How New Zealand Solar Makes Money (Our Transparency Promise)

We make money in one simple way: when you ask us to line you up with solar installers and you choose to go ahead, the installer pays us a small referral fee. That's it. You never pay us a cent, and we never sell your personal details to anyone. The advice on every page here is free to read because vetted installers cover the cost of being introduced to genuinely interested homeowners. We think you deserve to know exactly where the money comes from before you trust a word we say, so here is the whole thing, with nothing hidden behind a curtain.

Most solar websites in New Zealand will never tell you how they pay their bills. Some are owned outright by a single installer and dressed up to look independent. Some run on advertising that quietly shapes what they're willing to say. We'd rather just be straight with you, because a recommendation is only worth something if you understand what's behind it.

The short version: how the money actually flows

When you use our free quotes service, we introduce you to up to three solar installers we've checked over ourselves. If one of them ends up doing your installation, they pay us a referral fee for the introduction. The fee is built into the installer's normal business costs, the same way they'd budget for any marketing or lead generation.

A few things that matter, spelled out plainly:

• You pay us nothing, ever. The quotes are free, the advice is free, and using our tools is free.
• The price you're quoted isn't inflated to cover our fee. A reputable installer competing against two others for your business has no room to pad the number, and we'd drop them from our list if they tried.
• We never sell your raw data. Your name, address, phone number and email go to the specific installers quoting your job, and nowhere else. We don't sell lead lists, we don't flog your details to a call centre, and we don't pass anything to third parties for marketing.
• We get paid the same regardless of which installer you pick. We have no incentive to nudge you toward one over another. The fee structure is flat across our vetted installers.

If you want the full detail on exactly what happens to your information and how we stay on the right side of the law, we lay that out properly over here: how we protect your data under the Privacy Act 2020.

Why we disclose this when almost nobody else does

Here's the uncomfortable truth about the solar industry in Aotearoa: it's lightly regulated, the salespeople are often paid on commission, and the homeowner is usually the least-informed person in the room. The Commerce Commission has taken action against energy and home-improvement businesses over misleading sales claims, and Consumer NZ has repeatedly flagged high-pressure tactics in the home solar space.

A referral model creates a real, honest tension that we'd rather name out loud: we only get paid if you buy something. A lesser website would respond to that incentive by talking up solar at every turn, burying the downsides, and pushing oversized systems. We've chosen the opposite path, because the only thing that keeps a referral business alive long term is homeowners trusting the referral.

So we'll happily tell you when solar doesn't pencil out. If you rent, if your roof is heavily shaded, if nobody's home during the day, or if you're planning to sell within a couple of years, the maths often doesn't work, and we say so plainly. We'd rather you trust us and tell three mates than push you into a system you'll regret. That's the whole bet.

The conflict of interest we can't pretend away (and how we manage it)

This is the part competitor sites skip, so we'll be the ones to say it. Any business that earns money on a transaction has a built-in reason to want that transaction to happen. Pretending otherwise would be the dishonest move. The honest move is to tell you exactly how we keep that incentive from poisoning the advice.

Three guardrails do the heavy lifting:

• The advice and the referral are separated. Our written guidance, our maths and our tools are built to be genuinely useful whether or not you ever request a quote. You can take everything you learn here and go find your own installer, and we'd consider that a win.
• We vet installers before they can pay us anything. An installer cannot buy their way onto our list. They have to clear our checks first, every time. We walk through exactly what those checks involve in our 13-step installer vetting process.
• We publish the warnings, not just the wins. If we only earn when you buy, the most valuable thing we can give you is the knowledge to walk away from a bad deal. That's why we maintain a blunt, no-nonsense solar scam checklist that has talked plenty of people out of signing on the spot.

What "we never sell your data" actually means

This phrase gets thrown around loosely, so here's the precise version. Under the Privacy Act 2020, your personal information is yours, and a business can only use it for the purpose you handed it over for. When you request quotes, the purpose is clear: getting quotes. So that's all we do with it.

Concretely:

• We pass your details only to the specific installers quoting your job, and only the information they need to quote it.
• We do not bundle your details into a list and sell that list to other companies, energy retailers, finance brokers or insurers.
• We do not hand your number to an offshore call centre to chase you.
• If you ask us to delete your information, we delete it. That's your right under the Act, and we treat it as one, not as an inconvenience.

There's a genuinely grubby corner of the lead-generation world where a single homeowner's details get sold three or four times over to whoever pays, which is why some people get hammered with calls the moment they fill in one online form. We don't operate there, and we never will. If that's the bar, we'd rather lose the business.

A worked example, because we like real numbers

Say you're in a 1970s brick-and-tile place in Rolleston, on Orion's network, looking at a 6.6kW system. Fully installed, that's realistically around $11,000 to $14,000 in 2025, based on current NZ installer pricing and the per-watt figures consistent with EECA and MBIE cost data (roughly $1.70 to $2.10 per watt installed for a quality system).

Here's how the money sits for everyone involved:

• You pay the installer for the system. You pay us nothing.
• The installer pays us a referral fee out of their own margin for introducing a homeowner who was ready to get real quotes.
• Because three vetted installers are quoting, they're competing on price and quality, which protects you from the inflated single-quote number that's so common when someone knocks on your door.

