California solar servicers who take on orphaned systems
Every claim below is sourced. Last checked against primary records: 2026-08-17
As of: August 17, 2026. These are independent California companies that say, in their own published words, that they service systems they did not install. Every one below has a California contractor licence number printed here so you can check it yourself.
We are not affiliated with any of them, we are not paid to list them, and this is not a recommendation of one over another. We publish what each company says about itself, plus its licence number, and you decide. If that ever changes, this line changes with it.
Read this first: in California, many systems are not actually orphaned
California allows third-party ownership. If your system is on a lease or a power purchase agreement (PPA), you do not own the hardware. A finance company does, and that company holds step-in rights: when an installer fails, the finance company is the party contractually on the hook for keeping the system running. In the Freedom Forever bankruptcy the court record names Sunrun, EverBright, GoodLeap, EnFin and Credit Human in exactly that role.
So the first question is not "who can fix it" but "who owns it."
| your paperwork says | who you call first |
|---|---|
| Lease or PPA | Your finance company, not a repair shop. Service is their obligation. Paying a third party for work they owe you is money you may not get back. |
| Cash purchase | You own it. A dead installer means you are genuinely orphaned, and the companies below are the market. |
| Solar loan (you make payments to a lender, but you own the panels) | You own it. Same as cash for this purpose. The loan is a debt, not a service contract. |
This distinction matters more in California than almost anywhere else, because third-party ownership took a large share of the California residential market after NEM 3.0. It is the reason we launched this directory in Florida, where third-party PPAs are prohibited by law and nearly every homeowner therefore owns the equipment outright.
Before you call anyone: check the licence yourself
California requires a licence for paid solar repair. The relevant classifications are C-46 (Solar) and C-10 (Electrical). Either can lawfully do this work, and many shops hold both.
Look up any licence, free, at the CSLB: cslb.ca.gov. Search by licence number or business name. It takes about a minute, and it also shows you whether the bond and workers' compensation coverage are current.
⚠️ The numbers below were recorded on 2026-08-07 from each company's own published pages. We have not re-queried CSLB for each one since. Licences expire and statuses change, so check the current status before you hire.
The three that check out
ElectriCare, Inc.
- Licence: CSLB 778366 (self-published on their own site)
- Coverage: Southwest Riverside County: Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Winchester, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Canyon Lake, Hemet
- In their own words: "ElectriCare services solar systems originally installed by companies that have gone out of business, filed bankruptcy, or stopped servicing customers." And: "If your installer isn't listed, call us anyway, we service systems regardless of who installed them."
- They define the term for you, which nobody else on this page does: "When the company that installed your system goes out of business, you become an orphan customer."
- Why they are first on this page: they name Freedom Forever explicitly on their orphan page, alongside SunPower, Sunnova and Titan. They are also based in Temecula, which is Freedom Forever's own home town, so their local exposure to these customers is direct rather than theoretical.
- Contact: (951) 696-9669 · text (951) 900-6310 · electricare.com/orphan-solar-help
Orange County Solar (Contracting Services Inc.)
- Licence: CSLB 1023627 (self-published)
- Coverage: Orange County, Los Angeles County, Ontario, Temecula, San Diego, Fresno, Bakersfield, Palm Springs. Head office in Irvine (240 Progress, Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92618).
- In their own words: "We regularly take over systems originally installed by other companies, including installers that have since closed."
- What they say they handle: diagnosis and repair of orphaned systems, filing manufacturer warranty claims, re-commissioning monitoring. In-house crews across the major panel, inverter and battery brands.
- Contact: 949-427-8817 · ocsolar.com/solar-company-went-out-of-business
Solar Source Inc
- Licences: CSLB 925231, carrying both C-46 and C-10 (self-published)
- Coverage: Orange County, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, the South Bay, Long Beach. Also Clark County, Nevada.
- In their own words: "[We] regularly take over orphaned systems, service installs we didn't build, and help homeowners get back to confident, money-saving solar." In business since 2008.
- Useful if you have never done this before: they publish their actual adoption sequence, which is a safety inspection first, then re-establishing manufacturer monitoring, then repairs with warranty-claim coordination. That is a reasonable expectation to hold any shop to, including the other two above.
- Contact: 562-852-5626 · solarsourceinc.com
One company we found and deliberately did NOT list
A fourth California company, in the Central Valley (Clovis and Fresno, with a San Diego office), is licensed and appears to do this work. A trade publication described it in April 2026 as offering activation and permission-to-operate assistance, inspection, repair and maintenance on existing residential systems.
⛔ We left it off because the orphan policy is not stated anywhere on the company's own site. Their homepage refers to servicing "existing systems" without saying whose. A trade-press summary is somebody else's paraphrase, and this page's whole value is that every claim on it traces to the company's own published words or to a state registry.
This is not a mark against them. It is a gap in what we can verify from a desk, and one phone call would probably close it. If you are in the Central Valley and short of options, calling around beyond this list is sensible, but ask the questions below and check the licence yourself.
What to ask whoever you call
- "Do I own this system, or is it a lease or PPA?" Ask yourself this before you dial. If you cannot tell from your paperwork, your finance company can tell you in one call, and the answer changes who pays.
- "What is your CSLB number, and does it carry C-46 or C-10?" Then check it. Any legitimate contractor expects this question.
- "Will you work on a system you didn't install?" All three above say yes in public. Get it confirmed for your equipment.
- "Do you charge for the diagnostic visit, and how much?" Orphan diagnostic visits are commonly priced separately from the repair.
- "Can you file a manufacturer warranty claim for my equipment, or do I file it?" For several brands the labour is not covered even when the part is. Our panel-claims page sets out which manufacturers let you file directly.
- "Have you worked on my brand of inverter before?" Inverter diagnostics are where orphaned systems most often stall.
Other states
- Florida servicers is live. Florida prohibits third-party PPAs, so nearly every Florida system is homeowner-owned.
- Texas is at /texas-servicers.
How this page is maintained, and what it costs you
Nothing, and nobody pays us to be here. We take no listing fee, no referral fee and no commission. If we ever do, this section will say so in plain language before anything else changes.
What we will not do: publish a company we cannot licence-check, rank companies by anything other than the evidence shown, or claim any of them is "approved" by us. They are California contractors who say in public that they take orphaned work, with their licence numbers attached. That is the whole claim.