The short answer
Solar teams win by calling fresh homeowner leads fast, then setting a site visit for a closer. The risk is state law: Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland cap calls at three per 24 hours, restrict hours to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and let consumers sue for $500 or more per violation. Screen, cap and keep consent.
How solar sells by phone
Residential solar usually splits the sale in two. Setters call homeowner leads, check that the roof, utility and ownership fit, and book a site visit or video consultation. Closers run the appointment. Leads come from web forms, aggregated lead vendors, events and door-knocking follow-ups. Many are sold to several installers, so speed matters: the first company to reach a homeowner usually sets the appointment.
The market is large and in flux. The US added about 43 GW of solar capacity in 2025, but residential demand is sensitive to incentives and interest rates. That pushes teams to squeeze more appointments out of the leads they already pay for. It's also why solar draws so much telemarketing enforcement and litigation.
The state laws aimed at you
Several states have passed their own versions of the TCPA, and each lets consumers sue. Three matter most for solar.
Florida's Telephone Solicitation Act requires prior express written consent before an unsolicited sales call, text or voicemail that uses an automated system to select and dial numbers, or a recorded message. A separate section limits commercial sellers to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and to three calls in 24 hours on the same subject. A 2023 amendment narrowed the autodialer definition and added a cure step for texts: the consumer replies STOP and the seller gets 15 days to comply. Damages are actual losses or $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and up to three times that for willful violations. Calls to a Florida area code are presumed to reach a Florida resident.
Oklahoma's Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022 follows Florida's model but keeps the broader autodialer definition ("selection or dialing"). It adds the same 8-to-8 hours and three-call limit, requires a caller ID that can be called back, and bans spoofing. It allows $500 per violation, trebled if willful.
Maryland's Stop the Spam Calls Act, in force since January 2024, sets the same hours and three-call limit. Its business-to-business exemption doesn't reach those two limits. Violations are unfair trade practices under Maryland's consumer protection law, with damages of up to $500 or actual losses, trebled if willful.
Texas expanded its telephone solicitation law in 2025 (SB 140) to cover text messages. Sellers who text Texans may need to register with the Secretary of State, unless an exemption applies, and violations are actionable under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Check the exemptions with counsel. Texas has said registration doesn't apply to consent-based text programs, but that position hasn't been tested in a ruling.
What enforcement looks like
The FTC has pursued solar lead generators directly. In 2023 it joined Arizona in suing Solar Xchange, which allegedly placed tens of millions of calls to numbers on the Do Not Call registry to generate leads for an installer, while claiming ties to utilities and government programs. The settlement included a $13.9 million civil penalty judgment, suspended after payment. In 2017, the operators of a solar lead business that made millions of prerecorded calls while posing as an energy nonprofit settled for a $1.4 million penalty, suspended after payment, and one was banned from telemarketing.
The pattern in these cases is the same: purchased or invented consent, registry violations and robocalls. A setter team calling real leads with real consent, inside legal hours and limits, is far from that line. The point is being able to prove it.
Setting up a solar team in GrowOutly
- Run DNC and litigator checks on every call and text, and upload your own do-not-call list.
- Leave the parallel dialer's attempt cap at its default of two rings per number in 24 hours, below the three-call state limit, and never raise it above three.
- Schedule calling sessions inside 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the homeowner's time zone. That's the Florida, Oklahoma and Maryland window, and it's safe everywhere.
- Store each lead's consent language, timestamp and source with the contact, and record setter calls where state law allows. In all-party consent states, tell the homeowner at the start of the call.
- Book site visits on the call with calendar booking, and confirm them by text.
For the federal rules underneath all of this, see what TCPA compliance means in 2026.