Highlight Solar, Inc.

Great company, great service. So glad we switched to solar and so glad we went with Highlight Solar. Panels look great and installation was fast. Everyone was very professional and went through everything with me — and they took care of everything (permits, inspection, etc). Highly recommended!

I solicited quotes from a few different solar companies (most were higher and a few lower), but I really appreciated the time that Mario took to explain everything. He spend a great deal of time describing what we needed and the timeline for the installation. Since we decided to install it late in the year (Nov) we weren’t really expecting to everything completed by the end of the year for the tax credit. However, they were able to pull in the schedule and get the complete system installed (including electric panel upgrade) done by December! I highly recommend HighLight Solar to all of my friends and family. Keep up the good work guys!

I got quotes from several solar companies, ranging from large national corporations to small local businesses. After my research and talking to my father who is a solar expert and has had panels for over 20 years, I decided to go with Highlight Solar, and I am glad I did! They had all the perks of a large company — price advantage, parts warranty, labor warranty etc. However they also have the perks of a small local business: when you call you get a human every time, or a quick call back if they need to.
They did a wonderful job on our house and supplied us with a clear diagram of how the solar would be placed and on which roof faces. Because of the orientation of our house relative to the sun, Mario advised us to put the solar array on the front of our house, as the rear and side faces would not provide enough energy to zero out our huge electricity bill each month ($ 400+ dollars a month in summer). We opted for an 8 KW system to bring us down to about 10 bucks a month, which is the least you can pay PG&E, it’s their baseline connection fee to establish service. That brought us from about $ 5000 – 6000 per year down to $ 120 annually! Not to mention with a system this large we might end up with PG&E owing us money at the end of the year, depending on how much we use vs. how much we generate thanks to the Net Metering Plan!
Mario was a great sales rep to walk us through the quote process, he spent about 45 minutes on our roof on his first visit and told us there were no big issues standing in the way of installation. His quote totally made sense and his advice aligned with thew research I did on my own. He was able to help us source all black panels to minimize the contrast of the panels relative the front roof of the house, which really made the difference for us!
We also opted to put up a pool solar system to keep the pool in the temperature range we want for a more of the year. We are paying so much for pool maintenance at this point that it totally makes sense to get 3 more months of usage out of it in early spring and fall.
The work was done in a little less than a week, and the system was operational in the same time window. Even PG&E moved quickly for us without Mario having to badger them, I got an email within one day after the application went in to them saying we were all hooked up. The city inspection also went smoothly with no issues raised.
I highly recommend Mario and Highlight Solar to anyone looking to join the green revolution! :)
Best,
Sean Harold

Just installed some totally sweet LG NeON2 panels with a Solar Edge inverter. The process was very easy and straightforward, including working with Mario. It took about 2 work days to get the panels installed and hooked up. This company is very chill, especially compared with the high-​pressure sales tactics employed by Solar City. Those jokers are still calling me after I’ve told them repeatedly I am not interested!
I recommend this company to anyone looking to get solar installed. The only caveat is that they include an Arbitration of Dispute clause in their contract, which I typically would refuse to sign on principle, but in this case I decided to not sweat it.

When looking for solar, we were overwhelmed with options. Our neighbor had great things to say about their experience with Highlight, so we jumped in. No regrets! Mario and Eddy were on the ball, consistently and rapidly answering our questions as we worked through the process. After the install they continued to answer questions and take of any issues that popped up. I happily recommend them to anyone looking for an easy way to get solar on their home.

Outstanding service!
Eager to please!
Latest technology!
Highly recommend to any and everyone!

There is a reason that Highlight has received all 5 stars. They are one of the most customer oriented companies I have the pleasure to work with.
I originally narrowed my search down to the three solar companies in the area with the best reviews (I wanted to own the system not lease). Of the three, Highlght Solar was the only company who could design a system of 30 Solarworld panels to generate 8.55 kw power and they were significantly lower in price than the other two companies designing smaller systems. And they had all 5 star ratings regarding their design and installation work.
And, as many other reviewers have said, they did everything in a most professional manner with very little interaction required. And the system looks great and is performing close to what had been specified. I am a very happy customer!

Highlight Solar just put in our solar panels, and the process from signing paperwork through install has been smooth, quick, and pleasant. Dean, the owner, is knowledgeable, responsive, and polite. His installers are neat, friendly, and professional.
Our next door neighbor used Highlight Solar and recommended them to us… I’d recommend them too! Fantastic!

