What happens at a solar site assessment?

I measure the roof or ground area, check your sanctioned load and phase against the connection agreement, assess shading through the middle of the day, and read twelve months of bills to establish what you consume between roughly 9am and 4pm. It usually takes two to three hours. Nothing is quoted before it happens, and if the conclusion is that solar does not justify itself on your site, that is what the assessment says.

What do I need to provide before you can quote?

Twelve months of electricity bills rather than one, your connection agreement showing sanctioned load and phase, and access to whoever genuinely knows when the heavy equipment runs — in a factory that is usually a foreman rather than an owner. Seasonality and real duty cycles are most of the picture and neither appears in a single bill.

How many times will you actually be on site?

At assessment, at the stages that decide whether the system lasts — structure anchoring, roof penetration, DC termination and earthing — at commissioning, and at the DISCO inspection. I am not present for every hour of installation, and I would not claim to be. What I am present for are the points at which a mistake becomes permanent or invisible.

Can I make changes to the design after approving it?

Before procurement, easily. After equipment has been ordered, it depends on what changed — a string layout adjustment is straightforward, while deciding you now want battery backup usually is not, because storage is an inverter decision made at design stage. This is why the design approval step exists as a distinct gate rather than a formality.

What do I actually receive at handover?

Original supplier invoices in the supplier own names, the as-built single-line diagram, structural and protection documentation, commissioning test results including anti-islanding verification, the warranty register with every expiry date, and monitoring access registered in your name rather than mine. A system documented that way can be picked up by any competent engineer; an undocumented one is the one that becomes stranded.

Process

Six stages, and what goes wrong at each one

Every stage below states what you receive, what is needed from you, and the thing that most commonly derails it. The last of those three is the part no process page usually admits to, and it is the part worth reading.

01
Site assessment
One visit, typically 2–3 hours
I visit the site, measure the roof or ground area, check your sanctioned load and phase against the connection agreement, look at shading through the middle of the day, and read twelve months of bills. Nothing is quoted before this happens, and if the assessment concludes that solar does not justify itself on your site, that is what I will tell you.
You receive
Load profile, shading assessment and an honest recommendation
Needed from you
Twelve months of bills, your connection agreement, and access to whoever actually knows the operating hours
Where this stage goes wrong
One bill instead of twelve. Seasonality is most of the picture in Punjab, and a single summer bill produces a system sized for a month rather than a year.
02
Design
3–7 days after assessment
The array and inverters are sized against your measured daytime consumption rather than your roof area. You get a single-line diagram, string layout, cable and protection sizing, earthing design and a structural loading check — and a bill of materials specified to model number, so that a substitution later would be visible.
You receive
Single-line diagram, structural check and a model-specific bill of materials
Needed from you
Approval of the design before anything is purchased, and a decision on whether outage backup is required
Where this stage goes wrong
Deciding you want battery backup after the inverter has been ordered. Storage is an inverter decision made at design stage; retrofitting it costs considerably more.
03
Procurement
1–6 weeks, set by inverter lead time
Equipment is bought at wholesale market prices from suppliers I have worked with for years. Every invoice reaches you in the supplier own name, dated and itemised. I take no margin on any of it, and I verify what physically arrives against what was ordered — model numbers, serial numbers and counts.
You receive
Original supplier invoices, and delivery verified against them
Needed from you
Payment to suppliers directly, at the prices on their own invoices
Where this stage goes wrong
Inverter lead time is normally what sets the project timeline, not installation. On larger systems this is the stage where an unrealistic promised date gets exposed.
04
Installation
3 days to 4 weeks by scale
Teams I have worked with for years, available at around 24 hours notice, working around your operating hours where the site cannot stop. I am on site personally for the stages that decide whether the system lasts twenty years: structure anchoring, roof penetration and waterproofing, DC termination and earthing.
You receive
Progress photographs and site reports as the work proceeds
Needed from you
Site access, and agreement on the one unavoidable outage window
Where this stage goes wrong
Waterproofing at roof penetrations. It is invisible once finished and it is the single most common source of regret among owners whose systems were installed by someone else.
05
Commissioning
1 day, plus the DISCO timeline
String-level generation verification, anti-islanding testing to IEC 62116, and documented test results. The net metering or net billing application with your distribution company runs alongside from day one rather than starting here, and I attend the inspection personally.
You receive
Commissioning certificate, test results and monitoring access in your own name
Needed from you
Documents for the DISCO file, and availability for the inspection
Where this stage goes wrong
Monitoring registered to the installer rather than the owner. If the relationship ends you lose sight of your own plant, and it is trivial to get right at this stage and awkward later.
06
After-sales
Ongoing
Generation checks, fault diagnosis and manufacturer warranty claims, handled by the engineer who designed and commissioned the system. Included on projects I deliver rather than sold afterwards as a service contract. I do not publish a guaranteed response time in hours, because I am one engineer and a number I could not honour would be worse than none.
You receive
Warranty register with expiry dates, and a direct number
Needed from you
A call when a reading looks wrong, rather than waiting for it to get worse
Where this stage goes wrong
An inverter that trips and goes unnoticed for days. This is the expensive failure mode, and it is why monitoring somebody actually reads matters more than most equipment decisions.

Questions

What clients ask about the process

What happens at a solar site assessment?: I measure the roof or ground area, check your sanctioned load and phase against the connection agreement, assess shading through the middle of the day, and read twelve months of bills to establish what you consume between roughly 9am and 4pm. It usually takes two to three hours. Nothing is quoted before it happens, and if the conclusion is that solar does not justify itself on your site, that is what the assessment says.
What do I need to provide before you can quote?: Twelve months of electricity bills rather than one, your connection agreement showing sanctioned load and phase, and access to whoever genuinely knows when the heavy equipment runs — in a factory that is usually a foreman rather than an owner. Seasonality and real duty cycles are most of the picture and neither appears in a single bill.
How many times will you actually be on site?: At assessment, at the stages that decide whether the system lasts — structure anchoring, roof penetration, DC termination and earthing — at commissioning, and at the DISCO inspection. I am not present for every hour of installation, and I would not claim to be. What I am present for are the points at which a mistake becomes permanent or invisible.
Can I make changes to the design after approving it?: Before procurement, easily. After equipment has been ordered, it depends on what changed — a string layout adjustment is straightforward, while deciding you now want battery backup usually is not, because storage is an inverter decision made at design stage. This is why the design approval step exists as a distinct gate rather than a formality.
What do I actually receive at handover?: Original supplier invoices in the supplier own names, the as-built single-line diagram, structural and protection documentation, commissioning test results including anti-islanding verification, the warranty register with every expiry date, and monitoring access registered in your name rather than mine. A system documented that way can be picked up by any competent engineer; an undocumented one is the one that becomes stranded.

Next step

It starts with stage one

A site assessment, twelve months of bills, and an honest answer about whether the rest of these stages are worth running at all.

Book a site assessment How I charge

The six stages

Site assessment

Design

Procurement

Installation

Commissioning

After-sales

What clients ask about the process

It starts with stage one