Commercial Solar and EV Charging: A Facility Manager's 7-Step Procurement Checklist

Who This Checklist Is For

I manage purchasing for a 300-person manufacturing company—roughly $800K in annual spend across twenty-ish vendor categories. In 2024, I led our facility's solar + EV charging evaluation, which meant sitting through seven installer pitches, reading more incentive documents than I'd like to admit (ugh), and making a few mistakes along the way.

If you're a facility manager, property owner, or the office admin who got handed the "look into solar" assignment, this checklist is what I wish someone had given me. Seven steps, in the order that actually matters.

Step 1: Verify the Company Before You Verify the Price

It's tempting to start with quotes. Don't. Start with the company—specifically, who you'll legally be contracting with. This industry has seen significant consolidation. Sunrun acquired Vivint Solar in 2020, which means the brand name on the sales materials might not match the entity on your contract.

Vivint Solar's headquarters was originally in Lehi, Utah, roughly 30 minutes south of Salt Lake City. Today, the brand operates under Sunrun's corporate umbrella. That's not necessarily a downside—national scale can be a real advantage for warranty support and project management—but you should know who you're signing with and which entity backs the workmanship warranty.

Check these three things in week one:

• State contractor's license: confirm the number matches the installing entity, not just the sales rep's company.
• Insurance: ask for a certificate of insurance naming your company as additional insured.
• Legal entity: match the contract's named company to the license and insurance.

I still kick myself for not catching a licensing mismatch on a different project years ago. The work was fine, but the invoice went through three rounds of finance review because the entity names didn't line up. Learn from my paperwork trauma.

Step 2: Map Solar Energy Credits and Incentives Before Talking to Sales

Sales reps will throw around words like "huge savings" and "big incentives." You need specifics with citations.

The federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is 30% for solar systems placed in service through 2032. That part is straightforward. The catch: if you lease the system or sign a power purchase agreement (PPA), the tax credit typically goes to the equipment owner—the leasing company—not to you.

Solar energy credits available for Vivint Solar customers depend entirely on how the system is structured. Own the system, and you claim the credit. Lease it, and the lessor does. This single distinction changes the financial picture by six figures on a commercial system, so it's worth running the numbers with a tax advisor before any sales conversation.

State-level incentives add another layer: renewable energy certificates, utility rebates, property tax exemptions. These vary widely. I'm not 100% sure what's active in every state, and anyone who claims to know them all off the top of their head is probably oversimplifying. Per FTC guidelines (ftc.gov/green-guides), environmental claims need substantiation—make vendors show you the math.

Step 3: Demand a Load Assessment, Not a Slide Deck

The biggest mistake I see in commercial solar procurement is comparing $/watt quotes without verifying system sizing. It's tempting to think you can just compare unit prices across proposals. But identical specs from different vendors can result in wildly different outcomes. A cheap system that's undersized isn't cheap—it's a liability.

Ask for a load assessment based on your last 12 months of utility bills. A legitimate vendor will want to see usage data before quoting. If they quote a system size off a satellite image and a square-footage number, run.

Everything I'd read on solar procurement said to compare proposals strictly on $/watt. In practice, the right-sized system from a slightly pricier vendor beat the cheap quote by a wide margin—the cheap quote undersized our load by about 30%, which meant we'd still draw heavily from the grid during peak demand hours.

The load assessment should also include future needs: EV chargers, new equipment, building expansion. It's cheaper to size solar + battery correctly on day one than to add capacity later.

Step 4: Price Level 2 Charger Installation—Separately

This one stung us. Our first solar proposal listed "EV charging infrastructure" as a single vague line item. It wasn't until I pushed for detail that I realized charger installation is essentially its own project.

How much to install a Level 2 charger? For a standard commercial install, expect roughly $1,500 to $5,000 per charger. Take that as a rough estimate, not a quote—the actual number depends on:

• Distance from the electrical panel (conduit and trenching add up fast)
• Panel capacity (you may need an upgrade first)
• Load management equipment (required for multiple chargers)
• Permit fees and inspections

In our project, two Level 2 chargers mounted 80 feet from the panel totaled $7,400 including permits and inspection. The solar proposal had bundled them at $9,000. Separate pricing saved us $1,600 and made the line item auditable for finance.

And if you're also evaluating backup power, keep your expectations straight: a 700W portable power station is great for keeping a router and a few laptops alive during a short outage, but it won't handle commercial refrigeration or HVAC. That's a consumer product, not a business solution.

