How to Get More Solar Leads in 2026: What 26 Cities of Data Show

In our October 2026 check of 60 homeowner solar searches on Google US desktop, the two biggest searches with buying intent, "solar companies near me" (14,800 searches a month, $27.67 per click) and "solar installers near me" (12,100 a month), showed a Google map pack and no AI Overview, while 52 of the 60 searches (86.7%) did show one. Those two searches are where a solar lead is still won on the map, and the other 58 are where it is increasingly won inside an AI answer. This guide ranks 12 solar lead sources by what our 26-city data says about each, gives you a first step for every one, and puts the published price of bought leads next to the channels you can own.

TL;DR

• In October 2026, "solar companies near me" (14,800 US searches a month, $27.67 per click) and "solar installers near me" (12,100 a month) showed a Google map pack and no AI Overview, while 52 of the 60 homeowner solar searches we checked (86.7%) did show an AI Overview.
• Across 520 Google Maps solar listings in 26 US cities, installers with 100 or more Google reviews were named by at least one of five AI assistants 52.1% of the time, against 4.6% for installers with fewer than 25 reviews.
• 94 of the 130 AI answers we recorded (72.3%) told the homeowner to collect several quotes before signing, and 70.3% of the 411 installers those AIs named were missing from Google's map top 20 for the same city.
• EnergySage was cited in 81.5% of the 130 AI answers and in 63.5% of the 52 AI Overviews, yet only 2.4% of the 335 installer homepages we audited mention EnergySage at all.
• SolarReviews' published figures put the average lead spend at $0.25 per watt, or $1,400 per residential job; EnergySage, Angi and Modernize publish no per-lead price on their installer pages.

Orkkid sells SEO and GEO services to solar companies, so we have an interest in installers owning their lead flow. Every number here comes from the Orkkid Solar AI Study, which we ran on 7 and 8 October 2026 across 26 US cities, and the method is at the end of the page. Where we quote a lead price, it comes from the seller's own public page, with the date we checked it.

Why bought leads feel expensive: the AI answer already has a shortlist

Before the list, one finding frames everything else. When a homeowner asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude or Google AI Mode for the best solar installer in their city, they get a named shortlist of 4.8 to 8.1 companies, depending on the engine, and 72.3% of the 130 answers we recorded told them to collect several quotes from it. Gemini in San Diego put it this way: "Compare cash purchase prices, system size (kW), battery capacity (kWh), and price-per-watt across at least three companies before signing." Claude in Las Vegas added a warning about the lists themselves: "Some of these rankings are partly based on sponsored or lead-generation listings, so treat them as a starting point rather than a verdict."

A homeowner who follows that advice contacts three or four installers directly. If you are on the shortlist, the lead reaches you at no cost per lead. If you are only reachable through a marketplace, you pay for a lead the homeowner may already have sent to three of your competitors. The 12 sources below are ordered by how much of that shortlist you can own.

1. The Google map pack for "solar companies near me"

The map pack is still the single largest owned lead source in our data. "Solar companies near me" carried 14,800 US searches a month at a $27.67 cost per click in Google Ads, and "solar installers near me" carried 12,100 at $23.60. Neither showed an AI Overview; both showed a map pack. In total, 8 of the 60 searches showed a map pack, and those 8 added up to 48,250 monthly searches.

The pattern holds across the whole set: the searches with an AI Overview are the research questions, and the searches with a map pack are the ones a homeowner types when they are ready to call.

The bar for the top three is lower than most owners expect. Across the 26 cities, the median review count of the three listings in the map pack was 57.5, and 27 of the 78 top-3 listings had fewer than 25 reviews. Google's own guide to improving local ranking names relevance, distance and prominence as the factors, which is why a complete profile with the right primary category can reach the pack in a mid-sized market quickly.

First step: search "solar installer" in Google Maps from your office, write down the review counts and primary categories of the top three, and set your profile's primary category and service areas to match the pattern you see. Our guide to ranking a solar company on Google Maps walks through the rest.

2. Google reviews, with 25 and 100 as the two milestones

Reviews feed both lead sources that matter most: the map pack and the AI shortlist. Across the 520 Maps listings, installers with fewer than 25 Google reviews were named by at least one AI 4.6% of the time. Between 25 and 99 reviews the rate rose to 28.4%, and installers with 100 or more reviews were named 52.1% of the time (74 of 142). The installers an AI named had a median of 129 Google reviews; the installers no AI named had a median of 16.