Highlight Solar is a great company to associate with. They have quality people like Mario Barajas who do not pressure you into buying anything but instead respect your decision as the buyer. He also gave me some sounded advice on different type of panels and powers in which it will generate. Dean is a great boss to deal with and both he and Mario were very honest when things got a little bit complicated due to PG&E’s internal delay of switching over to NET metering. Their company has worked earnestly to have my NET metering completed as soon as they can. My installations were 22 SolarWorld SW 285 Mono panels.
–Yeung Lam

After contacting 3 companies and getting quotes from each one, Highlight Solar had the best price to product ratio. Not only was their pricing the best, the owner Dean was excellent with providing us with all the information we needed to make an informed decision. He is there to make you happy with your solar choice. I am an engineer by profession so I was able to ask Dean a lot of detailed questions. Dean could answer almost all my questions and what he didn’t know, he went to find out.
We had purchased both a PV system for electricity and thermal system for our pool. There were issues that came up throughout the project, but Dean was able to resolve all issues very quickly. He is a pleasure to talk to and deal with.

Had the panels placed. Good solid work and cleaned up afterwards. Completed PG&E set up last week.
We didn’t have to do anything except for siging the paperwork. The PG&E delay took some time, but that’s on their end.
This has been one of the most pleasant experiences. I’d totally recommend Highlight solar to anyone. One neighbor already decided to get it after we got ours.
Now, We are loving the A/​C during those hot days and nights! Not feeling guilty at all using the power.

Highlight Solar just completed installation of my Solar system this week. All of the 5-​star comments in other reviews are spot-​on. Dean’s Company exceeded my expectations in all regards! Rather than repeating the accolades of others, I will focus on an aspect that others have not touched on in their reviews which I would define as «Performance Benchmarking».
When evaluating Proposals from other Solar companies, their pitch was on number of PV panels I could get per the price. What I learned (which none of them ever told me) was that all solar panels are not created equal. Output performance varies greatly and in one case, the Company’s Proposal turned out to be for an older generation of PV panels which were less efficient with lower power output.
You can view typical user’s Solar systems in real-​time operation on the Web at the Enphase site and drill down by zipcode to view systems in your own neighborhood:
What I learned was that the system components Highlight Solar had included in their Proposal (Sunworld SW285 and Enphase M250 micro-​inverters) kept showing up in the top performing Solar systems I benchmarked. Furthermore, Highlight Solar kept showing up as the identified Installer of those top performing systems. I attribute this to the additional quality components they use for example, they installed a very heavy gauge premium copper cable to interconnect the PV panels to my breaker box. Other Installers may use thinner (cheaper) cabling, etc.
So in summary, be sure to benchmark systems of the size (number of panels) you plan to install, in your locale at the above website and note the name of the Installer of the top performing systems. I am confident Highlight Solar will rank at the top of your list.

Highlight Solar did a fantastic job on our solar installation. Dean, the owner, is very knowledgeable and honest. He guided me away from my original thoughts on using a more expensive brand of panel as we had plenty of open roof space for the size system we needed and could use less expensive panels. We saved about $ 6000 (25%) as a result of this and also due to Highlight’s naturally competitive pricing.
Highlight employs their own installers, which means no long wait for contract installers to become available as with some of the bigger outfits. After signing all the paperwork, it was only 3 weeks until the system was fully installed.
Install was very clean. When connecting to our main panel, they even rerouted some existing conduit at no charge to keep the area looking great.
The whole team at Highlight was extremely friendly. I peppered Dean and Doug, the field engineer, with questions through the whole process and they were always happy to answer and explain anything I was curious about.
I highly recommend Highlight Solar.