Step 5: Compare the Actual Hardware, Not Just the Brand Name

Brand names matter less than specific models. Get exact equipment specs in writing: panel manufacturer and model, inverter type (string vs. microinverters), battery chemistry and capacity, and real-world efficiency ratings.

Here's a concrete example: an 8000 watt power inverter sounds oversized for a small commercial site. But when you add up a 5-ton HVAC unit (4,000W starting draw), refrigeration (2,000W+), and lighting, 8,000W gets tight during summer peaks. Your load assessment determines the right sizing—not what the sales rep thinks you'll "probably" need.

Warranties vary a lot too: panels typically carry 25-year performance warranties; inverters and batteries are usually 10-12 years. For an integrated system, ask who backs the workmanship—and what happens if the installing company gets acquired (not hypothetical in this industry).

Vivint Solar's pitch, in our evaluation, leaned on the integrated solar + battery package. That framing made sense to us: one vendor responsible for the whole system, rather than coordinating separate panel, inverter, and battery installers ourselves (no thanks).

Step 6: Read the Lease or PPA with a Specialist's Help

Here's where I'll admit my own boundaries. I'm a procurement person, not a solar finance expert. And solar leases and PPAs are dense documents with terms that can quietly shift tens of thousands of dollars over 20 years.

I'd rather work with a specialist who knows their limits than a generalist who overpromises. That applies both ways: a vendor who says "this document is complicated, let's walk through it together" earns more trust than one who says "don't worry, it's standard." We had our attorneys review the PPA, and it was worth every dollar of legal fees.

Key terms to check:

• Escalator rate: some leases build in annual payment increases. Vivint Solar's historical leases included escalators (2.9% annually was typical in the industry). Calculate what your Year 10 and Year 20 payments actually look like.
• Buy-out option: when can you buy the system, and at what formula?
• Transferability: what happens if you sell the building mid-contract?
• Performance guarantee: what output does the vendor guarantee, and how are shortfalls credited?

The flexible financing options were actually a key reason we shortlisted Vivint Solar. The process felt transparent—they were upfront about which terms were negotiable and which weren't. That honesty matters more than a slightly lower monthly payment from someone who dances around questions.

Step 7: Add Buffer Time for Permits and Interconnection

The conventional wisdom says commercial solar installs take 6-8 weeks. Ours took 14 weeks from signed contract to operational system. The panels went up in four days. The other thirteen weeks were permitting, utility interconnection, and inspections.

Plan for these realistic windows:

• Permit review: 3-8 weeks, depending on jurisdiction
• Utility interconnection approval: 2-6 weeks, sometimes longer
• Final inspection: 1-2 weeks after installation

Most people skip one critical question: "How many permits has your team pulled in this city in the last year?" Local permitting experience is a more reliable signal than any system spec. Ask for a reference project in your area, not just a national portfolio.

Common Mistakes I've Seen (and Made)

Comparing quotes before verifying credentials. That's why Step 1 exists. A surprisingly cheap quote led us to a vendor who subcontracts installation to a crew with no commercial solar experience. The "savings" turned into a rework project (and serious egg on my face in the Monday ops meeting).

Ignoring who owns the tax credit. The single most common confusion I see in online solar discussions: solar energy credits available for Vivint Solar and other installers' customers depend on system ownership. Lease the system, and the lessor gets the ITC. On a commercial system, that's a six-figure decision, not a footnote.

Bundling EV charging into the solar quote. Get separate line items for solar panels, battery storage, and Level 2 charger installation. Bundled pricing hides cost and makes it harder to compare vendors.

"This system will cut your utility bill by at least 60%—guaranteed."

I asked for the written assumptions behind that guarantee. There weren't any. Per FTC Green Guides (ftc.gov/green-guides), energy savings claims need substantiation—and that's a useful filter when you're evaluating vendors. The ones who overpromise in the pitch are often the hardest to reach when something goes sideways.

What I'd Do Differently

If I were running this procurement again, the process would look like this:

1. Verify the installer's legal entity, license, and insurance.
2. Run the ITC and state incentive numbers by our tax advisor before any sales meeting.
3. Pull 12 months of utility data and get a proper load assessment.
4. Request separate line-item pricing for solar, battery, and charging infrastructure.
5. Confirm exact panel, inverter, and battery models plus their warranties.
6. Have legal review the PPA or lease, with special attention to the escalator.
7. Ask for local permitting references and set a timeline with buffer.

It took me four years and a full commercial energy project to understand that the "best" vendor is highly context-dependent. What never changes: start with the company, verify the numbers, and slow down during procurement. The vendors who respect that process are the ones worth working with.