New installation
Commercial Solar Prospecting Reports
We rank every qualifying roof in the territory you name, commercial and residential, on usable area, obstructions, roof age, ownership, and utility context. The first 3 are free.
Free preview: 3 properties, delivered 3 business days after we confirm your territory. No card, no call.Photo: Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0)
An address list cannot tell you which roofs carry the contiguous usable area an array needs — 40,000 square feet on a warehouse, 400 on a house.
Ruling one building out by hand — metal deck, triple-net lease, array already there — is slow work for a rep, and a residential street is dozens of them. We run that pass first.
See how the research worksEvidence
What an analyst reads off a roof before it earns a rank
Eight indicators decide whether a property belongs in a solar pipeline, commercial or residential, each from a named source with a hard edge past which remote evidence stops.
| Indicator | Where it comes from | What it settles — and what it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Usable roof plane area | Where it comes fromSub-foot county imagery where flown, USDA NAIP elsewhere, building footprint polygons | What it settles — and what it does notMeasures the contiguous membrane left after curbs, skylights, and fire-code setbacks, which is what sizes an array. It does not confirm structural capacity for ballast. |
| Roof form and membrane type | Where it comes fromImagery, oblique views where flown, assessor construction and roof-cover fields | What it settles — and what it does notSeparates low-slope single-ply and modified-bitumen decks, where ballasted racking is normal, from standing-seam metal, gravel BUR, and steep-slope tile. Thickness and remaining life need a core cut. |
| Obstruction and shading load | Where it comes fromImagery, adjacent building heights, tree canopy extents | What it settles — and what it does notCounts rooftop units, condensers, exhaust fans, skylights, and parapet height, and flags buildings shaded from the south. A shade-loss percentage needs a 3D model or a site survey. |
| Roof age and last roof event | Where it comes fromAssessor year-built, municipal reroof and recover permits with valuations | What it settles — and what it does notGives the date of the last permitted roof work, a strong signal of whether an owner will accept a 25-year asset on the deck. Unpermitted reroofs and coatings leave no record. |
| Residential roof planes and street pattern | Where it comes fromImagery, assessor roof-cover, year-built, and living-area fields, residential reroof and PV permits | What it settles — and what it does notOn houses the evidence shifts to plane orientation, pitch, and canopy shading, plus the assessor's roof-cover and year-built fields. Permits cluster by subdivision, so one filing often marks a street. It does not establish household finances. |
| Utility, tariff, and interconnection regime | Where it comes fromUtility service territories, published commercial and residential rate schedules, state net-metering and interconnection rules | What it settles — and what it does notEstablishes which utility, rate structure, and interconnection process a project runs through — a live market or a dead one. It does not give the account's rate class or service size. |
| Owner-occupied versus leased | Where it comes fromAssessor owner of record, owner mailing address (the rental test on a house), business listings | What it settles — and what it does notFlags the properties where whoever benefits from the power also controls the roof, which takes a landlord out of the decision. Whether a specific lease permits a rooftop asset is only in the lease. |
| Array already present | Where it comes fromImagery panel signatures, PV-scoped electrical permits, state interconnection registries | What it settles — and what it does notRemoves roofs already served from the new-installation queue. Those buildings are the input to a maintenance and repair territory, which is a different report. |
Metro imagery is commonly reflown every 12–24 months, assessor rolls refresh annually, and permit indexes range from same-week to non-existent. Every row carries its source and date.
What this report settles, and what it deliberately does not.
Everything in the second list needs a person on the roof, a document, or the utility.
Settled by the report
- Which roofs carry the most contiguous usable area, on flat commercial membrane and pitched residential planes alike
- Which properties are owner-occupied and which are leased or rented, on the assessor's record
- Which serving utility, tariff, and interconnection regime applies
- When the roof was last permitted for reroof or recover work
- Which roofs already carry an array and leave the new-installation queue
Not settled — no remote source can settle these
- Structural capacity for ballast, or rafter condition under a pitched residential roof
- Existing service size and what an interconnection upgrade would cost
- Actual consumption, load profile, and demand charges on the account
- Remaining membrane life, warranty status, or a budgeted reroof
- Whether the owner wants solar, or consents to being contacted
The five checks your team makes next
- Ask for the roof warranty and the date of the last reroof, and confirm remaining membrane life.
- Request twelve months of utility bills or interval data to size the array against real consumption.
- Confirm service size at the meter and open a hosting-capacity conversation with the utility.
- Verify from the deed or lease who controls the roof and whether a rooftop asset is permitted.
- Commission a structural letter for ballast loading before quoting a racking system.
What arrives, part by part.
One ranked document, ordered so a rep opens it at rank one instead of opening imagery.
- 01Set the territory and the cut linesYou name the counties or drive time, the minimum usable roof area, and whether the territory is commercial, residential, or both.
- 02Screen every qualifying buildingWe work imagery, footprints, the assessor roll, permit index, and utility layers across the whole territory.
- 03Rank and write the reasonsAn analyst checks the ordering against your thresholds and writes the rationale for each position.
- Ranked property register
- Every qualifying building, ordered, with address, parcel identifier, and the rank rationale in one row.
- Roof measurements
- Contiguous usable area, roof form, apparent membrane type, and the count and placement of rooftop obstructions.
- Ownership, occupancy, and the permit trail
- Owner of record and mailing address, apparent owner-occupied or leased status, year built, and every reroof, recover, or PV permit located.
- Utility and tariff context
- Serving utility, the commercial or residential rate schedule that applies, and the state net-metering and interconnection regime.
- Territory summary and exclusions
- The market in aggregate, which buildings we excluded and why, and where records were too thin to rank.
Further reading
How this screen is actually run.
What this is, what it costs you, and where it stops.
Both, and one territory can mix them — the buyer is always a company; the property type is whatever you sell to. On houses the ranking leans on plane orientation, pitch, canopy shading, and assessor roof records.
No. It is a ranked research report on the territory you defined, with the evidence for each rank attached — it does not establish owner interest, feasibility, or consent to be contacted.
No. A high rank means the most usable area, the cleanest obstruction picture, and a workable tariff and ownership position; structural capacity, service size, consumption, membrane life, and permitting are all still open.
Yes. Minimum roof area, property types, roof-age windows, owner-occupied only, single-utility territories — the free 3-property preview exists so you can test yours before committing to a larger scope.
They are excluded from the new-installation ranking and listed separately. If you also sell operations and maintenance, those buildings start a solar maintenance and repair territory report instead.
Other property questions we answer with the same workflow.
Solar maintenance and repair prospecting
The same territory from the other side: the roofs that already carry an array.
Read the report typeEV charging and battery storage siting
The same properties screened for charging ports, storage envelopes, and trench runs.
Read the report typeCommercial roofing and HVAC prospecting
When the roof is the product: membrane, ponding, storm exposure, and last reroof.
Read the report type
Send us one county and see the top 3 roofs in it.
Name the geography, your minimum usable roof area, and the property types you sell to. We return 3 ranked buildings with the full evidence set in 3 business days, free.
3 properties · 3 business days · no card