Every question we get asked, answered straight.

It starts with a free consultation, where we design your system, build a real proposal, and check whether you qualify for financing. From there it's an on-site survey, engineering and permitting, a 1-2 day installation, and a utility inspection that clears you to power on.

About eight weeks from signed agreement to power-on. Most of that is permitting and utility scheduling, not construction. The physical install is usually done in one to two days.

We do. Engineering, permitting, utility interconnection paperwork, and incentive applications are all part of the job. You don't file anything yourself.

It depends on your electricity usage and your roof, which is why we don't quote from a price sheet. A free evaluation gives you a real number for your specific home and a straight answer on whether the numbers work.

The 30% federal residential solar credit ended for systems installed after December 31, 2025. Oregon homeowners still have real incentives: Energy Trust of Oregon cash rebates, one-to-one net metering, and the Oregon Solar for All program. We handle the incentive applications as part of every project.

Oregon's net metering credits you one-to-one for every kilowatt-hour you send to the grid. Your meter runs both ways. Extra summer production banks credits against your winter bills.

Homes with owned solar sell for about 4.1% more on average, per a Zillow study. Unlike a leased system, an owned system is an asset that transfers with the house.

Yes. PGE and Pacific Power have raised rates repeatedly since 2023. A solar system swaps part of that rising bill for a fixed cost you control.

It depends on your roof. Size, pitch, shading, and orientation set the ceiling. Our design goal is a system that offsets 100% of your usage, and we'll tell you plainly if your roof can't get there.

Production drops in the dark months. There's no way around that. Net metering is the answer: your summer surplus banks credits that carry you through winter.

Solar is expected to last at least 30 years, so there's a good chance your roof will need replacing during the life of the system. When it does, we come out and remove the panels, the roof gets replaced, and we come back and reinstall the system. You pay for the labor and any parts that can't be reused. This work isn't covered by the warranty.

Every install is backed by our 10-year leak guarantee and 10-year workmanship warranty. If a leak is caused by our installation, we're responsible for fixing it. At the one-year site inspection, we also review the roof structure to make sure it's bone dry.

No scheduled maintenance is required. The system is designed and the equipment is engineered to run without it. For cleaning, Oregon rain handles the bulk of it, and an occasional rinse is all panels typically need beyond that. One year after install, once the system has been through all four seasons, we come back for a site inspection: we check that the roof is bone dry and that the electrical equipment looks right. If you need us outside that visit, our service team is available.

It depends on the cause. Your panels carry a 25-year manufacturer warranty. If a panel fails from a manufacturer defect, which is rare but does happen, the manufacturer supplies a replacement and we install it under our warranty, at no cost to you. If a panel is damaged by something else, the cost is yours. That's why we recommend adding the system to your homeowners insurance, so your insurance can pay for a replacement if a tree lands on your roof or something similar happens.

Longer than most people expect. Panels carry a 25-year manufacturer warranty and a 30-year production guarantee. They degrade slowly rather than just stopping, so the panels we install today could last 40 or even 50 years. Our financial modeling still assumes a 30-year useful life, so the numbers we show you don't depend on those extra years.

The manufacturer warranty covers the equipment itself: for 25 years, if a panel is defective, the manufacturer replaces it. The production guarantee covers performance: it sets the expected rate at which your panels' output declines, and backs the quality of your system's production for 30 years. One protects the hardware. The other protects what it produces.

Your system keeps running, and you keep your manufacturer warranty, which doesn't depend on us. Once your system is commissioned and operating, it doesn't need Sunward to keep working, and you could hire another contractor to service it. What you'd lose is our 10-year workmanship warranty and leak guarantee, the one-year inspection, and active production monitoring. For what it's worth, we aren't planning on going anywhere. Several large national solar companies have gone out of business recently, and they depended on government support to survive. As the industry matures, local contractors are well positioned. We've been local since 2020, and our service department keeps growing as more homeowners ask us to support systems we didn't install.