Growing Rooftop Solar Scams Prompt Action From Government, Co-ops

By Mol­ly Chris­t­ian, a staff writer for the Nation­al Rur­al Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Asso­ci­a­tion

Mis­lead­ing claims of no elec­tric bill. False promis­es of free solar pan­els or tax rebate checks. Pos­ing as an elec­tric coop­er­a­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tive or co-op part­ner.

These are some of the decep­tive prac­tices that co-ops and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment are warn­ing con­sumers about under a grow­ing num­ber of res­i­den­tial solar scams.

On Aug. 7, the Trea­sury Depart­ment issued an advi­so­ry not­ing a rise in con­sumer com­plaints about such prac­tices as rooftop solar instal­la­tions surge, empha­siz­ing that scams are against the law.

The com­plaints involve “a small num­ber of unscrupu­lous solar com­pa­nies” that con­sumers say deceived them on the costs and sav­ings of the sys­tems and relied on aggres­sive sales and mar­ket­ing tac­tics, the advi­so­ry stat­ed.

Co-ops are also sound­ing the alarm, say­ing the inci­dents have climbed in recent years with dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for some mem­bers.

“Solar is great if sized appro­pri­ate­ly and the mem­ber has made an edu­cat­ed deci­sion with accu­rate cal­cu­la­tions,” said Sheena Lank­ford, vice pres­i­dent of mem­ber engage­ment and com­mu­ni­ca­tions at South­side Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive out of Crewe, Vir­ginia.

But some com­pa­nies are not hon­est­ly or accu­rate­ly pre­sent­ing the ben­e­fits and costs to indi­vid­ual house­holds, strand­ing them with uneco­nom­ic or unpro­duc­tive pan­els, accord­ing to Lank­ford.

“Sev­er­al of our mem­bers have been decep­tive­ly sold solar and have had solar installed on roofs that need replace­ment, under trees, and in homes that are finan­cial­ly strug­gling,” she said. “Many of the solar com­pa­nies have gone under, and our mem­bers have no one to ser­vice their pan­els when need­ed.”

Many mem­bers who fall vic­tim to such schemes are unable to get out of their con­tracts, said Brit­tney Davis, com­mu­ni­ca­tions super­vi­sor at Tri-Coun­ty Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive based in Hook­er, Okla­homa.

“It’s incred­i­bly upset­ting for these mem­bers to real­ize they will con­tin­ue receiv­ing an elec­tric bill,” Davis said. “Ini­tial­ly, they are often frus­trat­ed with the coop­er­a­tive, but once they under­stand they’ve been scammed, it’s heart­break­ing for our mem­ber ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives to hear their sto­ries.”

How to spot and report scams

Treasury’s advi­so­ry list­ed sev­er­al ways to avoid scams.

It urged con­sumers to gath­er and com­pare sev­er­al quotes or bids, if they are inter­est­ed in adding solar to their homes. They should also check a contractor’s his­to­ry with state con­sumer agen­cies and licens­ing boards; make sure the adver­tised cost sav­ings are guar­an­teed; and con­sult a lawyer, if pos­si­ble, to help under­stand con­tract terms and lengths.

If a busi­ness doesn’t make good on its promis­es or cheats con­sumers out of mon­ey, Trea­sury encour­aged affect­ed homes to report fraud to the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion at ReportFraud.FTC.gov.

The advi­so­ry also includ­ed links to locate state con­sumer pro­tec­tion offices and util­i­ty con­sumer advo­cates and to find non­prof­it legal ser­vices for chal­leng­ing fraud, abuse and decep­tion. The advi­so­ry was one of sev­er­al new actions announced by Trea­sury, the Con­sumer Finan­cial Pro­tec­tion Bureau and the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion to address unfair and decep­tive con­sumer prac­tices in the res­i­den­tial solar pow­er sec­tor. The agen­cies also announced a new part­ner­ship with the Depart­ment of Ener­gy and Depart­ment of Hous­ing and Urban Devel­op­ment to help pre­vent preda­to­ry prac­tices.

Co-ops are already being proac­tive on sev­er­al fronts, includ­ing using social media, newslet­ters and emails to alert mem­bers about scam­mers. As an exam­ple, SECO Ener­gy in Sumter­ville, Flori­da, devot­ed an entire newslet­ter in July to scam warn­ings and is advis­ing mem­bers to use cau­tion when autho­riz­ing bill pay­ments through web­sites that are not SECOEnergy.com.

Co-ops are also encour­ag­ing their com­mu­ni­ties to use them as resources to decide on res­i­den­tial solar projects and what ques­tions to ask rooftop solar providers.

Fur­ther­more, some coop­er­a­tives may also require inter­con­nec­tion agree­ments for solar projects. The agree­ments may stip­u­late that installers must obtain an approved per­mit from the gov­ern­ing coun­ty or city and that co-op mem­bers installing a solar pho­to­volta­ic sys­tem will be placed on a spe­cif­ic rate.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion between mem­bers and their local co-op is key, said Tolu Omo­to­so, direc­tor of ener­gy solu­tions at NRECA. “A lot of co-ops have ener­gy advis­ers or mem­ber ser­vice pro­fes­sion­als who are knowl­edge­able about these assets, this tech­nol­o­gy and also the com­pa­nies. So, they will be able to tell you which com­pa­ny has maybe not been too good to our mem­bers.”

Ques­tions about solar? Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive mem­bers can call Ener­gy Advi­sor Jason Smith at (912) 880‑2232 or email him.