Best Solar Installers in Nelson

We assessed 10 solar installers in Nelson and ranked the top 5 on public rating quality, review volume and how recent the reviews are. The businesses listed below hold 444 Google reviews between them. No business can pay for a place in these rankings. Last updated 22 September 2026. How we rank

Top 5 Solar Installers in Nelson

The top 5 solar installers in Nelson are #1 Fusion Plumbing and Solar, #2 Bluewater Electrics Solar, #3 Solar Sure, #4 Think Solar Nelson, and #5 E-Solar, ranked by Top5 Score.

  • 1

    Fusion Plumbing and Solar

    ★ 4.9 124 reviews Score 161
    Highest
    5★ 113 4★ 10 1★ 1

    Fusion Plumbing and Solar covers solar panel and hot water system removal, new tank installation, and solar-related upgrades, keeping clients informed and giving them sign-off before work proceeds.

    10/20 Forests Road, Stoke, Nelson

    Call 03 548 8099 Map Is this your business?
  • 2

    BLUEWATER ELECTRICS SOLAR AND MARINE SERVICES

    ★ 5.0 100 reviews Score 160
    0.9 behind
    5★ 95 4★ 5

    Bluewater Electrics Solar coordinates new residential solar installs, battery additions, EV charging integration, system upgrades, and fault resolution on existing setups.

    Nelson Marina Service Hub Green Site Container 142 Akersten St Near Marina, Office, Port Nelson, Nelson

    Call 027 270 5335 Map Is this your business?
  • 3

    Solar Sure

    ★ 5.0 92 reviews Score 159
    2.0 behind
    5★ 90 4★ 1 3★ 1

    Solar Sure installs residential solar arrays, battery backup systems, and Tesla Powerwalls, and will reposition poorly placed panels from previous installs to improve output.

    Unit 23/24 Harbourside Marine Facility, 219 Akersten Street, Port Nelson, Nelson

    Map Is this your business?
  • 4

    Think Solar Nelson (formerly Nelson Solar)

    ★ 5.0 38 reviews Score 147
    13.7 behind
    5★ 38

    Think Solar Nelson pairs solar panel, battery, and EV charger installs with a level of pre-sale tailoring that extends to comparing electricity providers and modelling financial returns for each household.

    443a Nayland Road, Stoke, Nelson

    Call 03 545 9085 Map Is this your business?
  • 5

    E-Solar

    ★ 5.0 35 reviews Score 146
    14.8 behind
    5★ 34 4★ 1

    E-Solar installs grid-tied and off-grid solar systems, battery storage, EV chargers, and hybrid setups including micro-hydro combined with PV panels.

    27 Redwood Road, Appleby, Richmond

    Call 027 544 3025 Map Is this your business?

More rankings

More services in Nelson 15 links
Solar Installers elsewhere in New Zealand 4 links

Before you hire a solar installer in Nelson

Whether you use a dedicated solar power company or an electrician who installs solar panels, panel quality and installer experience vary significantly. Ask for the payback period calculation based on your actual power bills, check whether they use tier-1 panels, and confirm what happens to your warranty if the installer goes out of business.

The questions below are drawn from 160 customer reviews collected for this page.

What does a solar installation typically cost in New Zealand?

A standard 5kW to 6.6kW residential system costs between $10,000 and $14,000 installed, covering panels, inverter, and labour. Larger systems up to 10kW can reach $20,000 depending on roof complexity, shading constraints, and inverter brand.

Adding battery storage pushes costs significantly higher, with some Nelson reviewers commissioning 9kW to 13kW battery setups on top of their panel arrays. There is no government subsidy for residential solar in New Zealand as of 2025, so you fund the full cost yourself or through financing.

Full solar installation cost guide, with sources

How do I check if a solar installer is properly accredited?

Every installer connecting a solar system to the grid must hold a current Registered Electrician licence issued by the Electrical Workers Registration Board (EWRB), and you can verify this before signing anything through the public register at ewrb.govt.nz. Beyond that legal baseline, look for membership of SEANZ, the Sustainable Energy Association of New Zealand, which requires members to meet competency and conduct standards, and ask whether the installer holds SolarCert certification, a programme that tests solar-specific knowledge rather than just general electrical competence.

Both credentials matter for grid connection approvals, because your local lines company will want confirmation the installation meets its technical requirements. Nelson reviewers who reported the smoothest experiences chose installers who handled council permitting, lines company applications, and final inspection without passing that paperwork burden to the homeowner.

