If you’re searching for why people are getting rid of solar panels, you’re probably staring at one of three things: a leaking roof under your array, a stack of SDG&E bills that don’t look like the salesperson promised, or a real estate agent telling you the panels might be a problem if you list. You’re not imagining it. Solar regret is real in San Diego in 2026, and the reasons are specific.
TL;DR
NEM 3.0 took effect April 15, 2023, and gutted the export economics for any new San Diego solar install while squeezing many existing ones into expensive grid-tied limbo. Leased systems block home sales because lenders refuse the loan and buyers won’t assume the lease. Mounting feet on 10-15 year old installs are starting to leak roofs. Original installers like Sungevity, NRG Home Solar, Pink Energy, and a long list of regional outfits closed, leaving homeowners with no warranty path. Aging inverters need $3,000-$8,000 replacements that nobody warned about. And underperforming systems are quietly producing 20-40% less than the sales projections from 2014. That’s the short version. Here’s the long one.
The big shift: NEM 3.0 changed the math
For 15 years, residential solar in San Diego ran on a simple promise. SDG&E credited every kilowatt-hour you exported to the grid at roughly the same rate they charged you to pull from it, around $0.25/kWh during peak hours under NEM 2.0. That made payback periods 4-6 years and total system ROI look like a no-brainer.
The California Public Utilities Commission ended that on April 15, 2023, when the new Net Billing Tariff (commonly called NEM 3.0) replaced NEM 2.0 for all new interconnections. Under the new structure, the export credit dropped roughly 75%, with most San Diego homeowners now seeing export rates closer to $0.05-$0.08/kWh depending on time of day. Peak afternoon exports, when most rooftop solar generates surplus, get the lowest rates because grid demand is already covered by utility-scale solar.
The result: payback periods on new San Diego installs stretched from 4-6 years to 9-13 years. Battery storage became near-mandatory to capture export value, adding $10,000-$20,000 to a typical install. And homeowners who installed under NEM 2.0 are watching SDG&E rate increases erode their original economics, even though they’re grandfathered into NEM 2.0 export pricing for 20 years from their interconnection date.
| Tariff | Effective | Typical SDG&E export credit | Payback period (new install) |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEM 1.0 | 2006-2016 | ~$0.25/kWh blended | 4-5 years |
| NEM 2.0 | 2016-April 2023 | ~$0.20-$0.25/kWh blended | 5-7 years |
| NEM 3.0 (NBT) | April 15, 2023 onward | ~$0.05-$0.08/kWh avg | 9-13 years (no battery) |
The CPUC publishes the full Net Billing Tariff structure on its net energy metering page. The short version for any San Diego homeowner: if you’re on NEM 2.0, hold onto it. If you’re considering new solar, the math no longer works without batteries.
Leased and PPA solar: the resale nightmare
Roughly 30-40% of residential solar installs in California between 2012 and 2020 were leases or power purchase agreements (PPAs), not owned systems. The leasing companies sold the install as “no money down, free electricity.” What they didn’t sell was the resale problem.
When you list a home with a leased solar system, the buyer has three choices: assume the remaining lease (often 10-15 years left at $150-$300/month), pay the buyout (typically $20,000-$40,000), or walk. Most buyers walk. The ones who don’t walk frequently can’t get lender approval, because mortgage underwriters treat the lease as either a UCC-1 filing against the property or a long-term obligation that affects debt-to-income ratios.
The leasing company has the right to file a UCC-1 fixture filing on your property, which puts a lien-like claim on the panels themselves. Title companies catch this in escrow, and it’s a deal-killer if not resolved before closing. Some leasing companies will subordinate to the buyer’s mortgage, others won’t. The negotiation can drag a sale out 30-90 days or kill it entirely.
| Solar ownership type | Resale impact | Typical buyer reaction |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | Asset, not obstacle | Adds ~$15K-$25K to home value |
| Owned with loan balance | Loan payoff at closing | Neutral if structured cleanly |
| Leased (5-10 yr remaining) | Buyer assumption hassle | 30-40% of buyers walk |
| Leased (10-20 yr remaining) | UCC-1 filing, lender issues | 50%+ of buyers walk or demand seller buyout |
| PPA agreement | Output rate locked, transferable | Buyer financial review required |
This is the single biggest reason homeowners pull solar before listing. The seller buys out the lease (painful), removes the panels (also painful), and lists the house solar-free. It costs $15,000-$45,000 total but it closes the deal.
The California Department of Real Estate requires sellers to disclose solar agreements on the Transfer Disclosure Statement, so there’s no hiding it. The disclosure is one of the most common late-stage deal-breakers in San Diego escrows in 2026.
Mounting feet failing 10-15 years after install
San Diego’s solar boom peaked between 2014 and 2018. Those installs are now 8-12 years old. The roofs underneath them are often 18-25 years old. And the mounting feet, which were sold as 25-year hardware, are starting to fail in predictable ways.
