AI for your industry
AI for solar installers: from first enquiry to grant paperwork without the admin pile-up
Solar businesses grow fast and drown in admin faster. Enquiries wait, quotes go unchased, grant packs stall on one missing document. These are the jobs AI does well, on top of the CRM and calendar you already have.
Part of AI for your industry.
Which AI workflows save the most time for a solar installer?
Instant lead response, quote follow-up, grant document collection, install scheduling and after-sales queries save the most, because each repeats daily and stalls in an inbox.
A solar sale has more admin steps than most trades: the enquiry, the site survey, the proposal, the grant application, the paperwork for the grid connection, the install date, the commissioning, and then a stream of questions about the monitoring app. Every step has a document or a reply attached, and every one of them is currently waiting for someone in the office.
The table shows the workflows we look at first, the admin each removes, and what it usually connects to. The judgement stays with you: system design, pricing, which jobs to take. The chasing does not need you.
| Workflow | Admin it removes | What it connects to |
|---|---|---|
| Instant lead response | Web and phone enquiries that wait hours for a reply and go to the next installer | Website forms, phone, WhatsApp, CRM |
| Quote follow-up | Proposals sent and never chased while the customer compares three others | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, CRM |
| Grant paperwork and document collection | Chasing customers for MPRN details, BER certificates, IDs and signed forms | Email, secure forms, shared folders, CRM |
| Install scheduling | Phone tag between customer, crew, electrician and supplier | Calendar, job management software, SMS |
| After-sales queries | The same questions about monitoring apps, export payments and inverters answered by hand | Email, WhatsApp, a private knowledge base of your own answers |
| Weekly pipeline reporting | Monday morning spent rebuilding the pipeline from the CRM and email | CRM, accounting software, Google Sheets or Excel |
How does AI speed up lead response and quote follow-up?
It replies to every new enquiry within minutes with useful next steps, books the survey, then follows up each proposal until the customer answers.
A homeowner or business asking about solar is usually asking three installers at once. The one that answers first with something useful, roof orientation questions, a rough sense of system size, a survey slot, is the one they remember. The workflow does that reply immediately, from your website form, your phone or WhatsApp, and puts the enquiry in your CRM with the details filled in.
After the proposal goes out, the workflow sends short, friendly check-ins on the schedule you set, answers the common follow-up questions from your own approved answers, and tells you the moment the customer replies. You spend your time on the people who are ready to talk, not on a spreadsheet of people you meant to ring.
Nothing goes out that you have not approved as a template, and the workflow hands the conversation to a person the moment it goes beyond what it was set up to answer.
Can AI handle the grant paperwork and document collection?
It handles the collecting, checking and chasing. A person still reviews the pack and submits it, but they receive it complete instead of assembling it.
In Ireland that means the SEAI grant process and the paperwork around the grid connection. In the UK, the US, Australia and elsewhere it is whatever incentive or rebate scheme applies in your market, plus the utility's own forms. The scheme changes; the shape of the work does not. Each application needs a fixed set of documents from the customer, most of them arrive late or incomplete, and someone in the office spends their week asking for the rest.
The workflow sends the customer a clear list of what is needed and a secure place to send it, checks each item off as it arrives, reminds them politely about what is missing, and flags to you when the pack is complete or when a customer has gone quiet. It does not make decisions about eligibility and it does not submit on your behalf.
Customer data in this workflow is handled on business-tier AI accounts that do not train on your data, with access limited to the documents each step actually needs. We are not advisers on the grant schemes themselves; the eligibility rules stay with you and the scheme operator.
What does it cost?
There is no single figure, because the price follows the workflows and systems involved. The review that scopes it is free and takes three minutes.
Why there is no single figure. Instant lead response on one website form is a different job from response, follow-up, document collection and scheduling across a CRM, a calendar and two install crews. We quote each engagement on what it connects and what it has to do, with the estimated hours saved beside the price.
What you get free first. The AI Readiness Review report for solar and renewables names the two or three workflows with the most hours behind them for your business, and Ger talks it through with you personally within 24 hours. No card, no obligation.
Who it is for. Installers of roughly 5 to 50 staff with enough enquiries and installs that the admin is measurable in hours a week. A very small operation usually gets what it needs from the review report and the AI readiness checklist.
How the review handles solar
The AI Readiness Review has a solar and renewables track. When an installer completes the six questions, the report is built from the answers about enquiry volume, how quotes are produced, where the paperwork stalls and who does the admin, and it names the two or three workflows above with the most hours behind them for that business, along with the estimated hours per week.
I then read every report before I ring. If the numbers do not justify the work, I say so on the call. There is no solar client story on this page because I will not invent one; the review is the honest first step.
Common questions
Can AI submit grant applications for us?
We do not automate the submission itself. The workflow collects and checks the documents, chases what is missing and hands a complete pack to the person who submits, which is where most of the time was going.
We get a lot of enquiries that never convert. Will AI help with that?
Speed and follow-up are usually the problem. An instant, useful reply followed by a structured follow-up sequence means fewer enquiries go quiet while they compare quotes.
Does this work outside Ireland?
Yes. The grant workflow is built around whatever incentive scheme applies in your market, and the lead response, quoting, scheduling and after-sales workflows are the same everywhere. We work across Ireland, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
What software do we need already?
A CRM or even a well-kept spreadsheet, a calendar and email are enough to start. If you already use job management or proposal software, the workflows connect to it rather than replace it.
How do we find out which workflow to start with?
Take the free AI Readiness Review: six questions, about three minutes, and an instant report for solar and renewables businesses naming the two or three highest-impact workflows. Ger follows up personally within 24 hours.
See which workflow gives you the most hours back
Six questions, about three minutes, and an instant report for solar and renewables businesses. Free, no card, no obligation.
Take the free AI Readiness ReviewBack to AI for your industry.