Between you and the sun, there's a confusing industry.
We're the bridge.
Solarbridge is an independent solar advisor for East Bay homeowners. We assess your home honestly, bring together the right installer, financing, and equipment from partners we've vetted, and stay accountable until the power is on.
Independent. Local. Accountable through the last inspection.
How it works
We don't build systems. We choose who does.
An installer's salesperson can only sell you that installer. We work for the home in front of us, and we choose the installer, the financing, and the battery for that roof and that bill.
An honest assessment
Your usage, your roof, your rate plan, and whether solar beats PG&E for your house. If it doesn't, we tell you and we leave.
The right partners for your home
A licensed installer, a financing option, and equipment we've vetted and would put on our own homes. You see the full price, in writing, before you sign anything.
Managed to power-on, and reachable after
One coordinator from signing through permission to operate. You know who to call at every step, and after.
Solarbridge sells and manages your project. Your system is built by a licensed installer and financed by a lender or lease provider, and your agreements are with them. We put that in plain words because most solar complaints start with a company that didn't.
The problem
What PG&E charges, what it's asking for, and the record behind it. Every figure sourced.
Your numbers
Decode your own bill and pick PG&E's future yourself. No sales math.
Why batteries
What the Net Billing Tariff did to solar in California, and why storage matters now.
Beyond solar
Roofing, panels, HVAC, insulation, EV charging: we fix what's in the way.
Our standard
We don't take every home.
Solar is a good decision for many East Bay homes and a bad one for some. The difference is in the details, and we'd rather lose a sale than put a system on a house where the numbers don't work.
We'll tell you no when
- The roof needs replacing within a few years and that isn't part of the plan.
- Shade or orientation means the system can't produce what the proposal claims.
- Your usage is low enough that the savings don't justify the commitment.
- The monthly payment doesn't clearly beat what PG&E would charge you.
What you'll never hear from us
- A deadline we invented. There is no "program closing Friday."
- Language that implies we're the government, your utility, or a public program. We're a private, local company.
- A price that changes after you sign. Adders are disclosed before, or they're ours to absorb.
- Pressure to sign today. Read the agreement. Call us tomorrow.
Reviews
Read what our customers say, where they said it.
We don't curate or write our reviews. Every one is posted by a homeowner on Google, in their own words, and you can read all of them there, including any we'd rather you didn't.
Solarbridge on Google
Our Google Business profile is where our reviews live. We'll link it here as soon as this page goes live, and the count and rating you see there are the real ones.
What to expect
From signing to power-on, you'll always know what's next.
Typical timing for an East Bay home on PG&E. Permit offices and the utility set their own pace, so we tell you the range and keep you posted inside it.
Tool 5
Your project, live
The day you sign, you get a private link that looks like this and updates at every step. No calling around to find out where things stand.
About the phone calls you'll get.
Once your permit is filed it becomes public record, and you may receive calls from companies suggesting they're affiliated with the state or your utility and offering a "second look" at your contract. They're sales calls. You're welcome to take them. Call us first and we'll walk you through exactly what you signed and why.
Talk to us
A conversation, not a pitch.
Call or write and a person in Walnut Creek answers. If you're already a customer, this is also the number for anything about your project, before or after it's on.
Serving Contra Costa and the East Bay.
The problem
Your utility is the most expensive part of owning a home that you have no say over.
Every number on this page about PG&E comes from a public filing, a regulator, or a named news organization, and links to it. Read the sources. We'd rather you argue with them than take our word for it.
What the next 25 years look like if nothing changes
A $250 PG&E bill, grown at PG&E's own five- and ten-year rate trends, against a $200 solar payment with a fixed 2.99% annual escalator. Illustrative, with every input shown. Your numbers will differ, and we'll run them with you.
Inputs: PG&E starting bill $250/mo. Ten-year trend 5.4%/yr and five-year trend 6.8%/yr are the compound annual rates implied by the Public Advocates Office figures above (+69% over 10 years, +39% over 5). Solar: $200/mo, 2.99% escalator, typical of lease and PPA agreements. Not a quote. Past rate changes don't guarantee future ones; PG&E rates fell 3.7% in March 2026 before the trend resumed.
On the record
What PG&E has done, is doing, and is asking for. Updated as it happens. Every item links to its source.
PG&E reaffirms ~10% earnings growth and a $16.6 billion plan to bury 5,000 more miles of line
On its Q3 call the company reaffirmed 2026 core EPS guidance of $1.64–$1.66, 2027 guidance of $1.78–$1.82, and described a $456 million interim rate recovery to be collected from customers over 12 months starting in January.
Source: PG&E Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool
State's own ratepayer advocate: PG&E rates up 39% in five years, 69% in ten
The CPUC's independent Public Advocates Office puts PG&E's residential average at 33.7¢/kWh and names wildfire mitigation and liability costs as the largest statewide driver. Wildfire-related charges alone were $3.97 billion in January 2026, about 19% of PG&E's revenue requirement.
Source: Public Advocates Office, Q2 2026 Electric Rates Report (PDF)
Burying lines costs $1.85–$6.1 million per mile. Customers pay for it through rates.
PG&E's first 2,100 miles of undergrounding were budgeted at about $5.9 billion; the full 10,000-mile goal was estimated in the tens of billions. The Utility Reform Network pegged PG&E's 2022 cost at $3.3 million per mile versus about $800,000 per mile to insulate the same line.
