U.S. government issues consumer advisories for solar customers

Consumer advisories issued Aug. 7 by the federal government aim to protect residential solar customers from bad actors.

The U.S. Treasury Department, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wednesday released the public warnings on how to spot potential unfair and deceptive practices, and encouraged consumers to file complaints of suspicious behavior to FTC, CFPB, and state consumer protection offices.

“While skyrocketing growth of the residential solar industry is lowering costs for consumers nationwide, a small number of bad actors are taking advantage of opportunities to scam customers,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

By providing new information to consumers interested in solar energy for their homes and coordinating across federal agencies to prevent scams, Adeyemo said that the Biden-Harris administration “is helping to ensure consumers who want to lower their utility bills are able to successfully do so.”

Also on Wednesday, Treasury, CFPB, and FTC, along with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced an interagency partnership that will coordinate efforts to prevent predatory practices.

The new partnership will foster greater communication and collaboration between the agencies and better protect consumers from bad actors, according to the Treasury Department.

“As more Americans choose to lower their utility bills by adopting solar panels, fraudsters have found a new opportunity to prey on consumers,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. “The FTC will keep working with enforcement partners across the government to ensure that Americans can unlock the benefits of solar energy without getting ripped off or scammed.”

Treasury, CFPB, and FTC encourage consumers who think they’ve been a victim of unfair or deceptive practices to file a complaint with CFPB, FTC, or their relevant state consumer protection office. Such consumer complaints help enable an all-of-government response to root out unfair and deceptive practices and hold bad actors accountable, they said.

“With sweltering heat across America this summer, many families are installing solar panels to save on energy costs to cool their home,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “The CFPB will be scrutinizing solar lenders to make sure that Americans don’t get burned.”

The new consumer advisories on solar serve as educational resources that consumers can use at the beginning of their solar-shopping process to make informed decisions, and they describe different types of solar power options, warn about common unfair or deceptive practices, provide key questions to ask before making purchases or signing agreements and provide instructions on how consumers can file complaints.

The new partnership between Treasury, CFPB, FTC, DOE, and HUD will establish a forum for information sharing that will be used in efforts to monitor fraudulent behavior.

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