After a couple of years of thinking about it and actually talking with a couple of companies before, I decided it was time to start the process again and finally go Solar. Plus this time, I wanted to do more than go Solar and address my electrical bill, I also wanted to «fuel my car with Sunshine!»
I contacted several of the «well known», larger Solar companies, but any time I had questions and concerns about potential installation issues, I got the usual response of — don’t worry «they» (they?) will take care of it.
I decided that it was time to try a smaller, local company — hoping that there would be a smaller void between sales and delivery. Time to let Unilocal do its thing. And what did I find — a company with all 5 star, great reviews. That got me curious. How does a company get such great reviews? Well — now that I’m the proud owner of 19 panels — installed by Highlight Solar, the mystery is solved. They, Highlight Solar, Dean and company, earn the 5 stars.
If you’re thinking about doing Solar, I say do it. I can say that now with my «first hand» experience and having in hand — not a bill — but a credit from PG&E for the month of June. My panels generated a Million watt hours of Energy in the month of June.
The challenge is to find the right company. If you’re not careful, you could easily end up with a bad installation of the wrong stuff for too much money. I’m happy to say that after a lot of research and my «first hand» experience, I got a great installation of the right stuff for a very competitive price from Highlight Solar. I don’t think that you can find a better company.
And so I don’t forget, they make the experience pain-​less, a pleasure. They take care of all the paperwork (e.g., PG&E, Permits,…) You can relax and just watch them do their thing.
From the time that I reached out, I got a quick response from Dean, the owner. He was able to quickly do an initial (very accurate) design and quote. There were no surprises later — like we’ll need more money or need to make major design changes. I did have some concerns: my «light weight» roof tiles, main electrical panel, silver or black PV panels, micro or string inverter.
At my convenience, Dean made a trip to the house. Dean is well-​versed in the Solar industry — products and installation. With this one (pleasant) visit, Dean and I were able to finalize the design. It was obvious that they could and would deliver what I wanted — with no surprises. Dean was able to turn my «bad news about my electrical panel» into good news.
The estimate of date of installation was accurate and they even gave me the option to start a week earlier. Doug and crew arrived first to cut a hole in my stucco wall and remove the old power panel. That was exciting! At the end of the day, I was left with a «thing of beauty!»
Then Nick and his crew went to work. They arrived on a Monday morning and before noon on Friday everything was done. Nick is both a skilled worker and a dedicated worker. You worry sometimes about what someone might be doing «on your roof.» That’s not a concern with Nick and crew. They do good work. And Nick and Doug are lucky to have Rick — to deal with all the stuff that they don’t want to deal with. Then a final visit from Doug to take care of (deal with) the city permit/​inspection and paperwork; plus double-​check all electrical connections and voila, it’s done! I have a PG&E credit, instead of a bill and I’m «fueling my car with Sunshine!»
A confession — my wife and I still go outside once or twice a week, just to watch the meter run backwards.

Initiation:
Go green, generate your power, help the environment were the motivations behind wanting to get Solar panels installed at my home. Solar City is everywhere and was naturally my first choice. My inquiry with them met with a super fast response and within 20mins I had a sales guy wanting me to sign a contract for 20 years, waiting in my inbox. The focus was all on how much money I was going to save by leasing their systems and how little I have to pay to go solar. The savings of $ 30 did not impress me and the salesperson just pissed me off by calling me 5 times a day. That’s when I decided to go on Unilocal and look for others and found out about Highlight Solar with all 5 star reviews.
Interview Process:
Sean Rachlin was the sales rep that I worked with. Absolute professional in his approach and zero pressure on you to sign anything. Like others, he sent his estimate over the e-​mail, but, warned me that this may not be accurate based on google maps and images. He offered to visit my home and explain me the whole process and give a more accurate proposal as well. We met up, he got on to my roof, made a bunch of real estate and light measurements for the panels and readjusted his original estimate. All this he did without promise of signing any contract. He explained me all the options, costs and even ways to financing them.
I was doing my research meanwhile and talked to couple of other companies. Those companies had a single motto. Make their sales pitch over the phone and make me sign a contract. The contrast was stark and it was not about penning saving for me anymore. Just give the business to an honest local business guy who puts in the hard work and goes that extra mile to earn their business.
When Sean made a polite enquiry a week later, I just told him to come home and I was ready to sing the contract for a 19 panel 5.42 kW DC system.
Pre-​Installation Process:
The contract that I signed said that they would finish the installation within a month. I ran into a little bit of a cash flow issue one week after signing and approached Sean to slow down and I may not be ready. Again, he was very understanding and said that, he will wait for me to make up my mind and offered help with understanding multiple financing options. Another week later, he contacted me on a Monday and said that if I was ready, they could get the system installed by the end of the week! That offer was too tempting to pass up for me. I just made the bold move and charged the whole thing to my credit card and asked them to proceed.
Installation Process:
To be honest, I know nothing about it :) That is as good as it got! My family was vacationing in India and I was at work everyday at 8.30 in the morning returning only after 7. These guys just came and did their job quitely and by the end of Friday and I had perfectly aligned, discretely installed panels on my roof top. I barely met their installation crew one day when I was on my way out. On Friday, they just left the monitoring panel at the front door and they were done. I texted Dean, the owner at 10.30 in the night that I needed help with the installation of the monitoring device. He responded right away and showed up the next day morning. He installed it for me and that was the first time I met the owner, who is an engineer and his mission seem to be giving an totally painless service to his customers.
Post Installation Process;
All the panels are up and running as expected. Inspection passed the following Tuesday and here I’m writing this review.
Why on earth would I not rate this guy 5 stars? I work for Amazon and I know that the best customer service achieved when the customer does not have to contact the service center at all. And that’s what happened here. Pressure less sales pitch, honest proposals, seamless installation procedure and careful follow up.
There are lots of big companies out there, but if you want a total friction free transaction, I’d highly recommend this company.
PS: I don’t know how good their service is if I run into any sort of issues. I hope I never find out!

