Seven projects, start to finish
Not a gallery. Each of these is the full record of one job — what the property started with, what got in the way, what we changed, and what the system does now. Two of them were jobs other contractors had already walked away from.
Tell us about your projectCommercial rooftop
Two projects that other people had already made complicated — one abandoned mid-build, one caught between two city departments.
Two years. Bankruptcy. Restart.
203 modules had been sitting on a Van Nuys commercial roof since the first contractor went under. We took over an abandoned job with no as-builts, re-engineered the supply-side tie-in, and carried it through LADBS, LAFD and LADWP to a finaled permit.
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1,400 panels. Six revisions. Two departments.
Our largest rooftop array. LAFD and LADBS wanted different things from the same set of plans, so we redrew them six times until both signed — 567 kW ballasted to hold at 110 mph, energized and producing.
Read the full case study ›Battery and whole-home backup
Houses that stay on when the utility does not. Both run whole-home backup, both needed the main service rebuilt to carry it.
The block goes dark. Her house doesn’t.
Three expansions in a wildfire-prone foothill neighborhood, ending at 26.7 kW and more than 38 kWh of Tesla and Enphase storage on a rebuilt 225 A service. When SCE de-energizes the lines, the house simply keeps running.
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From $667 a month to fifteen.
An $8,000-a-year SCE bill was the whole reason for the call. We sized 10.12 kW against two years of actual usage, added 27 kWh of Tesla storage and a new 225 A panel, and the bill came back at fifteen dollars.
Read the full case study ›Roofs, tile and code
The projects where the roof or the code was the hard part, not the solar.
First time. Three inspections.
A full tile re-roof, 11.7 kW of solar and a Powerwall 3 on one permit — roofing, electrical and battery inspected separately by the City of Arcadia. All three passed on the first visit, and the tile profile was kept intact.
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The tile roof they said was too fragile.
Other installers had turned the job down. We set thirty flashed mounts through century-old clay tile without cracking one, added per-module optimizers for the oak shade, and upgraded the service to 200 A.
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Title 24: the law nobody talks about.
A new build cannot get its certificate of occupancy without the solar California code requires. We sized 13.795 kW to the energy model, coordinated with the general contractor, and went permit to PTO in 38 days.
Read the full case study ›All seven projects at a glance
System sizes and utility territory for every case study on this page.
| Project | Type | System | Storage | Utility · AHJ | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two years. Bankruptcy. Restart. Van Nuys, CA | Commercial | 97.44 kW DC / 100 kW AC | — | LADWP · LADBS / LAFD | 2026 |
| 1,400 panels. Six revisions. Two departments. Chatsworth, CA | Commercial | 567 kW DC / 500 kW AC | — | LADWP · LADBS / LAFD | 2023 |
| The block goes dark. Her house doesn’t. Altadena, CA | Residential | 26.7 kW DC / 22.8 kW AC | 38+ kWh | SCE · LACoFD | 2025 |
| From $667 a month to fifteen. Westlake Village, CA | Residential | 10.12 kW DC / 9.41 kW AC | 27 kWh Tesla | SCE · LACoFD | 2025 |
| First time. Three inspections. Arcadia, CA | Residential | 11.7 kW DC | Tesla Powerwall 3 | SCE · City of Arcadia | 2026 |
| The tile roof they said was too fragile. La Cañada Flintridge, CA | Residential | 8.7 kW DC | — | SCE — NEM 2.0 | 2024 |
| Title 24: the law nobody talks about. Porter Ranch, CA | Residential — new build | 13.795 kW DC / 11.4 kW AC | — | LADWP · LADBS | 2025 |
What these seven have in common
Every one of these is finished. Permits closed, inspections passed, systems energized and producing. Nothing here is a rendering or a project still in progress.
Some of these arrived already broken — an abandoned build with no as-builts, a roof other installers had refused, a plan set two city departments could not agree on. Picking up work other people left behind is a large part of what we do.
We hold all three licenses the work needs — B, C-10 and C-39 — so roofing, solar and electrical stay on one contract and one permit instead of three.
The numbers come from the signed documents — plan sets, permits and interconnection paperwork. Client names and street addresses are withheld.
Do not take our word for it
We analyzed 433 recent Google reviews across seven Los Angeles solar installers — our own included — and published the dataset so anyone can recompute the ranking. Cali Energy came out with the lowest adjusted complaint rate in the group.
Frequently asked
Are these real projects?
Yes. Every project on this page was designed, permitted and installed by Cali Energy, and every one reached a finaled permit or permission to operate. The system sizes, equipment and dates come from the plan sets and permit records for each job. We withhold client names and street addresses and identify projects by city only.
Do you have a project like mine?
Between these seven there is a 567 kW commercial rooftop, an abandoned installation we took over, two whole-home battery systems, two tile roofs and a Title 24 new build, across LADWP and SCE territory. If your situation is not on this page, it is almost certainly close to one that is — send us the address and the bill and we will tell you which.
Why are some of these projects a few years old?
Because they are the ones with the complete record. A case study is only worth reading once the permit is finaled, the utility has granted permission to operate and the system has run through a full season. These span 2023 to 2026.
Who does the work — you or a subcontractor?
Our own crews. Cali Energy holds a California B (general building), C-10 (electrical) and C-39 (roofing) license under CSLB #1032379, which is why the roofing, electrical and solar on these projects sit on a single contract. The license status is public and can be checked at the CSLB directly.
Do you work outside the cities listed here?
Yes. These seven are documented case studies, not our service area. We install across Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley — the full list of cities and hundreds of further installations is on our projects page.
Related reading
Tell us what you are dealing with
Send us what you have — a bill, someone else’s quote, a permit correction, or just the address. We will tell you what the project actually involves before anyone signs anything.
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System sizes, equipment and dates on this page come from the plan sets, permits and interconnection records for each project. Client names and street addresses are withheld; projects are identified by city. Cali Energy · 19201 Parthenia St, Unit E, Northridge, CA 91324 · +1 (323) 844-7777 · CSLB #1032379 (B, C-10, C-39)