Star rating mattered far less than volume. The average rating of named installers was 4.80 and of unnamed installers 4.63, and listings rated exactly 5.0 were named only 14.8% of the time because most of them had a handful of reviews.

First step: generate a direct review link with our free Google review link generator and send it the day the system gets permission to operate. Ask every customer, with no incentives, inside Google's review policy. The city-by-city benchmarks and the full playbook are in how many Google reviews a solar company needs.

3. AI recommendations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and AI Mode

The five AIs named 411 different installers across 26 cities, and 289 of them (70.3%) were absent from Google's map top 20 for the same city. That means an AI shortlist is a separate lead source from the map, with its own rules. Agreement between engines was low: 55.5% of the named installers were picked by only one of the five, and just 17 were picked by all five.

What the engines read decides who they name. Solar review and quote sites supplied 32.7% of everything the AIs cited, best-of lists 15.8%, media 14.8%, and installers' own websites 9.3%. Gemini was the exception, drawing 25.7% of its citations from installer websites, so a well-structured site is read directly by at least one engine.

First step: ask each of the five engines the exact question "Who is the best solar installer in {your city}, {state}? Give me your top picks." and record who is named and which sites are cited. Then run your domain through the free AI citation checker. The list of who each AI named in your market is in the solar installers AI recommends by city, and the discipline behind this work is generative engine optimization.

4. An EnergySage profile, because every AI reads it

EnergySage was cited in 106 of the 130 AI answers (81.5%). Perplexity and Claude cited it in all 26 of their answers, ChatGPT in 25, Gemini in 23 and Google AI Mode in 6. In the Google AI Overviews on homeowner searches, energysage.com was again the most cited site, appearing in 33 of 52 overviews (63.5%). Claude in Sacramento summed up how the engines treat it: "EnergySage's marketplace lets you compare bids side by side."

The gap on the installer side is large. Only 2.4% of the 335 installer homepages we audited mention EnergySage; among installers an AI named, 6.9% do. EnergySage's installer page describes an application process and, when we checked it on 10 October 2026, listed no price per lead, so the marketplace is both a lead source and a reputation source that AI engines quote.

First step: claim or complete your EnergySage profile and ask your installed customers to review you there as well as on Google. Whether the quote volume is worth it for your company is covered in EnergySage for installers.

5. Your own cost guide for your city and utility

Cost and pricing searches carried 89,850 US searches a month across the 8 queries we checked, more than any other intent, and 98.9% of that volume showed an AI Overview. For the three biggest, "solar panel installation cost" (60,500 a month), "solar panel cost" (12,100) and "how much do solar panels cost" (9,900), the first site the AI Overview cited was energysage.com every time. Installer websites were cited in 21 of the 52 AI Overviews (40.4%), and only 22.1% of installer homepages show any price.

A homeowner reading a national cost figure is a lead with a question you can answer better than EnergySage can: what a system costs on your roofs, under your utility's rates, with your equipment, this quarter. Google's helpful content guidance asks whether a page provides original information, and a cost page built from your own last 50 installs does.

First step: publish one page titled for your city ("What solar costs in {City} in 2026") with a real price range per watt from your recent jobs, a worked example for a typical home on your main utility, and the date you last updated it.

6. A battery and backup page

The widest gap in our website audit was batteries. Among installers an AI named, 80.4% mention batteries or backup power on the homepage and 62.7% have a dedicated battery page; among installers no AI named, those figures were 51.5% and 33.9%. Battery searches in our set added up to 7,600 US searches a month, led by "tesla powerwall cost" at 5,400, and 5 of the 6 battery queries showed an AI Overview.

The engines also push homeowners toward storage in the markets where it pays. Gemini in San Diego wrote: "You need a battery to capture excess daytime generation and run your home from 4 PM to 9 PM during peak SDG&E pricing." A homeowner who reads that sentence then searches for a local installer who can quote a battery.

First step: give storage its own page with the battery brands you install, the backup circuits you typically cover, and a cost range, and link it from your homepage navigation. The full list of 23 signals is in what AI-recommended solar installers put on their websites.

7. Financing pages that answer the dealer-fee question

Every one of the 5 financing searches we checked showed an AI Overview, and they carried 7,490 US searches a month with an average cost per click of $14.04. "Solar panel financing" alone was $21.06 per click. On the installer side, 69.6% of AI-named installers mention financing, loans or leases, against 55.4% of the rest, and only 29% of all installers have a dedicated financing page.

