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Ask a roofing contractor what business looked like ten years ago, and solar barely comes up. Ask the same question today, and it’s often the first thing mentioned.
The numbers back that up. According to Roofing Contractor’s own 2026 State of the Industry Report, 39% of commercial roofing respondents now offer solar services, up from 25% just two years earlier. Average revenue from solar climbed too, from 1% of overall revenue in 2024 to 3% in 2025. Small jump on paper. Meaningful when you consider how many contractors are chasing that same 3%.
Three-fourths of residential contractors expect solar sales to grow again this year. Commercial contractors are nearly as confident, with 72% expecting the same. That’s not a niche opinion anymore. That’s most of the industry pointing the same direction.
Why Now, Specifically
A few years ago, this would have been a harder case to make. Panel costs were higher, financing options were thinner, and most homeowners still saw a roof and a solar array as two unrelated decisions made at two unrelated times.
Homeowners stopped treating solar as a separate purchase. A new roof and a solar array used to mean two contractors, two timelines, two invoices. Increasingly, customers want one company handling both, partly for convenience and partly because a roof and the panels sitting on it are structurally one system, not two.
Contractors noticed. Adding electrical licensing or partnering with a certified installer turns a single roof replacement into a larger project, without needing an entirely separate sales process. For a trade already dealing with material cost pressure and labor shortages, that’s a rare way to grow revenue per job rather than just per crew.
There’s a retention angle too. A roof gets replaced once every 20 to 30 years. A solar system brings monitoring, occasional service calls, and a reason for the customer to stay in touch with the same company well before the next reroof is due. That ongoing relationship matters more than it used to, especially with acquisition costs for new roofing customers climbing every year.
What Actually Changes on the Job
Adding solar isn’t just stocking a new product. Crews need training on load calculations, mounting systems that don’t compromise the roofing warranty, and code requirements that vary by jurisdiction. Getting the sequencing wrong, panels installed before the roofing membrane is properly rated for the added weight and penetrations, creates callbacks that cost far more than the training would have. Some contractors handle this by building an in-house solar division. Others partner with an existing installer and manage the roofing side only. Both models show up across the companies making this shift, and the right one usually depends on local demand and how much capital a company wants to put behind new equipment and certifications.
HP Roofing, a Dublin-based roofing contractor, is one example of a company that offers solar PV to their roofing services rather than treating the two as separate offerings. The pattern lines up with the wider shift the survey data points to: roofing and solar increasingly sold and installed as one project instead of two.
The Part Worth Planning For
None of this is a guaranteed win. Solar adds inventory costs, licensing overhead, and a learning curve that takes real months to pay off. Policy changes around energy tax credits add uncertainty contractors can’t control, something the same 2026 industry report flags directly. But the direction of the data is hard to argue with. Adoption is climbing every year it’s been measured, and the contractors sitting out this shift are competing for a shrinking share of customers who increasingly expect the option to be on the table.
The roofing companies treating solar as core to the business now, rather than a bolt-on they’ll consider eventually, are the ones positioned to capture that growth before it becomes standard practice across the board. By the time it is standard, the advantage won’t be in offering solar at all. It will be in having done it long enough to have the training, the crews, and the referrals already in place.