That last point is the quiet bit of value most people miss. The single biggest driver of overpaying for solar in New Zealand isn't the referral fee on the back end; it's accepting the first quote from the first salesperson without a competing number to anchor against. Getting three real quotes routinely saves homeowners thousands, far more than any fee involved on our side. If you want to sanity-check whether a quote stacks up before you sign, our solar cost and ROI calculator lets you run your own numbers in a few minutes.

Why this model is better for you than the alternatives

It's worth understanding how the other common business models shape the advice you get, because the incentives are baked right in.

The installer-owned "comparison" site

Looks independent, is actually a marketing front for one company. Every "review" and "recommendation" leads back to the owner. You'll never see a genuine warning about their own product. These are surprisingly common, and they're the reason we put our own ownership and revenue out in the open.

The pure advertising model

Revenue comes from whoever pays for ad space, which quietly discourages saying anything that might upset a big advertiser. Honesty becomes a financial liability. We'd rather not be in that position.

The data-broker lead farm

Collects your details and sells them to as many buyers as possible. The content exists only to harvest contact details, and the homeowner becomes the product. This is the model we most actively refuse to be.

Our referral model

We only earn when a homeowner is genuinely well-served enough to go ahead with a vetted installer. The better and more honest our advice, the more people trust us, the longer we stay in business. Our incentive and your interest point in the same direction, which is exactly how it should be. We go deeper on the thinking behind all of this in our full promise to New Zealand homeowners.

What this means in practice when you deal with us

• Read everything for free, owe us nothing. Take the knowledge and go your own way if you like.
• If you request quotes, you get up to three vetted installers, not a single sales pitch dressed up as a comparison.
• Your details go only to those installers, never to a wider list.
• We earn the same no matter which one you choose, so our guidance stays neutral.
• We'll tell you when not to buy. That's the whole point of being trustworthy.

The honest limits of all this

We're not going to pretend we're a charity. We're a business, and we need the referral model to work or the lights go off here too. What we can promise is that we've designed the model so the only way we win is by giving you advice good enough that you'd recommend us to your whānau.

We also can't control everything an installer does once you're talking directly. That's exactly why we vet them hard before they ever reach you, and why we arm you with the questions to ask and the red flags to watch for. If something ever goes sideways with an installer we introduced, we want to hear about it, because their place on our list depends on treating you properly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I pay anything to use NZ Solar Centre?

No. Reading our guidance, using our tools and requesting quotes are all completely free to you. We're paid a referral fee by the installer only if you choose to go ahead with one of them, and that fee comes out of the installer's own costs, not added to your price.

Does the referral fee make my solar system more expensive?

It shouldn't, and here's why. You're getting up to three competing quotes, which keeps installers honest on price. A quality installer's fee for a lead is a normal marketing cost they'd be spending anyway. The bigger risk to your wallet is accepting a single uncontested quote, which routinely costs people far more than any referral fee ever could.

Do you sell my personal information?

No, never. Your details go only to the specific installers quoting your job, and only what they need to prepare a quote. We do not sell lead lists, pass your number to call centres, or share your information for third-party marketing. You can read the full detail in our data protection page covering the Privacy Act 2020.

Do you get paid more for recommending a particular installer?

No. The referral fee is flat across our vetted installers, so we earn the same regardless of which one you pick. That's deliberate. It means we have no reason to steer you anywhere except toward the installer who's genuinely best for your job.

How do I know your advice isn't just a sales pitch?

The simplest test: we tell you when solar isn't worth it. Renters, heavily shaded roofs, homes empty all day and short-term owners often shouldn't bother, and we say so. A pure sales operation would never publish a scam checklist or talk anyone out of buying. We do both.

What if I just want the information and not the quotes?

Brilliant, that's genuinely fine. Everything here is free to read and use whether or not you ever ask us for a quote. If you take what you've learned and find your own installer, we consider that a job well done.

Why don't other solar websites disclose this?

Some are owned by a single installer and prefer you not to know. Some run on advertising and don't want to highlight the influence of advertisers. Some are lead farms that sell your details multiple times. We disclose ours because trust is the only asset we actually have, and you can't earn it while hiding the money.

Can an installer pay to be recommended without being vetted?

No. An installer cannot buy their way onto our list. They have to clear our checks first, every single time, and they stay on only by treating homeowners properly. Money never skips the vetting.

The bottom line

We make money through referral fees paid by vetted installers when you choose to go ahead, you pay us nothing, and we never sell your data. We've told you this up front because a recommendation only means something if you know what's behind it. Our incentive is simple and we're happy for you to see it: give advice honest enough that you'd send your neighbour our way.

If you want to understand the standards an installer has to meet before we'll ever put them in front of you, have a read of our 13-step vetting process, and if you're worried about getting caught by a dodgy operator, the scam checklist is the one to read before anyone gets you near a contract.

Where to go from here

Now you know exactly how the money works, here's the sensible order to tackle things in. Start by running rough numbers for your own roof with our cost and ROI calculator so you walk into any conversation already knowing the ballpark. Then read the scam checklist so you can spot a dodgy pitch before it lands. When you're ready for real numbers, ask us to line up three vetted quotes and compare them properly.

Take it at your own pace. There's no clock running here, and the more you understand before anyone quotes you, the better the deal you'll end up with.