How to Choose a Third Party Design Vendor for Solar Projects

Design is the part of the solar process where it’s easiest to get behind or backlogged.

Translating survey results into 3D designs that procurement teams and installers can use is a tall order. In response, a lot of contractors choose to outsource some or all of their design work to third parties. Unfortunately, that opens its own problems—namely, how to choose a vendor to work with.

Scanifly has seen thousands of residential and commercial solar projects go from start to finish, including design. We’ve also partnered with design vendors in the past to aid with solar projects.

In this article, we’re sharing our rubric and the steps to follow when it comes to selecting the right design partner.

1. Identify what you need from an outsourced designer

Some contractors need everything done by a third party cause they have a lean team. Others can get some tasks done and need additional support. You need to figure out what your needs are before searching for a vendor.

Broadly speaking, outsourced design needs fall into one of three different camps:

1. The basics: The vendor provides roof surfaces outlined, keepouts, and fire setbacks. You’d do everything else including the full site plan and any required regulatory stamps.

2. The full plan: The vendor provides all of the basics plus shade analysis, module placement, and AutoCAD site files. You’d just need to get relevant AHJ approvals.

3. The whole design process: Not only would you outsource the whole design—from roof outline to AutoCAD exports—but the designer would also manage the process of getting AHJ approvals (which often comes at an additional cost) and includes outsourcing PE stamps.

Every project needs the whole design process, so the question to ask yourself is how much you can do in-house versus how much you’d prefer to outsource.

2. Research vendors

Look up vendors in your area, national vendors with a local presence, and vendors who can work remotely.

You can find vendors through:

Online search (Google “solar design [your area]” as a start).
Conferences (like the NABCEP Annual Conference).
Local solar meetups and virtual events.
Through your personal or employee networks (do a call out on LinkedIn, if you’re active).

At this stage, check out the vendor’s website at a high level. If it says the vendor can do what you need, add them to your list. You’re not assessing anyone yet, just collecting names that you can reach out to later.

3. Reach out and measure qualitative elements to narrow down the list

Your qualitative analysis at this stage is about the working relationship, not yet their work quality or working relationship administration.

Here’s what to assess:

Communication: How do you feel about communicating with them? Are any team members based in the US / your region?
Speed and availability: How fast is their average turnaround time? What are their office hours? What time zone do they work from?
Versatility: What is the scope of their services—residential, commercial, large scale, etc—and does that match with your needs? How many states can they get PE stamps for? Are they eligible to work on projects outside of the US?
Mutual connections: Has anyone in your network worked with this company—and would they recommend them?

On the technical side, ask for some example plan sets so you can see their deliverable quality. While this won’t be custom to your needs, you can get an overall sense of the work they produce.

Use this assessment to cross off any obvious bad fits. And don’t be afraid of cutting out vendors you don’t feel you can communicate with—partnering with a vendor requires a lot of communication.

4. Test each vendor with a quantitative assessment to find your final candidates

When you’ve got your list of vendors you think might be a good fit, send them a test to complete. If you have multiple types of work (e.g. residential and commercial), send one test for each type.

First, you’re assessing if they deliver anything to you at all—this shows if they are serious about winning your business.

Second, use quantitative scoring to grade each test on the following:

Outlines
Keepouts
Viewshed placement
Panel Placement
Shade report
Share report

Score of 1 = Did not deliver as asked.

Score of 2 = Delivered, meeting expectations.

Score of 3 = Delivered, exceeding expectations.

You can also leave a section for a “gut check” by your in-house design expert if you have one. Get their overall perspective on whether the design test (as a whole) met expectations, didn’t meet them, or exceeded them.

The qualitative foundation and quantitative test scoring should help you get down to a small number of vendors (ideally 2-4).

5. Go in-depth to identify the vendor(s) you will partner with

This step will help you narrow down the vendor(s) you will ultimately work with.

At this stage, the company has completed a test project from you. That means they should be able to give you accurate information on how they might work with you, both project-wise and partnership administration.

Project work estimates:

Pricing.
Turnaround time.
Expected support.
Whether their team can handle the scale you need.
Expertise (whether the type of designs you need are in their core competency).
How many revisions are offered at no extra charge.

Admin estimates:

How payment works—net terms, etc.
The workflow by which you send the final documents to users through a software platform.
Quality control process / documentation.
Who owns responsibility for an inaccurate design.
Any volume minimums required by the vendor.

You might find at this stage that one vendor isn’t enough. In this case, you might choose to go with one vendor per type of project you have—for instance, one vendor for residential design and another for commercial.

While one vendor makes admin and payments a bit easier, choosing the right vendor for the right projects will be better in the long run.

Design is critical but doesn't need to be internal

Good design is essential to success in residential and commercial solar. However, that doesn’t mean it needs to be in-house and can be outsourced to the right partner.

The key to success with outsourcing is a tight connection between the vendor’s capability, your design needs versus what you can continue to do in-house, and the overall relationship you have with the vendor.

You should never underestimate the power of a good relationship between the two teams—if you partner with a talented vendor but you can’t get along with the team, things likely won’t end well. When the going gets tough, a good relationship will ensure things eventually smooth out.