Alternative Energy Systems - Chico Showroom

Thus company is committed to customer service & satisfaction. Not only at the time of "sale" but for years afterwards. We had a recall from SunPower (the company from whom AES gets the equipment) 8 years later & AES worked persistently & competently to get it done correctly. Huge shout out to Carmy, Sandro?, Eric!! Than You!! Debbie & Ted

I entered into a contract for solar at my residence on 3/30/23. As of 3/4/24, almost a year later, I'm still waiting for the system to be finalized for operation. In the case of this company, most of the employees I've interacted with have been very nice and professional. The Sales/Project Reps, Installers and Electricians were all easy to work with and consistently communicated in a courteous and knowledgeable manner. As far, as the quality of work and materials, everything appears to be of good quality and workmanship. The down side of my experience with this company falls squarely on the management and ownership based on my background experience in program management.
As indicated my system is still not fully functioning nearly 1 year after signing a contract with this company that had an estimated start and completion date of 9/26/23 and 12/20/23 respectively. My project's actual installation start date wasn't until the middle part of Jan. 2024. Based on communications from sales/project representatives, much of the delay in getting my project going was the availability of a Project Designer due to employee attrition. Having said this, it is understood that the start work and completion dates are estimates and some variance from those are to be expected. But going on 3 months is not acceptable without some sort of reasonable remedy. By now most are aware of supply chain issues and work force retention challenges for companies but these should not be unrealistic burdens placed on the customer. If these are ongoing issues for a company they need to be transparently factored into the contract costs and timelines up front.
In the case of this company, I did request an additional discount on my project's cost due to the apparent extended timeframe of completion. To their credit, they did discount me $263 for my Dec. PGE Bill, effectively acknowledging their failure to provide a completed project by their projected 12/20/23 completion date. Of note here, customers will no longer receive a significant monthly bill from PGE once their system is operational and has a Permit to Operate (PTO) from PGE until the annual "True-Up" Bill. To the companies discredit however, they were unwilling to provide me with the requested PGE Bill discount for Jan. - Feb. for an additional $553.65?? According to both the Sales/Project Rep. and Manager, all discounts have to be approved by the manager and finalized by the owner. I had originally requested that I would have been satisfied with them waiving the $592 Final Permit fee in place of compensating these bills but they were unwilling to do this.
For prospective solar purchasers, some added tips and things to be aware of in the process.
1) Get at least 2 quotes for your system. Competition is good for both the customer and vender. Weigh your options above and beyond just price alone. Consider period of performance , quality of products and workmanship. Don't be rushed and weigh your options based on your values. Don't be afraid to ask questions and to negotiate the contract variables. In my case, I willingly opted out with another local company who would have highly likely had the system installed by May/June 2023. I'm confident in this because we have friends who went with this other company and had their system completed by early July and we had been in the queue ahead of them. Time = money! The better original price point I had with this company is not as good as originally anticipated given the extended timeframe and having it roll into the next tax year.
2) Be aware that there are 3rd Parties involved with the process and timeline for final completion. The County has to inspect and permit your system. In my case the installation was completed on 2/14/24. The County Inspection didn't take place until 2/22/24. Beyond this, PGE has to issue you a Permit to Operate (PTO) before you are official. According to AES staff, PGE has up to 30 days to do this. I'm currently waiting on this to be completed for my system as of 3/4/24. This is all in the fine print of the contract but was not explicitly spelled out on the front end of the process. The take home is, your system may be installed but it could take up to another 1-2 months for it to be turned on due to this.
** Of note here**
My system has effectively been installed since 2/14/24. I found out that it had been on and was feeding power back to the grid (PGE) while I'm currently waiting for the PTO. In effect, PGE has been getting free power from my system while I'm currently not getting any savings waiting for the PTO. There's no incentive for PGE to get the PTO out any sooner than the full 30 day term there! This is all very suspect to my way of reasoning! In short, ensure the solar company has your system turned off after your system is fully installed and you're awaiting the final PTO unless you like donating to PGE.
Not all bad but lots of room for improvement with the company.