Solar Companies in Kern County: Who Installed the Most Systems in 2025

Installers who connected the most home solar systems in Kern County 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 and SCE customers across Kern County; 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 Kern County by the numbers

PG&E and SCE approved 7,562 home solar systems in Kern County in 2025, from 257 installers; the top three were named on 39% of them. The busiest year since 2021 was 2023, with 12,479 (2025: -39%). Another 2,804 were approved from January through May 2026.

2025 mix: 55% leased or on a power purchase agreement, 45% owned by the household; 50% with a battery; median size 6.05 kW DC.

PG&E, SCE and permit offices across Kern County

On the California Energy Commission's utility map, SCE covers a little over half of Kern County's land area, mostly the eastern desert and mountains, and PG&E a little under half, including most of the valley floor where most people live. The Commission's community choice layer shows no provider anywhere in the county.

The permit column is each jurisdiction'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 rows are from the Energy Commission's map, queried September 23, 2026; the county split is by land area, not by homes. Permit counts are the jurisdictions' own SB 379 reports in the Commission's data file dated May 2026.

For what each of these utilities charges today, see Central Valley electric rates and bills.

Hiring a solar company in Kern County

Solar companies in Kern County have to start with the utility: PG&E serves Bakersfield and most of the western valley, including Buttonwillow, while SCE serves Delano and the eastern desert towns, and there is no community choice provider. Cities issue their own permits and the County of Kern permits unincorporated areas, which it reported issuing entirely online in 2024. Compare at least three written bids built on your own bill.

Start with your Kern County electricity bill

Kern County is split between two utilities, and the line runs through the valley. PG&E serves Bakersfield and most of the western valley floor, including Shafter, Wasco, Arvin, Taft and Buttonwillow; SCE serves Delano and the eastern desert and mountain towns, including Tehachapi, Ridgecrest, California City and Rosamond, and McFarland is split between them. No community choice provider operates in the county, so the utility on your bill sets the solar rules.

Two utilities, two Solar Billing Plans

Both of Kern County's utilities put new solar systems on a Solar Billing Plan, but the details differ. PG&E values credits and charges by when energy moves to or from the grid, by time of day, day of the week and season; it gives Energy Export Bonus Credits to customers who start before 2028, with the value set at permission to operate; and it closes each 12-month cycle with a True-Up statement. PG&E says customers save the most when they use the energy they produce on-site.

SCE locks its export credit values for nine years from the year a customer starts, pays higher credits in June through September, adds a bonus of about $0.04 per kWh, or about $0.09 for income-qualified customers, for those who enroll before 2028, and sends one settlement bill a year in the month the system started service. SCE says its credits cannot pay the Base Services Charge. A proposal for a Delano home and one for a Bakersfield home should look different for these reasons alone.

What the permit reports show

Government Code section 65850.52 required cities of more than 50,000 people to offer an online, automated solar permit by September 30, 2023 and smaller cities by September 30, 2024, and it exempts only cities of fewer than 5,000 people and counties of fewer than 150,000, with every city in them. Kern is not exempt. The 2024 reports to the Energy Commission show uneven adoption in Kern: the County and Taft issued every residential solar permit online, Tehachapi 29%, and Bakersfield, Shafter and Arvin none.

The same reports show how common batteries have become in the valley. In 2024, 79% of Bakersfield's 1,160 residential solar permits, 86% of Arvin's and 88% of Taft's included storage, and so did 49% of the County's. Bakersfield's own permit count fell from 5,288 in 2023 to 1,160 in 2024. Ask each bidder how long its recent permits took with your permit office, and to show your bill with and without a battery.

What a Kern County quote needs to explain

A comparison to ask for

Ask each Kern County bidder two questions before comparing prices: which utility's Solar Billing Plan the estimate uses, PG&E's or SCE's, and whether the City or the County will issue your permit. A Delano bid built on PG&E's rules, or a Buttonwillow bid that assumes Bakersfield's permit office, has not looked at your address.

Verify the company behind the Kern County quote

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

Kern County solar quote questions