Please include Highlight Solar in your quotes for solar. I picked them due to their great reviews and was not disappointed.
When you ask for a quick quote from other companies, they will always try to call you and come out to your house before they can provide a quote. They will then go back & forth trying to upsell their services and push leases that makes them the most money. Highlight Solar doesn’t play any of these games.
With them, all I provided was my address (which they use in Google Maps to view your roof and direction of optimal sun) and my electric bill or approximate electricity usage. They were able to send me a quote without coming over to my house or talking to me over the phone. When I decided to go with them, Dean came out to my house to make sure he wouldn’t encounter any issues that would change the quote.
Again all cases will vary, but in my case, my install was straight forward and the cost of the estimate was actually what I paid. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that. I thought it would be like those projects where they underestimate to win your bid, then tack on minor fees that you are stuck with paying since you already committed to them. I didn’t see any of that with Highlight Solar.
Dean is very responsive and does everything from contacting the city for an inspection and getting you on the right plan with PG&E.
With solar, it’s an important investment. There are some horror stories out there with people who had bad experiences. I don’t want to talk bad and name companies, so I will leave it at that. DO YOUR RESEARCH! Get quotes and be sure to include Highlight Solar in those quotes. I decided to go with them because of their customers. With a big investment, you want to go with a company that has happy, satisfied customers.

Highlight Solar had to work with some constraints on my roof: 1. reroofing and 2. concerns about appearance. They did so wonderfully, do the roof with the panels looks great.
1. Reroofing: Since it’s a Spanish tile roof and the tiles are very fragile and wouldn’t be able to support the panels, we had to work with the roofer to remove the tiles and put composition shingles. Then the solar panels were placed on the composition shingles, and tiles were placed around the panels. I had spoken to other companies, and they all told me the same thing: we had to reroof.
2. Appearance: I was wary of destroying our beautiful and functional new roof and putting some shingles and ugly panels on it. But they were able to accomplish a very nice look, without too many conduits or devices being visible, and the panels looking like a sea of black.
The quote was lower than other quotes we had received. Very happy with the result and Highlight Solar’s professionalism.

This is my first review on Unilocal and I wanted to save it for someone who’s highly qualified for the 5 stars review. We did a lot of research and talking to a lot of companies before deciding on Highlight Solar. Dean, the owner, was always very prompt and informative in his responses. With a project to install 26 solar panels that produces 7.28kWh, it took them only two weeks from the day we signed the contract to the final inspection. During the time, they were very personable while getting the job done professionally.
I am very impressed with how the solar system is connected to PG&E NEM program. Everything was done so smoothly that we did not notice any problems with electricity usage during the transition period.
The package he sent us after the project’s completion include all the necessary information about the project from the original contract to final inspection report, PG&E references, tax credit info, etc.
It has only been 5 weeks and instead of paying our $ 250 monthly bill, we just received our first credit from PG&E for $ 20.
Thanks to Highlight Solar. I am so glad that we decided to go with them. Definitely would recommend them to anyone who is interested.

Highlight Solar just finished my solar installation project and I could not be any happier with both the process and the end result. Dean, the owner, came to my home and I had a good feeling immediately. He was professional, personable, and extremely knowledgeable. Dean and I mainly communicated over e-​mail, where I would receive an answer or update the same day, sometimes within an hour or so.
Once the contract was initiated, the project began the next day. Doug was the lead for the install team. He and the two other crew members were outstanding. They were respectful, cleaned up after themselves, and asked for my input on several things. They even went so far as to ask for house paint so they could color-​match the conduit pipe to match my house. The project took about 3 days.
I was very concerned about adding solar to my house because the installation site is directly on the front (street-​facing) side of my recently remodeled home. Their installation job was so clean that I believe it actually complements the house. They matched the roof shingles with special roofing paint that makes the very small conduit run that is visible virtually disappear. Everything about the project from sales, installation, follow-​up, system monitoring activation, was top notch.
I highly recommend Highlight Solar.

This update is for the after sale support from Highlight Solar.
Recently, I got a generated report from Enphase that showed the system has had no reported power for the last month. My first instinct was to get upset and blame the system as it should not have issues only after a year and half.
I called and Dean helped walk me through the troubleshooting steps. We discovered that the system was working fine but there was communication problems between the microinverters and the envoy. Apparently, when I installed a new UPS there to power my electronic devices, it interfered with the communications between the inverters and the Envoy. Moving outlet and Installing an extension cord between the UPS and the outlet resolved the issue. Tip: The envoy is very quirky and doesn’t like to share outlets with certain devices!
My biggest fear going into having the system installed by a smaller company like Highlight Solar was that they may not provide after sale support once the job has been completed (I’ve been through these issues before so I was preparing for the worst). I’m happy to report that Highlight Solar stands behind their warranty and will help completed installed customers to resolve any issues that may arise, even if it ends up being a self-​inflicted problem like I had.
I can’t recommend them enough.