A typical residential solar install uses 40-80 mounting attachment points, each one a lag bolt driven through the roof deck with a flashing component sealing the penetration. Three failure modes are showing up across San Diego in 2026:
Flashing degradation. The rubber or EPDM seal under the mounting foot dries out, cracks, and loses its weather seal. Water tracks down the lag bolt into the attic space. The leak shows up as a stain on a bedroom ceiling, and by the time anyone notices, the underlayment around the mount is rotted.
Lag bolt corrosion. San Diego’s coastal salt air corrodes non-stainless lag bolts faster than the original spec sheets predicted. The bolt loses tensile strength, the mount loosens, and high winds during Santa Ana events shift the rail enough to crack flashing nearby.
Underlayment puncture without proper flashing. Some installers in the 2014-2017 era used caulk-only seals or skipped proper integrated flashing kits to save labor. Those installs are leaking now. The repair isn’t a roofer’s fault and isn’t covered by the solar warranty.
The cascading cost: once a mount leaks, the homeowner pays a roofer to investigate (often $300-$600 for a leak hunt with the array still up), pays a solar contractor to detach the affected panels ($200-$500 each), pays for the roof repair or partial replacement, and pays to reinstall the panels. A single leaking mount can run $2,000-$5,000 to fully resolve. Two or three across the array starts looking like a roof replacement is the cheaper option.
For homeowners deciding whether the array is worth keeping, our breakdown of whether solar panels damage your roof walks through the failure modes in more detail.
Original installers out of business
This is the quiet problem nobody mentions in the sales pitch. The company that installed your San Diego solar system in 2014 has a roughly even chance of no longer existing in 2026.
A partial list of installers that closed, were acquired, or stopped servicing legacy customers between 2018 and 2025: Sungevity (bankruptcy 2017), NRG Home Solar (exited residential solar 2017), Pink Energy (bankruptcy 2022), SunEdison (bankruptcy 2016), Petersen Dean (bankruptcy 2020), Vivint Solar (acquired by Sunrun 2020 and many service obligations restructured), American Array Solar, and dozens of smaller regional installers.
Sunrun acquired Vivint Solar in 2020, which consolidated a huge slice of San Diego’s installed base under one company. That company honors warranties on systems they directly installed, but the experience for legacy Vivint customers has been uneven, with long service waits and contested warranty claims being a common complaint.
When your original installer is gone, your warranty path collapses. The panel manufacturer warranty (typically 25 years on production output) still exists, but you have to file the claim yourself with the manufacturer (LG, Panasonic, Q Cells, REC, etc.) and prove the defect. The workmanship warranty from the installer, which covers things like roof penetrations and labor, is gone with the company.
The practical impact: when something breaks, you pay a third-party solar service company $150-$300 just to assess what you have on your roof. Then you pay full retail for any repair, with no warranty coverage on labor.
Inverter replacement at 10-15 years
Solar panels themselves are durable. The inverter is the weak link. Most residential solar inverters carry a 10-15 year warranty, which means a 2014-era install is now sitting on its original inverter past warranty or watching the warranty expire any month now.
String inverter replacement (the older single-box design from companies like SMA, Fronius, and older SolarEdge units) runs $3,000-$6,000 installed in San Diego in 2026. Microinverter replacement (one small inverter per panel, used by Enphase from roughly 2013 onward) is cheaper per unit at $150-$300 each, but a 20-panel array needing partial replacement still adds up fast. Optimizer systems (SolarEdge’s dominant configuration) replace easily but the central inverter still has a finite life.
The surprise cost: a homeowner who paid $25,000 for a system in 2014 now faces a $5,000 inverter replacement at year 12 to keep the system producing. That repair, plus the ongoing degradation of NEM 2.0 export economics, plus the looming question of what happens to the roof underneath, pushes many homeowners toward “just take it all down” math.
| Component | Typical lifespan | 2026 replacement cost |
|---|---|---|
| Solar panels (Tier 1) | 25-30 yrs | $200-$400/panel + labor |
| Microinverter (Enphase) | 15-25 yrs | $150-$300 per unit + labor |
| String inverter | 10-15 yrs | $3,000-$6,000 installed |
| SolarEdge central inverter | 12-15 yrs | $2,500-$5,000 installed |
| Mounting feet / racking | 25 yrs spec, 12-15 yrs real | $20-$50/attachment + labor |
| Conduit and wiring | 30+ yrs | Replace as needed |
Underperforming systems vs sales-pitch projections
A lot of San Diego solar systems installed between 2012 and 2018 produce 20-40% less than the sales projection said they would. The reasons stack up:
Panel degradation faster than spec. Tier 2 and Tier 3 panels from the 2010s often degrade at 1.0-1.5% per year instead of the 0.5% the spec sheet promised. After 10 years, that’s 10-15% lost output, not the 5% projected.
