What actually goes in a solar proposal

Ask a customer why they picked one EPC over another and they rarely say the price was lowest. They say the other company seemed more serious.

That judgement is almost always made from the proposal, because it is the only artefact of your company they hold in their hands while deciding. A proposal is not a quotation with a cover page. It is the document your competitor's proposal will be laid next to.

Here is what it has to carry.

The ten things

1. The system, specified. Capacity in kW, module make, model, wattage and count, inverter make, model and rating, mounting structure type and height, cable sizes, and the protection devices. Not "high efficiency mono PERC modules". The model number.

2. The roof, drawn. The actual roof with the actual array on it. A layout tells the customer you have been there and understood the constraints. A stock photograph tells them you have a template.

3. A generation estimate with its assumptions visible. The annual number in units, and underneath it the irradiance source, the performance ratio, the shading loss, the soiling assumption and the annual degradation you have applied. An estimate whose assumptions are hidden is a number the customer cannot check, which means it is a number they cannot trust. Shading analysis without guesswork covers why that one line matters more than the others.

4. The savings, built from their bill. Their consumption, their tariff and slab, the treatment of exported units, and any escalation you have assumed, stated as a percentage. If you assume tariffs rise 3 percent a year, say so on the page.

5. Price, itemised, with the tax line correct. Supply and installation separated where it matters, GST shown properly rather than as a mystery addition, and a plain list of what is excluded: civil work, DISCOM charges, load enhancement, structure beyond the quoted height. Most disputes after signature come from this list being absent. The tax treatment itself is in GST on solar is 5 percent.

6. Subsidy handled honestly. Gross price, subsidy amount, net cost, who applies, and when the money actually arrives. The customer should never discover from somebody else that the subsidy is a reimbursement rather than a discount. The subsidy maths every EPC should know has the sequence.

7. Financing, with an EMI. The loan terms and the monthly instalment next to the current bill. For a large share of residential customers this is the section that decides the sale, and it is the one most often missing. See the collateral free loan most customers never hear about.

8. Scope and timeline, with names. Who files the DISCOM application, who arranges the net meter, who handles inspection, and how many days each stage takes. A proposal that commits to a commissioning date in writing is rarer than it should be and wins work on its own.

9. Warranties, separated. Module product warranty and performance warranty are different things and customers conflate them. State both, plus the inverter warranty, your own workmanship warranty, what the service response time is, and what happens in year six.

10. Validity and price variation. A date after which the price is no longer held, and a clause covering what happens if module or cell prices move. After the year the industry has had, with GST down and cell costs up, quoting an open ended price is a decision to absorb the next change yourself. That story is in ALMM List-II is live.

The page they actually read

If your proposal is eight pages, the customer reads one of them properly. Make sure you know which.

It should be a single summary page carrying: system size, total cost, subsidy, net cost, EMI if financed, first year generation, first year savings, and simple payback. One page, no jargon, printable, forwardable to a spouse or a business partner who was not at the site visit.

That last point is underrated. Most residential decisions and nearly all commercial ones are made by somebody who was not on the roof with you. Your proposal is what represents you in that conversation.

The numbers a competitor's proposal will be compared on

Three, and you should know exactly where you stand on each before you hand it over.

• Units per kW per year. If you have modelled shading honestly and your competitor has not, your number is lower and looks worse. Pre-empt it: state the shading loss and say plainly that a number without it is not an estimate.
• Payback in years. The most gamed figure in the industry. Show the arithmetic that produces yours.
• Price per watt. The least useful number, and the one customers reach for first. If yours is higher, the itemised specification is your answer, which is why point one matters.

What to leave out

Stock photographs of European rooftops. Any sentence containing "world class". Twenty five year savings totals built on an escalation assumption you have not disclosed. The word "approximately" attached to a number you could have calculated. Competitor comparisons, which make you look anxious.

And leave out anything you cannot defend when the customer's engineer nephew reads it on a video call, because that call is going to happen.

How long this should take

If producing this takes two days, you have a different problem, because the proposal that arrives first is disproportionately likely to win. If it takes twenty minutes on site, you are in a different competition entirely: closing on the first site visit is about exactly that gap.

None of the ten items above requires creativity. They require a template with the assumptions already in it, the roof captured on site, and the numbers generated rather than typed.

The short version

• A proposal is the artefact that represents you in a decision you are not present for. Write it for that.
• Carry ten things: specified system, drawn roof, generation with assumptions, savings from their bill, itemised price, honest subsidy treatment, financing with an EMI, scope and timeline, separated warranties, validity and price variation.
• Build one summary page with cost, subsidy, net, EMI, generation, savings and payback. That is the page that gets read and forwarded.
• Expect comparison on units per kW, payback and price per watt. Know your position on each in advance.
• Speed matters. The first credible proposal wins more often than the cheapest one.