How to Hire a Solar Installer: License, Pay, Where to Recruit, and How to Screen

A solar installer is the person who turns a sold system into a producing one: they plan the array configuration for the site, assemble the support structures, mount the modules, connect the panels to the electrical system, apply weather sealant, then activate and test the system and come back for maintenance calls. BLS lists those as the occupation's typical duties, and they split into two halves you staff differently — a mechanical half (structures, modules, sealant) and an electrical half (connections, testing, activation). State law shapes who may do that second half, which is the licensing question in the next section.

The electrical half is more than wire pulling. O*NET lists installing PV systems in accordance with codes and standards using drawings, schematics and instructions among the occupation's core tasks, alongside identifying the electrical, environmental and safety hazards of an installation, and testing operating voltages to confirm that power-conditioning equipment such as inverters and controllers runs within acceptable limits. That vocabulary — reading a drawing, planning a configuration against site conditions, hazard identification, voltage testing — is what a useful skills screen exercises, and it is the pass your lead installer should sit in on.

Plan the physical demands into the job before you advertise. BLS describes the work as mostly outdoors, with installers sometimes in attics and crawl spaces to connect panels to the electrical grid, and travel to jobsites as a standing part of the job. Under the ADA, a written job description prepared before you advertise or interview is evidence of which functions are essential — so outdoor installation work, attic and crawl-space access and jobsite travel belong in the posting, not in a verbal add-on at the interview.

This page stays on the hiring side. The worker-side view of the role — the day-to-day work, the training routes, the credential ladder — lives on our guide to what a solar installer does; point candidates there when they ask what the job is like.

Start by deciding which side of the electrical line each hire sits on, because the licensing question follows the task and your state's law, not the job title. BLS puts it directly: depending on the job and state law, PV installers may connect the solar panels to the electrical grid, although electricians sometimes do that task — and some states require a license for PV installers. There is no one national answer to hand a candidate; the requirement follows the state you work in.

Two named examples from our research show the range. In Colorado, SB25-165 requires photovoltaic installer businesses to register with the State Electrical Board no later than December 31, 2026, and to employ at least one NABCEP-certified employee. In California, the C-10 electrical contractor classification expressly covers placing, installing, erecting or connecting solar photovoltaic cells — a classification the contracting business holds, which does not settle what the individual installers on your crew need. Which pattern your state follows is a question for your state licensing board: confirm it before you write a license requirement into a posting, and run the license check before you make an offer — our guide to verifying an electrician's license is the employer's workflow. What your business itself needs is a separate question; what license your business needs covers it.

Because these requirements are state law with effective dates, treat the license question as a per-jurisdiction check rather than a one-time company policy. Confirm the current requirements with your state licensing board before you post the job — asking at the same time whether any local rules sit on top of the state's where you work — and re-check them when you expand into a new territory.

Certification is a different instrument from a license. BLS says solar PV certification is not required for employment, but that some states require certified installers for projects to qualify for solar-related subsidies — so on subsidy-funded projects, a certification can function as a bid condition. NABCEP states that its board certification is voluntary and is not intended to replace state license requirements; it does not authorize anyone to do electrical work a state license requires. Treat any certification on a résumé as a documented-training signal — the screening section below covers what the two NABCEP credential levels actually document — and screen whatever license your jurisdiction requires separately.

Solar photovoltaic installers have their own federal pay series — SOC 47-2231 — so you are not borrowing another trade's numbers. BLS OEWS for May 2025, national, all industries, puts the median at $25.55 per hour ($53,140 per year). The middle half of the distribution runs from $22.45 per hour at the 25th percentile to $30.23 at the 75th; the 10th percentile is $20.00 and the 90th is $38.45. OEWS estimates employment in the occupation at 31,350.