Real-world shading the projection ignored. Sales tools in 2014-2017 often used satellite imagery that missed mature tree canopies, new neighboring construction, and seasonal shading angles. The projected production assumed zero shade. Real output rarely matches.
Dirty panels. San Diego’s marine layer drops salt and dust on panels. Without cleaning every 12-24 months, output drops 5-15%. Most homeowners never clean, and the salesperson never mentioned it.
Inverter clipping. Oversized panel arrays paired with undersized inverters clip peak production. The homeowner sees lower-than-projected midday output and assumes the panels are broken.
When a homeowner runs the numbers in 2026 and the system has produced 25% less power than promised, plus they’re paying for inverter replacement, plus the roof is failing under the array, removing the system starts looking rational rather than emotional.
HOA disputes and covenant changes
California’s Solar Rights Act (Civil Code Section 714) protects homeowners’ right to install solar against most HOA restrictions, but it doesn’t protect against everything. Newer HOA covenants in San Diego planned communities (especially Carmel Valley, Otay Ranch, Eastlake, San Elijo Hills) have tightened aesthetic standards in ways that create real disputes for older installs.
Common 2026 friction points: panels visible from the street where current covenants demand they be hidden, conduit routing across visible roof faces, ground-mounted arrays in HOA-controlled front yards, and battery storage cabinets in side yards. The Solar Rights Act protects the install itself, but homeowners face fines and legal pressure to relocate or partially remove systems that don’t comply with updated aesthetic rules.
Some homeowners pull the panels rather than fight the HOA. It’s expensive, but cheaper than 18 months of legal battles.
When removing is the right call vs keeping
Not every homeowner asking this question should pull the panels. The decision usually comes down to four factors: ownership status, system age, roof condition, and intent to sell.
| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Owned outright, system under 8 yrs, roof under 15 yrs, no plans to sell | Keep. The economics still work on NEM 2.0. |
| Owned outright, system 10-15 yrs, roof 20+ yrs | Plan a roof + detach/reset in one window. Don’t pull permanently. |
| Owned outright, system over 15 yrs, multiple inverters dead, underperforming | Consider full removal. Reinvest in NEM 3.0 + battery if grid economics matter. |
| Leased or PPA, planning to sell within 2 yrs | Buy out the lease and either keep or remove based on buyer feedback. |
| Leased, system 10+ yrs, persistent roof leaks | Buy out, remove permanently, replace roof, skip new solar. |
| Owned, original installer defunct, no warranty support | Audit the system. Repair if cost-effective, remove if not. |
The decision framework usually starts with the roof. If the roof has 5+ years of useful life and the array is reasonably healthy, keep it. If the roof needs replacement in the next 2 years, plan a coordinated detach/reset. If the roof is shot and the array is underperforming, full removal often makes more financial sense than the rebuild stack.
The roof angle: removal cost stacks fast
The cost most homeowners don’t run until they’re already committed to pulling panels: solar removal alone runs $150-$300/panel for a third-party crew, with a $1,500-$2,500 minimum job fee. For a typical 20-panel array, that’s $3,000-$6,000 just to take everything down and haul it off. Permanent removal also requires electrical disconnection from the grid (an SDG&E coordination step), conduit removal or capping, and patching the roof penetrations where the mounting feet came out.
If you’re removing because the roof failed underneath, you’re stacking solar removal cost on top of roof replacement cost. A full asphalt replacement runs $15,000-$30,000 in San Diego, and a tile replacement can hit $40,000+. Our full breakdown of solar removal and reinstall cost for roof work walks through the numbers if the goal is keep-the-solar-but-fix-the-roof. The math for permanent removal looks different.
For homeowners going the keep-and-coordinate route, our guide to preparing a roof for solar panels covers what a clean foundation looks like the second time around.
What to do before you list a house with solar
If you’re selling and the panels are coming off the table as a possible obstacle, do these things in this order before the listing photo goes up.
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Pull the original solar contract and warranty paperwork. Find the installer name, the panel and inverter brand, the system size, the interconnection date, and the warranty terms. If the system is leased, find the lease and read it.
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Get a buyout quote in writing. If leased, call the leasing company and ask for the current buyout amount and the assumption documentation a buyer would need. Get both numbers. Some leasing companies have streamlined assumption portals now, some still require buyer credit applications.
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Have a real estate agent who’s done solar deals walk the house. San Diego agents in 2026 see solar weekly. They know which buyers walk and which assume. Their feedback is worth more than a generic comparable analysis.
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Get a lender questionnaire ready. Buyers’ mortgage underwriters will ask for solar lease documentation upfront. Having a clean packet ready (lease terms, monthly payment, transfer process, buyout amount) speeds approval by weeks.
