New solar sales laws, by state
Each of these laws applies to contracts signed after its effective date. None of them reaches back to older contracts, which stay under the consumer protection laws that applied when they were signed.
| State | Law | Applies from | What it requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | SB 1036 (2025), Occ. Code ch. 1806 | 2025-09-01 | Five-business-day cancellation; affiliated lender must cancel the loan on cancellation; seller and salesperson registration with TDLR from 2026-09-01; a state disclosure form listing total payments, dealer fees and lien risk, enforced from 2026-11-01; penalties up to $10,000 per violation when someone over 65 is harmed. Full Texas guide. |
| Colorado | SB25-299 | 2026-07-01 | Signed 2025-06-04. Specified disclosures and contract terms; a welcome call with disclosures; at least three business days to cancel a sale, counted from the welcome call; financing documents with specified terms; installation and workmanship warranties; no use of utility names or logos, or claimed state program affiliation, without consent. Enforced as a deceptive trade practice under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. |
| Oregon | HB 4029 | 2026-06-05 | Signed 2026-03-05. Oregon's first solar consumer protection law: plain-language disclosures of full cost and financing terms before a sale or lease, contract and warranty requirements, stronger remedies for bad installations, stronger contractor licensing, and limits on aggressive door-to-door tactics and misleading production estimates. |
The pattern across all three: a standard disclosure in plain language before signing, a real cancellation window, and a ban on pretending to be the utility or a government program. Those are the exact practices named in this year's state lawsuits.
Pending and stalled bills
- Hawaii, SB 2032 (2026). Would require a standardized solar disclosure form, a cancellation window, licensing or affiliation for anyone marketing or financing residential solar, and would let buyers void agreements that violate it. A House committee rewrote it and set a placeholder effective date of July 1, 3000 "to encourage further discussion," which in practice means it is not law yet.
- California, AB 942 (2025). Not a consumer protection bill, but it matters to every California solar homeowner: as introduced, it would have moved anyone buying a home with legacy net metering onto the current, lower tariff. That provision was removed in the Senate in July 2025. What transfers at resale.
- Virginia, 2026 session. The governor signed a package on 2026-04-13 on permitting, distributed generation, storage and a utility virtual power plant pilot. None of it is a solar sales law; Virginia's main consumer action this year is the attorney general's January suit over Pink Energy.
Rate deadlines that bring the sales teams
Solar sales follow deadlines. When a better rate or credit is about to close, sales teams concentrate where it closes. These are the ones driving door-knocking now:
| Deadline | Where | What closes |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-12-31 | North Carolina (Duke) | Duke Energy's Net Metering Bridge rider closes to new participants on 2027-01-01 and has a yearly capacity cap (38,700 kW AC for Duke Energy Carolinas and 43,500 kW AC for Duke Energy Progress in 2026). Customers keep it up to 15 calendar years from the date their interconnection application was submitted. Residential customers on the original Rider NM must move to the Bridge rider or another rider by 2027-01-01. Full guide. |
| Each September | Arizona (APS, UNS) | Export rate for new interconnection applications steps down up to 10 percent; the 2026 cut took effect 2026-09-01. Rates lock for 10 years from interconnection. Arizona guide. |
| 2027-12-31 | Nationwide | Placed-in-service deadline for the business tax credit on leased and PPA systems that did not begin construction by 2026-07-04. The homeowner credit already ended after 2025-12-31, which is why most pitches are now leases and PPAs. Lease and PPA guide. |
A deadline can be real and still be used as pressure. Confirm it with the utility directly, and do not let it rush you past reading the contract. History: solar policy history by state. Full schedule: net metering by state, 2026.
Enforcement: the 2026 attorney general suits
Ohio, Virginia, New York, Texas, Michigan and Kansas each sued residential solar sellers in 2026, three of them naming the lenders too. The complaints share the same allegations the new laws target: promised savings that never came, dealer fees hidden in the loan, tax credits the buyer could not use, and systems never finished. All six cases in one table.
Signed a solar contract that is not what you were promised? Tell us what happened. We pass requests to an independent consumer attorney at no charge to you; the attorney decides whether you have a case.
What to do if you are pitched, or already signed
- Ask for the total. Total of all payments over the full term, the cash price, and any dealer fee, in writing. Texas now requires it on a state form; in other states, ask anyway.
- Find the cancellation date on the contract before you sign, and calendar it.
- Check the salesperson. In Texas, ask for the TDLR registration number. Everywhere, check the installer's contractor license with the state.
- Get the utility rate in writing from the utility, not from the salesperson, including what you will be paid for exports.
- Already signed and it went wrong? Keep paying while you get advice, gather the contract, loan papers, proposal and 12 months of bills, and file complaints with your attorney general. Then get your case reviewed.
Sources
- TDLR, Residential Solar Retailers: What's in Effect When
- TDLR, Update on Residential Solar Retailers Program, August 21, 2026
- Colorado General Assembly, SB25-299 Consumer Protection Residential Energy Systems
- Energy Trust of Oregon, Oregonians going solar now have greater protections in place, April 3, 2026
- Hawaii Legislature, SB 2032 HD1 committee report 1378-26
- Solar Builder, Virginia solar and storage bills signed April 2026
- Solar Builder, California Senate committee moves to preserve net metering rights in AB 942
- PV Tech, ACC cuts Arizona solar export rate by 10%, August 17, 2026
- Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress, net metering tariffs (Riders NM, NMB, RSC), NCUC Docket E-100, Sub 180
- Solar Power World, How H.R. 1 changes the residential solar ITC, July 2025