Steve Hamile, far left, watches as Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signs SB 293 in 2023.
It’s no secret the solar industry can attract some snakes in sun-soaked desert states like Nevada. The high solar potential and expensive electricity drums up plenty of business for all kinds of installers — some worthy rivals, but also some bad actors. Las Vegas-based installer Sol-Up (No. 140 on the 2025 Top Solar Contractors List) started looking into solutions a few years ago.
“Back in ’21, we were really upset at what was occurring in the industry: A lot of bad actors with regards to consumer fraud, I’ll call it ‘misrepresentation’ to homeowners, overloading the Nevada State Contractors Board,” said Steve Hamile, COO of Sol-Up. “We found it really challenging to compete in a market where we would go to a homeowner and the homeowner had been completely taken advantage of.”
Hamile and his colleagues decided to reach out to their federal legislators, who told them it’s a state-level issue. They kept ringing the alarm to various state leaders until they reached Democratic Sen. Fabian Doñate in 2023.
“Doñate had called me and said, ‘Look, my family member had really been taken advantage of by door-to-door [solar sales]. Now I see what you’re talking about,’” Hamile said.
Sol-Up worked with Doñate and the state attorney general to draft a bill for solar consumer protection, SB 293, that required solar salespeople going door-to-door to be affiliated with a C-2 Electrical Contractor, along with other safeguards. The bill cut down on homeowner complaints to the attorney general’s office, but it didn’t solve the problem of solar companies skipping town after installations and leaving homeowners with broken, orphaned systems. The state fund set up to help homeowners recoup such losses was still seeing major demand.
“The Nevada Contractors Board Recovery Fund was almost tapped clean entirely by the solar industry,” Hamile said.
Team Sol-Up at a project ribbon-cutting with Sin City as the backdrop.
At the same time, Sol-Up was running into problems with restrictive HOAs denying or stalling customer solar projects. The company decided to take another crack at reforming solar business practices as well as streamlining HOA solar installations in the 2025 legislative session.
“In the first session, I was really the outsider looking in. I co-presented the bill, I helped co-write the bill, but I really didn’t have a lot of say, because much of it was mitigated. A lot of what I wanted in there, we had to acquiesce to some louder voices,” Hamile said. “But then I said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to stop next session. We’re going to start writing bills now.’”
While Sol-Up was largely alone in pressing for change in 2023, the company had plenty of help this time around. Hamile and his colleagues formed the Nevada Solar Association, a hub for like-minded solar advocates currently with 10 installer members and more associate members, such as SEIA and Recheck. The group hired a lobbyist and began working with a diverse group that included financial institutions and HOA leaders on the next proposed legislation.
“The doors started to open, and [legislators] recognized that we weren’t just putting a bill up for our own self-satisfaction. To the contrary, it actually makes our life a little bit more difficult. We complied with 99% of what we ascribe to in this bill, but we still have to modify too,” Hamile said.
The culmination of that work, SB 379, adds financial oversight to ensure proper solar installer licensing, strengthens customer disclosures for solar loans, leases and PPAs, expands project cancellation windows and restricts premature payment collection. A separate bill, SB 440, requires HOAs to process rooftop solar requests within 15 to 35 days, clarifies contract rights and limits unnecessary restrictions.
Both bills were signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo in June.
“We think it’s a model bill for American consumer protection, which is good for the consumer, but most importantly, it’s good for the industry. Many, many consumers are confused because a lie always sounds better than the truth,” Hamile said.
Sol-Up’s advocacy work is a big reason solar transactions will be safer in the state of Nevada.
“What I found is that legislators really want to be informed. They want to be educated. If not, they’re going to look to [who] they consider the smartest person in the room to make that decision for them,” Hamile said.
This story was featured exclusively in our 2025 Top Solar Contractors issue. See the issue and full list of top U.S. solar installers here.