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Decide remove vs keep before you list. Listing with panels and then pulling them mid-escrow because a buyer demands it costs more in chaos than deciding ahead. Make the call before the sign goes in the yard.
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If keeping, get a roof condition report. A buyer’s inspector will lift panels (or refuse the deal). A pre-listing roof report under the array, with photos of mount conditions and flashing, makes the inspection less adversarial.
How we connect San Diego homeowners with the right pros
We’re not a contractor. We don’t install or remove solar, and we don’t replace roofs. What we do is connect San Diego homeowners with vetted local roofers who handle the roof side of solar projects, with solar service partners who handle the panel side, and with the project coordination to make sure both crews show up in the right order.
The most common request we hear in 2026 isn’t “install new solar.” It’s “the panels are leaking my roof, the original installer is gone, and I need a path forward.” We connect you with a vetted roofer who’ll do a free roof assessment under the array, gives you an honest read on whether the roof has life left or needs replacement, and introduces you to a licensed C-46 solar service partner for the detach/reset or permanent removal.
If you’re staring at a leaking solar mount, a roof at the end of its life under an aging array, or a real estate listing being held hostage by a leased system, get connected with a vetted San Diego roofer for a free assessment. No pressure, no high-pressure sales call, no fake urgency. Just a real conversation about what your roof needs and what makes financial sense for your situation.
For specific project paths, our roof repair service overview covers the leak-investigation work that often comes first, and our roof replacement service page covers the full tear-off when the roof is past saving.
FAQ
Does NEM 3.0 affect my existing solar system?
No, not directly. If your system was interconnected before April 15, 2023, you’re grandfathered into NEM 2.0 export rates for 20 years from your interconnection date. NEM 3.0 only applies to new interconnections after that date. The catch: any substantial system modification (adding panels, swapping inverters in a way that changes nameplate capacity) can trigger a forced rollover to NEM 3.0. Get any modification scope in writing before the work starts.
Does a leased solar system actually block a home sale?
It can. Roughly 30-50% of buyers walk from a deal with a leased solar system on the house. The ones who don’t walk often hit lender resistance because the lease creates a UCC-1 filing or affects debt-to-income calculations. Most San Diego sellers with leased solar end up either buying out the lease before listing or accepting a meaningfully lower sale price.
How much does it cost to permanently remove solar panels?
For a typical 20-panel residential array in San Diego in 2026, permanent removal runs $3,000-$6,000 for a third-party crew. That includes electrical disconnection, SDG&E coordination, panel and racking removal, conduit removal or capping, and patching roof penetrations. Add $500-$2,000 if conduit runs through finished interior spaces or if any electrical work needs a permit.
How often do solar mounting feet actually leak roofs?
Industry estimates put the leak rate at 5-15% of installs over a 15-year lifespan, with higher rates on coastal properties and on installs done before 2017 when integrated flashing kits became standard. San Diego’s coastal exposure and salt air push the rate toward the high end. By the 15-year mark, the question is usually when not if.
What does it cost to replace an aging solar inverter?
String inverter replacement runs $3,000-$6,000 installed in San Diego in 2026. Microinverter replacement (Enphase) is $150-$300 per unit plus labor, so a partial array swap on a 20-panel system can run $1,500-$4,000. SolarEdge central inverter replacement is $2,500-$5,000. None of these are typically covered by warranty past year 10-15.
Does the Sunrun acquisition of Vivint affect my warranty?
If you had a Vivint Solar system, Sunrun officially honors the warranty. Real-world experience has been mixed, with extended service waits and some contested claims. If you’re a former Vivint customer with an issue, document everything in writing, escalate through Sunrun’s formal complaint process, and consider a third-party solar service company for time-sensitive repairs while the warranty claim works through.
Is it worth keeping solar if I’m not selling anytime soon?
Probably yes, if the system is owned outright, the roof has 5+ years of life, and you’re on NEM 2.0. The export economics on grandfathered NEM 2.0 still work, and even partial production offsets your SDG&E bill at peak rates. The math flips when the inverter needs replacement, the roof is failing, or you’re paying for repeated solar-related leak repairs. At that point, the rebuild cost rarely justifies keeping a tired system online.
Bottom line
The “why are people getting rid of solar panels” question doesn’t have one answer. It has six or seven, and most San Diego homeowners removing solar in 2026 are doing it for a stack of reasons, not just one. NEM 3.0 changed the math for everyone, the leases trap sellers, the original installers are gone, the inverters are aging, the mounts are leaking, and the systems aren’t producing what the salesperson promised.
If you’re sorting through any of this, the starting point is usually the roof. Get an honest assessment of what’s under the panels, how much life is left, and what your real options are. From there, the decision (keep, coordinate, or remove) gets a lot clearer.