The AIs coach homeowners to ask about financing in a specific way. ChatGPT in Los Angeles told them to "Ask for cash price and financed price separately; solar loans can hide dealer fees." An installer whose financing page already shows the cash price and the financed price side by side answers the question before the homeowner asks it.

First step: publish a financing page that explains loans, leases and power purchase agreements in plain language and states how dealer fees affect the financed price, then link it from your quote form.

8. Incentives and net metering content for your state and utility

The 5 incentive searches all showed an AI Overview and carried 10,030 US searches a month, with "solar tax credit" at 4,400 and "net metering" at 3,600. Among AI-named installers, 59.8% mention the tax credit or incentives on the homepage, against 49.8% of the rest. The energy.gov domain was cited in 7 of the 52 AI Overviews.

This is also where accuracy wins leads. The IRS states that the Residential Clean Energy Credit "is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025," so a homeowner searching in 2026 is looking for what still applies: state rebates, utility programs and the net metering or net billing rules on their meter. A page that lays out those rules for your utility is one that an AI Overview can quote.

First step: write one incentives page per utility you serve, dated, with the current export rate or net billing rule and every live rebate, and update it each quarter.

9. Service, cleaning and maintenance searches that show a map pack

Two searches most installers ignore showed a map pack and no AI Overview: "solar panel cleaning" with 9,900 US searches a month at $10.50 per click, and "solar panel maintenance" with 4,400 a month at $20.24 per click. Together they are 14,300 monthly searches from people who already own panels, which makes them the natural audience for battery add-ons, inverter replacements and referrals.

First step: add a maintenance and service page, add the matching service to your Google Business Profile, and track service calls that turn into storage or expansion quotes.

10. Reddit and YouTube, where homeowners check you before they call

Reddit appeared in the organic top 10 on 41 of the 60 homeowner searches (68.3%) and was cited in 24 of the 52 AI Overviews (46.2%). YouTube was cited in 33 of the 52 AI Overviews (63.5%), tied with EnergySage. In the city-level answers, Reddit was cited in 26.9% of the 130 answers, mainly by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode. Brand searches run through the same channels: "sunrun reviews" carried 9,900 searches a month, and the first site its AI Overview cited was reddit.com.

First step: search your company name and your city's solar subreddit, answer any thread about your company plainly under your real name, and publish one YouTube walkthrough of a completed install in your city with the system size and the customer's first bill.

11. The review sites and best-of lists the AIs copy from

After EnergySage, the sites cited most often in the 130 answers were consumeraffairs.com (46.2%), ecowatch.com (26.9%), reddit.com (26.9%), serviceagent.ai (26.2%), expertise.com (24.6%), homeadvisor.com (18.5%), todayshomeowner.com (16.2%), yelp.com (16.2%) and bbb.org (11.5%). Best-of lists alone supplied 15.8% of all citations. Claude in Orlando reminded homeowners that "Some of those sites earn referral fees," and that skepticism is why your Google profile and your own site must confirm what the lists say.

First step: search "best solar installer {your city}" and open the top five lists; for each, check whether you are listed and whether the details are current, then request a correction or inclusion where you qualify. The full ranking is in the sites AI reads before recommending a solar installer.

12. A website that converts the visit into a quote request

Each source above sends a homeowner to your website, and the audit shows how the named installers receive them. Compared with installers no AI named, AI-named installers more often show reviews or testimonials (70.6% vs 48.9%), state years in business (41.2% vs 22.7%), show a license number (28.4% vs 15%), mention NABCEP certification (20.6% vs 6%) and carry LocalBusiness schema (75.5% vs 60.5%). Among the Maps top-20 installers, 99.2% of those an AI named had a website, against 79% of those it skipped.

First step: put your license number, years in business, NABCEP credentials and live Google review count above the fold, and add LocalBusiness structured data with your service area. The broader plan is in our solar company SEO guide.

Bought leads vs owned channels: what the prices say

Bought leads have a published price in only a few places, and the clearest public figures come from SolarReviews. Its article on how much solar leads cost in each state, marked as updated two years ago when we read it on 10 October 2026, states "an average cost of $0.25 per watt for residential solar lead generation in America" and, at a 5.6 kW average job, "an average lead spend per residential solar job of $1,400." The same page notes that exclusive leads "are much more costly than leads sold to two or more companies" and that reputable sellers "will only sell to a maximum of four companies." Its per-state table gives lead cost per sale for multi-installer leads, which we reproduce for eight of our study states.