Where the work sits moves the number. The OEWS industry rows for May 2025 put 11,950 solar photovoltaic installers with electrical contractors and other wiring installation contractors at an annual median of $58,570 — above the $53,140 all-industry median — and 4,000 with electric power generation, transmission and distribution firms at $51,460. Price the offer against the segment you staff.

The spread between states is wide. Computed from the same May 2025 state file, the highest annual medians were New Jersey ($78,950), Hawaii ($70,370), Nevada ($67,810), Oregon ($66,320) and Ohio ($62,400), with South Dakota the lowest at $42,380 among the states with published values — and the ranking is by state median, not cost-of-living adjusted. Use it to sanity-check an offer against your own service territory and whoever is hiring installers in it.

One boundary keeps the benchmark honest: licensed electricians doing solar work are counted under electricians (SOC 47-2111), not under PV installers. If the person you need is the licensed electrician who makes the code connection and owns the activation, benchmark against the electrician series instead — May 2025 national median of $30.38 per hour ($63,190 per year), with the middle half between $23.76 and $40.36. That figure comes from the same OEWS release but a separate occupational series, so treat it as its own benchmark rather than a premium over the installer median.

Two cautions apply to any OEWS figure. It does not split apprentice or trainee pay from experienced pay — the 10th percentile is not a first-year wage. And it does not split union from non-union pay: if a collective bargaining agreement covers your installation crews, the negotiated scale in that agreement is the figure that governs, so read the agreement rather than the national table.

Recruit where the training happens. BLS describes the entry path as a high school diploma with on-the-job training lasting up to 1 year, and notes that some installers take courses at a technical school or community college — so tech-school and community-college PV programs are the natural first call for entry-level crew. BLS also notes that construction experience — as an electrician, roofer, carpenter or laborer — may shorten a new installer's training time — which is why career changers out of adjacent construction trades are worth a call: they bring the site habits, and you teach the system.

Know who else hires from the same pool. BLS counted about 31,100 solar photovoltaic installer jobs in 2025, with electrical contractors the largest employer group at 39%, followed by temporary help services (17%), utilities (13%), plumbing and HVAC contractors (11%) and power and communication line construction (10%). You are competing with all five groups for the same pool. The pool is also growing: BLS projects employment of solar photovoltaic installers to change 37% from 2025 to 2035, against 9% for electricians, so a trained installer who leaves has somewhere to go.

Two rules from the EEOC shape how you source. Relying on word-of-mouth recruiting from a mostly homogeneous workforce may violate the law if it results in a homogeneous pool of new hires — pair crew referrals with open postings. And job ads may not show a preference for, or discourage, applicants based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40+), disability or genetic information — keep the wording on the work, the certification and whatever license your jurisdiction requires.

Post the role where installer candidates already look: your solar installer jobs listing is the seeker side of this page, so write the posting against the screening list in the next section. For the sequence end to end — posting, screening, offer, onboarding — the hiring process guide walks it, and hiring electricians: the employer guide is the employer-side starting point.

Screen in the order the claims attach: certification first, hands-on skill second, background checks third, and anything touching medical or physical capability last.

Ask what the credential actually documents. NABCEP's PV Installation Professional (PVIP) exam requires every applicant to document OSHA 10 for Construction (or a government equivalent), at least 58 hours of advanced PV training, and installations totalling at least 6 project credits — completed in a decision-making role such as lead installer, foreman or electrician, within the two calendar years before applying, by an applicant who is at least 18. Its PV Associate credential sits below that: it is earned by exam through an education pathway (a course with a registered provider) or an experience pathway (at least six months of full-time-equivalent PV work), and NABCEP describes passing it as qualifying a person to design, sell, install or maintain systems in a supervised capacity — an Associate-level holder is a crew-member candidate, not your lead. Board-certified professionals recertify on a three-year cycle, with continuing education and experience requirements and a fee, so ask where a candidate sits in the cycle and verify the credential with the issuer. And keep the frame from the licensing section: NABCEP says its certification is voluntary and is not intended to replace state license requirements — screen whatever license your jurisdiction requires separately.