Source: CNBC, Oct 21, 2023
PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the 2018 Camp Fire
The company admitted its equipment started the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise. It was fined the statutory maximum of about $4 million.
Sources: Bloomberg Law · KPBS / NPR
Solarbridge is not affiliated with PG&E, the CPUC, or any government agency. Figures are quoted from the linked sources as of the dates shown and may change; corrections to [email].
Your numbers
Don't take our word for it. Type in your bill.
Two tools, no sales math. The first reads your PG&E bill back to you. The second lets you pick the assumption about PG&E's future yourself and see where it lands. Nothing here is a quote or a savings promise; it's arithmetic on numbers you entered.
Tool 1
Bill decoder
What you actually pay per kWh, and what the same usage costs if PG&E keeps doing what it has done.
Rates: CPUC Public Advocates Office, Q2 2026. Trends are the compound rates implied by +69% (10 yr) and +39% (5 yr). Your effective rate includes fixed charges, taxes and fees, which is why it's usually above the per-kWh price printed on the plan.
Tool 2
You pick PG&E's future
Set what you think PG&E will do each year. We'll hold a solar payment at a fixed 2.99% escalator and show you both.
Illustrative. The solar payment is one you enter, not a quote; a real proposal depends on your roof, usage, equipment and financing, and will be in writing before you sign. The 2.99% escalator is typical of lease/PPA agreements; loans have no escalator. Past PG&E increases don't guarantee future ones.
Why batteries now
In California, the sun you don't use is worth very little. The sun you store is worth a lot.
Since April 2023, new solar customers in PG&E territory are on the Net Billing Tariff (often called NEM 3). Power you send back to the grid is credited at a fraction of what you pay to buy it, and the gap is widest in the evening when you use the most. A battery holds your afternoon production for your evening use. That's why nearly every system we design includes one, and why a solar quote without storage deserves a hard question.
Source: CPUC, Net Billing Tariff / NEM revisit. Credit values vary by hour and month under the tariff; we'll show you the current schedule for your plan.
Outages are local.
PG&E publishes every current outage. Look up your own neighborhood, then ask us what a battery would have covered on each of those nights.
PG&E outage center →A typical day at home
Without storage, the midday surplus leaves your house for a small credit, and you buy evening power back at full price.
Whatever stands in the way
Most homes that "can't go solar" have one thing in the way. We fix the thing.
A roof with five years left. A 100-amp panel. An attic that leaks the cooling you paid for. Other companies see a disqualified home. We see the obstacle between you and the sun, and we work with licensed home-improvement contractors we've vetted so it can be handled in the same project, by people we'd put on our own houses.
Roofing
Re-roof or repair before the panels go on, so you're not paying twice. Full replacements through our roofing partner, scoped with the solar design.
Main panel & electrical
Panel upgrades, subpanels, and the wiring a battery and EV charger need. Handled inside the solar scope, not as a surprise add-on.
Heating & cooling
Heat pump HVAC sized to run on the power you now make, replacing gas furnaces and aging AC.
Insulation & air sealing
The cheapest kilowatt is the one you don't need. Attic insulation and sealing shrink the system you have to buy.
EV charging
Level 2 chargers installed with the system, on a rate plan that makes overnight charging make sense.
Water heating & electrification
Heat pump water heaters and electric replacements for gas appliances, so the whole house runs on the roof.
Home-improvement work is performed by independent, licensed California contractors under their own licenses and agreements with you. Where the financing allows, it can be included in the same project and payment; where it can't, we tell you before you sign. Availability varies by scope and location.
Compare quotes
Shopping around is the right move. Here's what to ask.
We'd rather you compare us to three companies than sign with the first one at your door. These twelve questions separate a good proposal from a good pitch.
Tool 3
Twelve questions to ask any solar company
Take this to whoever else you talk to. Our answers are filled in. If theirs are better, go with them; you'll still have gotten a good system.
Who you'll be working with
A small team, built door to door in the East Bay.
Solarbridge was started after years inside the solar industry, watching how homeowners get treated when the sale matters more than the house. Everyone here has sat at kitchen tables in Contra Costa and knows the difference.
Will
Founder · [years] in solar · [hometown]
Kalych
Co-founder · [years] in solar · [hometown]
Adrian
Sales Manager · [years] in solar · [hometown]
Darion
Director of Sales · [years] in solar · [hometown]
Tool 4
Who was that at my door?
Every Solarbridge representative carries a badge with a QR code. Scan it and you get a page like this one: their photo, their name, their registration, and the installer they represent. Show it to whoever wasn't home. If the person at your door can't produce it, they're not with us.
Verify us
Check our work before we start.
Every installer we work with holds an active California contractor's license, and every Solarbridge representative who visits your home is registered as a Home Improvement Salesperson under that license. Look them up. We'd rather you did.
Your proposal names the installer for your home. These are the licensed contractors we currently work with; each number opens the state's license check so you can confirm status, classifications, bond and workers' compensation yourself.
License numbers as shown in public CSLB records; status can change. Installers are independent contractors; your installation agreement is with the installer named on your proposal.
Ask to see it. Every rep carries a Home Improvement Salesperson registration tied to the installer's license. You can verify it on the same CSLB page.
Verify a salesperson →The state publishes a plain-language guide every solar customer is supposed to receive. Read it before you meet with anyone, including us.
Read the CPUC guide →Talk to us
A conversation, not a pitch.
Call or write and a person in Walnut Creek answers. If you're already a customer, this is also the number for anything about your project, before or after it's on.
Serving Contra Costa and the East Bay.