&E is rarely the only name on the bill. In most cities a community choice provider such as Ava Community Energy, MCE, CleanPowerSF, San José Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, WestLight Energy or Sonoma Clean Power supplies the generation and sets its own solar credit rules. Three cities, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Alameda, run their own electric utilities instead. Start every quote from the provider names on your own statement.

Why the generation provider changes a Bay Area quote

On a PG&E account with a community choice provider, the bill has two halves. CleanPowerSF describes it plainly: it buys the electricity, PG&E delivers it, and you see a separate charge from each. San José Clean Energy says the same split applies to solar: when your panels produce more than you use, it credits the generation part of the bill and PG&E credits the delivery part. So a proposal that credits every exported kWh at PG&E's bundled value is modeling a bill most Bay Area homes do not have.

The providers also draw their dates differently. Silicon Valley Clean Energy says customers who applied for solar after April 14, 2023 are on the Solar Billing Plan, while those who applied between June 29, 2016 and that date stay on NEM 2.0 for 20 years from installation. PG&E's own Solar Billing Plan values exports by time of day, day of the week and season, gives Energy Export Bonus Credits to customers who start before 2028, and closes each 12-month cycle with a True-Up statement.

What the permit reports show across the region

State law, Government Code section 65850.52, required cities of more than 50,000 people to offer an online, automated solar permit such as SolarAPP+ by September 30, 2023, and smaller cities by September 30, 2024. Each city that did must report its residential solar permits to the Energy Commission every year, and the 2024 reports show the law landed unevenly. San Jose, Petaluma and Danville issued nearly every permit online; Fremont issued 20% online, San Francisco 17%, Oakland 6% and Hayward none. Oakland's 2025 report shows the share jumping to 72%.

Storage is now the norm in much of the region. In 2024, 79% of San Jose's residential solar permits, 74% of Fremont's and 72% of Hayward's included a battery, against 26% in San Francisco. For a homeowner, that means a bid without a battery is now the unusual one in many South Bay and East Bay cities; ask each bidder to show the bill with and without it.

Marin County: MCE and town-by-town permits

Every Marin town and census place checked on the Energy Commission's map, from Novato and San Rafael to Mill Valley, Sausalito, Fairfax and Point Reyes Station, sits in PG&E's delivery territory with MCE as the community choice provider. MCE's own site could not be reached for this page, so check its current solar terms there before relying on any proposal's generation credits.

Permits are local. San Rafael sends eligible rooftop solar and battery projects through SolarAPP+ first and then into its OpenGov portal with the SolarAPP+ ID, approved documents and inspection checklist; projects that do not qualify go through its standard permit process, where the plans need a site plan with panel locations and clearances, electrical details and manufacturer specs, and a battery or service panel upgrade done at the same time can go on the same permit. San Rafael reported all 430 of its 2023 residential solar permits as issued online, while Corte Madera reported none of its 9 in 2024 and San Anselmo one of 59.

What a Bay Area quote needs to explain

A comparison to ask for

Two bids for the same Oakland roof can model different bills: one may credit exports at PG&E's rates, the other at Ava's. Ask every Bay Area bidder to state the generation provider, the delivery utility, the permit office and the battery's usable kWh at the top of the proposal, then compare the price and the remaining bill only after those four match.

Verify the company behind the Bay Area quote

Match the business name and license number on each Bay Area proposal to the CSLB record, then use our contractor verification steps, the quote comparison guide and the PPA, loan, lease and cash comparison.

Bay Area solar quote questions