Test the skill the way the job presents it. O*NET's task list gives you the vocabulary: install PV systems in accordance with codes and standards using drawings, schematics and instructions; identify the electrical, environmental and safety hazards of an installation; test operating voltages to confirm inverters and controllers run within acceptable limits. Have the candidate walk a site photo or a drawing — layout and configuration, racking assembly, penetrations and sealant, then the connection and testing sequence — and put your lead installer or foreman in the room for the technical pass. A reference from a previous installation supervisor can tell you whether the systems they activated stayed activated.

Keep cards in their place. OSHA says its Outreach Training Program classes — the 10- and 30-hour cards — provide basic safety and health information and do not fulfill an employer's requirement to provide training under specific OSHA standards. A card is neither a PV qualification nor a license; screen it as exactly what it is.

Run background checks by the book. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, before you order a background report you must give a clear written disclosure in a document consisting solely of that disclosure and get the applicant's written authorization — the FTC's guidance is explicit that the notice must be stand-alone and cannot sit inside the employment application. Before taking adverse action based on a report, give the person a copy of the report and a written description of their rights under the FCRA.

Handle the physical screen last. You may ask whether and how a candidate can perform the job's functions — outdoor work, attics and crawl spaces, jobsite travel — but the ADA bars disability questions and medical exams before a job offer. If you run a hands-on tryout at the yard, FLSA rules treat work the employer suffers or permits as work time, so a working trial is generally paid time — budget it rather than calling it an unpaid tryout. One age-specific rule if you hire teen helpers: federal child-labor rules (Hazardous Order 16, 29 CFR 570.67) bar 16- and 17-year-olds from all work on or about a roof, with a narrow registered-apprentice and student-learner exception.

Start with the fixed clocks. On Form I-9, the employee completes Section 1 at the time of hire and you complete Section 2 within three business days of hire; report the new hire to the state where they work within 20 days — sooner in some states.

Set the safety frame as an employer duty, not a preference. OSHA's construction rules require you to instruct each employee in recognizing and avoiding unsafe conditions and the regulations applicable to their work (29 CFR 1926.21(b)(2)), and to provide frequent and regular inspections of job sites, materials and equipment by competent persons you designate (29 CFR 1926.20(b)(2)). Required PPE must be provided at no cost under 29 CFR 1926.95(d) — with the rule's own exceptions for non-specialty safety-toe footwear, prescription safety eyewear worn off-site, everyday clothing and ordinary weather gear. These are duties the rule places on you as the employer; confirm how they reach your crews through OSHA's current text and your own safety program.

If your volume moves with the installation calendar, decide before the season which part of the crew is core and which is flex. Temporary help services are already a real channel in this occupation — BLS counted them at 17% of solar photovoltaic installer employment in 2025 — and if you take installers through a staffing agency, OSHA treats the staffing agency and the host employer as jointly responsible for the temporary worker's safety, including training, hazard communication and recordkeeping. Put each side's responsibilities in the contract before the first flex installer arrives on site.

Retention matters more than the short pipeline suggests. Training is short in BLS's description — up to 1 year of on-the-job training — which cuts both ways: you can crew up fast, and so can the next contractor. BLS JOLTS puts the construction quits rate at an average of 1.8% per month in 2025 (2.2% across total private), and with BLS projecting 37% occupation growth through 2035, a trained installer who leaves has options. Be explicit while hiring about how your schedule moves across the year, the roof-versus-ground mix of your work, the territory and the call-out expectations; an installer surprised by the schedule is avoidable turnover. Then build the rung above the role: a lead installer who owns layout, quality sign-off and the skills screen has a reason to build their hours with you rather than with the next outfit.

Employer information, not licensing, legal, code or safety advice. Licensing and certification rules for solar work vary by state and sometimes by city, and they change — confirm with your state licensing board, and with OSHA or employment counsel for your own situation.