The other large lead sellers do not publish a price. EnergySage's installer page and its partner page on lead allocation describe how quote requests are matched to installers and state no fee. Angi's pro signup page stated no per-lead price or membership fee when we checked it on 10 October 2026. Modernize's contractor pages were blocked to our checker and we found no published rate card, so treat any Modernize price you read elsewhere as a third-party report. Our separate review of solar lead generation companies goes through each seller in detail.

The comparison is uneven on purpose. A bought lead arrives with a price and a competitor count; an owned channel arrives with work up front and a lead that already chose you. In our data the owned channels are where the homeowner decides whom to call: the map pack on the two biggest buying searches, the AI shortlist that 72.3% of answers told them to use for quotes, and the review count that predicted whether an installer made that shortlist. Our solar companies page explains how Orkkid approaches that work.

How we got this data

On 7 and 8 October 2026, Orkkid asked five AI assistants the same question a homeowner would ask: "Who is the best solar installer in {City}, {State}? Give me your top picks." We ran it in 26 US cities: Denver, Austin, Phoenix, Charlotte, Seattle, Tampa, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Tucson, Boston, Newark, Baltimore, Chicago, Minneapolis and Honolulu.

• Engines and models: ChatGPT (gpt-5.5), Perplexity (sonar-pro), Gemini (gemini-3.8-flash) and Claude (claude-sonnet-5-5), all with web search on, through the DataForSEO AI Optimization API, plus Google AI Mode for "best solar installer in {City}". That gave 130 answers naming 411 different installers.
• Google Maps: for each city we pulled the Google Maps top 20 for "solar installer" with the city as the location, recording rank, rating and review count: 520 listings. A listing counts as named when any of the five AIs recommended that business in the same city.
• Homeowner searches: 60 US homeowner solar queries on Google US desktop with AI Overview loading on, recording whether an AI Overview appeared and which URLs it cited, the organic top 10, whether a local pack appeared, and Google Ads search volume and cost per click. Three of the 60 queries had no volume figure.
• Website audit: the homepages of the Maps-listed installers, 335 of them reachable, checked for 23 trust and conversion signals by script.
• Quote advice: we searched the text of all 130 answers for phrases advising the homeowner to collect two or more quotes, bids or proposals; 94 matched.
• Lead prices: taken from the sellers' own public pages, fetched on 10 October 2026 and quoted above with links. Where a seller publishes no price, we say so.
• Limits: one run per prompt and engine, so this is a snapshot. AI answers change daily, Maps results vary with the searcher's location, and search volumes are Google Ads averages. The data shows association between reviews, website signals and AI mentions; it cannot prove cause.

The parent study, with the moving and wedding industries alongside solar, is our AI recommendation study.

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FAQ

What is the best source of solar leads in 2026?

In our October 2026 data, the Google map pack on "solar companies near me" (14,800 US searches a month) and "solar installers near me" (12,100) is the largest owned source, because neither search showed an AI Overview. The second is the AI shortlist: 72.3% of 130 AI answers told homeowners to collect several quotes from the installers named.

How many Google reviews does a solar company need to get leads from AI?

Across 520 Google Maps solar listings, installers with 100 or more reviews were named by at least one AI 52.1% of the time, installers with 25 to 99 reviews 28.4% of the time, and installers with fewer than 25 reviews 4.6% of the time. Treat 25 as the first milestone and 100 as the working target.

How much do solar leads cost?

SolarReviews publishes an average of $0.25 per watt, or $1,400 per residential job, with multi-installer lead cost per sale ranging from $363 in North Carolina to $1,929 in California for leads from a defined organic source. EnergySage, Angi and Modernize did not publish a per-lead price on the pages we checked on 10 October 2026.

Is EnergySage worth it for solar installers?

EnergySage was cited in 81.5% of the 130 AI answers and 63.5% of the 52 Google AI Overviews we recorded, so a profile there feeds both quote requests and AI recommendations. Only 2.4% of installer homepages mention it. Our separate guide, EnergySage for installers, covers the trade-offs.

Do homeowners still use Google to find solar installers, or do they ask AI?

Both, by intent. 52 of the 60 homeowner searches we checked (86.7%) showed an AI Overview, mostly on cost, financing, incentive and equipment questions. The near-me searches that signal a homeowner ready to call showed a map pack and no AI Overview.

What should a solar company's website include to turn visits into leads?

In our audit of 335 installer homepages, the installers an AI named more often had a battery page (62.7% vs 33.9%), showed reviews (70.6% vs 48.9%), stated years in business (41.2% vs 22.7%), showed a license number (28.4% vs 15%) and mentioned NABCEP certification (20.6% vs 6%).