This article is sponsored by SiteCapture. In this VIEWS article, Solar Power World spoke with Kamal Shah, founder and CEO at SiteCapture, to understand what solar installers need to do to prepare for the future of a solar industry being reshaped by policy shifts and the end of the federal Investment Tax Credit.
The U.S. residential solar industry is about to enter its most uncertain chapter yet. With the 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) set to expire on December 31, 2025, solar installation companies must prepare for a significant market shake-up. This policy shift is expected to trigger a short-term surge in installations, followed by a potential slowdown in 2026.
As customers rush to claim the incentives, contractors face the immediate challenge of scaling operations efficiently without bloating soft costs or overwhelming field teams. However, once the surge settles post-2025, companies that haven’t planned may struggle to remain profitable.
“We all understand how challenging and impactful this policy change is for the solar industry and our customers,” says Kamal Shah, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at SiteCapture. “Solar companies need to start planning now for the period after the tax credit goes away, how they will cut costs, stay efficient and diversify revenue streams to keep their businesses strong.”
Shah recommends that solar contractors enhance field crew efficiency, secure their supply chain early and reduce administration time per installation by automating QA/QC and other manual processes. Tools like SiteCapture help power critical operational efficiency by streamlining photo documentation and field ops workflows.
Reducing soft costs with field ops tech upgrades
Reducing soft costs is one of the most immediate and controllable ways for solar installers to improve profit margins. “You can’t do much about hardware costs like modules, panels or equipment, which may even increase with changes to tariffs,” says Shah. “But soft costs are where installers can gain real efficiency and save money.”
Solar soft costs, such as extra truck rolls, tedious quality control work, financing report rejections and permitting delays, can account for more than 50 percent of total residential installation costs. Much of this comes from inconsistent field data, missing documentation and avoidable delays. SiteCapture directly addresses these issues by standardizing workflows throughout the entire project lifecycle, from sales and installation to operations and maintenance.
An average site visit, or truck roll, costs solar installers between $300–500 each. These costly extra truck rolls frequently occur because field crews do not capture complete or accurate photos needed for reports like site surveys or job closeouts. SiteCapture’s mobile app reduces these unnecessary site visits by guiding field crews through a structured checklist to ensure all required photos and data are captured correctly and quality issues are detected before the field tech leaves the job site. By improving documentation accuracy during the initial site visit, solar companies can save thousands of dollars per project.
Automating quality control with AI
Beyond these strategies, leveraging AI and digital tools remains paramount for solar installers. These tools can significantly increase productivity, reduce human error and improve quality control by using AI-powered models to automatically analyze photos.
AI and computer vision can instantly analyze every photo, verify data and flag issues. This will sharply reduce QA/QC time, improve field reporting quality and slash hours of previously manual workflows from every project. “AI provides an incredible opportunity to transform how we work. SiteCapture is launching an AI-powered product later this year to help solar companies automate cumbersome, time consuming, manual processes and make our customers operate more efficiently than ever,” says Shah.
Diversifying revenue streams with new services
To remain resilient in 2026 and beyond, residential-focused installers should explore expansion into adjacent markets they already have expertise in, such as commercial solar installations, battery & storage, servicing existing systems (O&M) and building seamless connections with third-party ownership (TPO) financers.
The small commercial and industrial (C&I) solar market is attractive for several reasons. First, the system sizes in this market typically range from 10kW up to a few hundred kW. These types of projects are well within the capacity of experienced rooftop installers and don’t require a massive change in installation techniques compared to residential.
“The tax credits for commercial solar projects are not set to expire until 2027, which gives installers two more years to leverage the incentives in that segment. Residential solar companies may want to expand into the small commercial market to maintain revenue streams after residential demand cools,” says Shah.
Solar companies can also strategically shift towards TPO models, such as leases or Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). SiteCapture integrates directly with TPO financing partners to ensure that accurate and complete milestone documentation including all required jobsite photos flow to the financing platform with just a click of a button. This is critical as funding approvals are often delayed or denied due to missing or inconsistent documentation.
As a case study, EMPWR Solar reported considerable efficiency improvements after implementing SiteCapture, including reducing the funding cycle time from 22 days to 9 days, doubling their first-time milestone approval rate, and reducing quality control review time per installation by 67 percent.
Another opportunity for growth is offering operations and maintenance (O&M) services. An ever-increasing number of residential solar systems are aging into the maintenance phase, creating a consistently growing market for upkeep, performance monitoring and field service work. “Residential installers already have the technical knowledge and experience needed to deliver O&M services,” Shah adds, “Expanding business models to include O&M can help installers create new recurring revenue streams, retain customer relationships and support long-term growth.”
Conclusion
The expiration of the 30 percent residential ITC will be a defining moment for solar contractors and a significant opportunity for those ready to adapt. Installers who are able to capture the 2025 demand surge with AI-powered solutions, eliminate costly inefficiencies, and diversify business models with TPO, battery & storage, commercial installations and O&M will establish long-term resiliency in 2026 and beyond.
To learn more about SiteCapture for solar field operations, visit sitecapture.com/solar.