Updated October 2026
Selling solar installer data for AI training: what it's worth and who buys it
Polyshares lists a $275,000 license for a solar company, as its own claim.1
A residential solar install is a paperwork project with a roof attached. The salesperson pulls a utility bill and designs a system, the design team produces a plan set, permitting submits it to the city, interconnection applies to the utility, the crew installs in a day or two, the inspector signs off, and then the company waits, sometimes for weeks, for permission to operate. Each step has its own portal, its own rejections and its own email chain.
That makes a solar installer's archive a record of navigating rules across hundreds of jurisdictions and utilities, step by step, with outcomes and delays logged. Polyshares lists a $275,000 solar company license as its own claim. Nyne buys jobs, calendars and estimates, and the office staff who run permitting and interconnection write all day.
This page is for residential and commercial solar installers with ten or more employees, including companies that have shrunk or closed. It covers what a week of records looks like, which buyers fit, how closed or winding-down installers can still take part, and what to ask about homeowner financing and utility data.
Worth
What a solar company's data may be worth
Set for a typical solar company, 35 staff and 7 years of records. Move the sliders to match yours. Our estimate, not an offer.
Buyers
Which buyers want this data
Buyers whose own published rules fit solar installers. We can introduce you to the ones we work with.
Featured partners
micro1
Asks for project management workflows and task histories, which is what a permitting and interconnection tracker records.10
- $100K to $2M+, micro1 says6
Watch out for: Says it removes personal details only "when relevant", so ask exactly how.11
Polyshares
Has published a solar company license, and buys CRM, design files and email, where proposals and plan sets live.1,12
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says7
- None, Polyshares says13
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days14
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.15,16
Everyone else we reviewed
By score, with full reviews. We have no referral agreement with these companies, so we do not link out to them.
Who wants this
Do buyers want solar installers?
No buyer publishes prices by industry, but their own intake forms show which industries they rate higher.
- Troveo puts construction and trades in its second of four demand tiers: "Your industry carries above-average buyer demand."21
- Polyshares takes roofing and solar, without marking it premium.22
- VMS, a broker, gives construction standard weight when it estimates value.23
Which buyers take a solar company your size
Shown for 35 staff, a typical solar company. Ask whether contractors and part-time staff count.
micro1
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more26
Mode
20+ full-time US office staff (accounting firms 10+, law firms 6+)27
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years; by industry, from 10+ (healthcare) to 50+ (manufacturing, finance)28,29,30
Grepped
No headcount minimum stated31
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records32
Mercor
None stated33
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2034
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years35
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees36
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years37
What buyers value
What in a solar company's records buyers value
What buyers look for in your records, and what to talk through with your buyer before anything leaves your systems.
| Data | Where it lives | Why a buyer values it | Raise with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposals and system designs | Design and proposal software, CRM | Usage, roof and shading turned into a system size and a price, with the signed or lost outcome. | Homeowner utility bills and usage data. |
| Permit submissions and corrections | City portals, project tracker, email | Jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction rules learned the hard way, with each correction and resubmission written down. | Nothing specific |
| Utility interconnection files | Utility portals, email | Applications, rejections and the wait for permission to operate, one of the slowest multi-party processes in any trade. | Utility account numbers and meter data. |
| Install and inspection records | Field app, photos, checklists | What was installed, what the inspector flagged and how it was fixed. | Nothing specific |
| Financing and incentive paperwork | Lender portals, CRM attachments | How a sale depends on loan, lease or incentive approval, and where deals fall apart. | Credit applications and lender documents. |
A week of records
A week of data at a solar company
- Monday: twelve proposals sent, each built from a utility bill and a satellite roof model.
- Tuesday: two permits come back with corrections on setbacks, and the plan sets are revised and resubmitted.
- Wednesday: an interconnection application rejected for a missing single-line diagram, fixed the same day.
- Thursday: three installs completed with photo checklists and a final inspection booked for each.
- Friday: the PTO tracker reviewed, with eight systems still waiting on the utility and notes on why.
Process
How it works with each buyer
In each buyer's own words. Where a buyer publishes nothing, we say so.
micro1
- Internal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project management workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, task histories10
- 30 to 200 employees25
- $100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data6
- PII removed "when relevant"11
- The company keeps ownership of its data and reviews samples before release38
- Not published
Polyshares
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your solar company? License its data first
If your installer has shrunk, merged or closed, buyers may still take its records: Pewter takes winding-down and closed companies with 20+ people now or at peak, as long as the records exist. If you are winding down, ask each licensing company who signs for the company and how long the process takes before servers are switched off.2
FAQ
Solar installers: questions, answered
Polyshares describes its published deals as a "perpetual exclusive license to the operational record". In our reading, that matters less to a company that is closing than to one that might want to license the same records again, so ask each buyer which kind of license it is offering and what it would mean for you.9
Solar installers have no NAICS code of their own; Census counts them inside electrical contractors, which had 16,906 firms with 10+ employees in 2022. That figure includes many companies that never touch solar.3
Electricians score 74 out of 100 on O*NET's email scale, and in solar most writing is done by designers, permit coordinators and project managers in the office. Count them when you describe the archive.4
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- How are homeowner utility bills, meter data and credit documents removed?
- Would an exclusive, perpetual license stop us licensing the same records again?
- If the company has closed, who is authorised to sign and receive the payment?
- Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
- How do CCPA, GDPR, UK GDPR and state privacy laws apply, and is de-identified data still personal information?
- What are the trustee's, assignee's, receiver's or board's duties, and who receives the proceeds?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?
Proof