Most people who hear “solar referral programme” assume there is a catch, and they are usually right. So let me put the whole thing on the table in the first paragraph.
If you introduce me to a homeowner and they end up going solar, you get $2,000. You do not sell anything. You do not need a licence. It costs you nothing to sign up, and nothing if the introduction goes nowhere. That is the entire offer.
What follows is the detail — including the parts that are less convenient, because if I gloss over those you will find them out later and rightly hold it against me.
Who I am, and why I need introductions at all
I am Andy Smith. I am a solar consultant, not an installer and not a solar company. I have worked in this industry since 2019, and Online Solar USA is the resource I built so homeowners can work out whether solar makes sense for them without anyone sitting in their kitchen until midnight.
Here is the honest bit. I am not the person who turns up at someone’s house on a Tuesday evening with a laptop. That work is done by licensed consultants on my team who live and work in the market the homeowner is in — they know the local utility, the local permitting and the local rates far better than any one person could cover nationally.
What I need are introductions to homeowners who are actually curious about solar. That is genuinely the constraint on my business, and it is worth a great deal to me — hence the number.
What an “introduction” actually means
It is narrower than people expect, and that is deliberate.
An introduction is: you know someone who has mentioned their electricity bill, or a new roof, or an electric car, or just that they have wondered about panels. You mention that you know someone who explains this stuff properly and does not pressure people. You pass their details on, with their agreement, or you introduce us directly.
That is it. You are done at that point.
What happens next is my job and the consultant’s job: the education, the quote, the roof survey, the finance conversation, the objections, the paperwork. You are not expected to know the answer to a single technical question. If someone asks you about panel degradation rates or net metering, the correct answer is “no idea, ask Andy.”
What it is not
- It is not sales. You never quote a price, never present anything, never close.
- It is not a job. No quota, no targets, no hours, no manager, no reporting.
- It is not a course. There is no training you have to complete first.
- It is not a licence. Ambassadors do not need one, because ambassadors do not sell.
- It does not cost anything. Not to join, not ever. If anyone asks you to pay to refer people, walk away — from them, and from me if I ever do it.
- It is not a list-buying exercise. Please do not send me strangers, scraped contacts, or anyone who has not agreed to hear from us. I will not use them, and there are laws about this for good reason.
The money, plainly
The programme pays $2,000 per referred project, and it is run and paid by Powur, the platform I work through — not by me personally, which means it does not depend on my goodwill or my cash flow.
Two things about the timing you should know before you decide:
You are paid when the system is installed, not when the homeowner signs. In California that gap is real. Battery-paired systems go through utility technical review that can run eight to twelve weeks on its own, then permission-to-operate after final inspection. From introduction to payment can be several months.
Not every introduction converts. Roughly speaking, a bit under a third of genuine, interested homeowners end up going ahead. Some have the wrong roof. Some have too much shade. Some decide the timing is wrong. Some I will actively tell not to bother, because their situation does not justify it — and I would rather lose the deal than put someone into a system that will not pay for itself.
I am telling you this because “$2,000 per referral” is a headline, and headlines in this industry have a habit of quietly omitting the conditions. This is not a salary and I am not suggesting you can predict what you would earn. It is a success fee on an outcome neither of us fully controls.
Why now, specifically
There is a reason this is easier to bring up in 2026 than it was two years ago.
Almost everyone in America believes residential solar incentives are dead. The 30% federal credit homeowners could claim ended on 31 December 2025, it was widely reported, and most people filed it away as “that ship sailed.”
The 30% did not disappear. It moved.
The equivalent credit still exists for commercial entities. Through the prepaid arrangements we work with, that entity claims the credit and passes roughly 30% straight back to the homeowner as an upfront discount on the system. In several respects it is better than the old version: the homeowner needs no tax liability to benefit, waits for no refund, and deals with no paperwork.
Very few people know this. Which means “actually, that’s not quite right, let me introduce you to someone who can explain it” is a genuinely useful thing to say to a friend rather than a pitch. I have written a full explanation of what happened to the tax credit, plus the California cost breakdown and the Texas equivalent, partly so you have something to forward instead of having to explain it yourself.
Who tends to be good at this
Not salespeople, generally. The people who do well are the ones others already ask for recommendations — realtors, roofers, electricians, HVAC engineers, property managers, and people who are simply well connected and trusted in their neighbourhood.
If you have ever been asked “do you know a good…?” more than once, you already have the only qualification that matters.
Existing solar owners are the other group. If you have panels and they have worked out well, the people around you have almost certainly asked you about them.
What I commit to
Since I am asking you to put your name to an introduction, you should know what I will do with it.
- I will tell you what happened. You will hear how your introduction went — including when the answer is that it went nowhere. Not knowing is the single biggest complaint people have about referral schemes, and it is fair.
- Nobody gets pressured. No price that expires today, no all-evening kitchen-table session, no chasing. If someone says no, they get a polite thank you and no further contact.
- I will tell people when solar is wrong for them. Your relationship with the person you introduced is worth more than any single deal to me.
- Your contacts are not a list. They are not added to anything, sold, or marketed to beyond the conversation you introduced.
If you want to do this
The sign-up is free and takes a few minutes, but I would rather have a five-minute conversation with you first so you know exactly what you are putting your name to — and so I can answer whatever this article did not.
Book a call with me here. If you would rather understand the solar side first, start with the homeowner education material — it is the same material I give customers, and it is the fastest way to know whether this is something you want your name attached to.
The $2,000 figure is the current programme rate, paid on installed systems. It is not a projection of earnings, and the number of introductions that convert varies. Ambassadors introduce only and do not sell, present or advise on solar products.
Recent Comments