How accurate are the payback period and savings estimates I'm being given?

Payback estimates in New Zealand range from around 8 to 12 years for a solar-only system and stretch to 15 years or more once battery storage is added, and those figures shift considerably based on how much generation you actually use yourself. Export buy-back rates from retailers sit around 8 to 17 cents per kWh, while you pay 28 to 35 cents to import power, so self-consumption is far more valuable than selling surplus back to the grid.

One Nelson reviewer reported their actual bills dropped to a credit position after 12 months, while another saw the system exceed its contracted generation estimate by 10 percent across the first two months. Before accepting any savings projection, ask the installer what export rate and self-consumption ratio they assumed, and whether the estimate was based on your actual historical consumption data rather than a generic household profile.

What are the warning signs of a solar installer you shouldn't hire?
  • –An installer who does the full site assessment remotely using satellite imagery rather than visiting in person may miss shading, roof orientation issues, or structural constraints that affect system performance.
  • –Vague or verbal-only timelines, with no written schedule for installation and grid connection, are a reliable predictor of delays that leave you exposed financially.
  • –Salespeople who pressure you for a quick decision or who conduct the entire sales process by phone without a site visit should be avoided, as multiple Nelson reviewers flagged this as a red flag when comparing quotes.
  • –An installer who does not walk you through the monitoring app before leaving the job has not completed the handover, and you will struggle to identify faults or verify your system is performing as promised.
  • –Slow or absent communication after a fault or failure is a serious risk: one local reviewer experienced a system outage lasting over four months with inconsistent support and no compensation for the additional power costs incurred.
  • –Refusing to provide a fully itemised invoice or being evasive about labour hours charged are conduct issues that have appeared in Nelson reviews and warrant walking away.

About 3 in 10 solar one-star reviews are about what happened after the install

What should you ask before hiring a solar installer?
  • –Ask whether the installer holds a current Registered Electrician licence with the Electrical Workers Registration Board (EWRB) and whether they are a member of SEANZ, the Sustainable Energy Association of New Zealand, and request their registration number so you can verify it yourself.
  • –Ask what assumptions underpin the savings estimate, specifically the export buy-back rate used, the self-consumption percentage assumed, and whether the projection was based on your actual power bills rather than an average household figure.
  • –Ask who handles the lines company application, metering changes, and council permits, since the best-reviewed Nelson installers managed all of this on behalf of the homeowner.
  • –Ask whether app setup, monitoring walkthrough, and a post-installation check-in are included as standard, not optional extras, because reviewers who received this reported far greater confidence in their systems.
  • –Ask separately about the workmanship warranty the installer stands behind versus the manufacturer warranties on panels, inverter, and battery, as these are different obligations and the installer's own warranty is what protects you if workmanship causes a fault.
  • –Ask for at least three references from installations completed in the past 12 months on homes with a similar roof type or power setup to yours.
Top 5 Solar Installers in Nelson badge

Run one of these businesses?

Verify your listing and put this badge on your own website. It's free, takes two minutes, and the badge keeps up with your rank at every check.

Verify and get your badge

About this ranking

What the 10 solar installers listed above hold, at the 22 September 2026 check.

124
reviews held by the #1 ranked business
35
reviews held by the #5 ranked business
4.3
lowest rating among the 10 listed
0.5%
of their 444 reviews are one-star
How are the top solar installers in Nelson chosen?

We build this page from Google Maps results for solar installers in Nelson. Each one is scored on its public rating and review record, using the same published method on every page. Businesses outside the area, or whose reviews describe a different line of work, are left out. Every category and city is rechecked on a rolling cycle, about every two to three months. See how we rank for how rankings are made and who is left out. On specialist pages like this one, a business's reviews count in proportion to how many of them are about solar installers, so a business mostly reviewed for other work cannot win on review volume alone. See the words we look for.

Are you a solar installer in Nelson?

No business can pay for a place in these rankings. Claiming and verifying your listing is free: it adds a small trust bonus (+3 points) to your score, for confirming a real operator stands behind the listing, and gives you a dashboard showing how your score is made up. A paid subscription adds a website link, a profile page and your ranking history. Claim your listing or see what a subscription includes.

Not listed? The usual reasons are a Google Business category that does not match, too few reviews to score near the top, or an address outside the area we cover. Check where you rank first, and if you think we missed you, get in touch.

How far is each one from you?

Type your suburb or use your location, and we'll show the distance on every card. The order stays the same.