Florida Solar Contractor License: Scope and Requirements

Fla. Stat. 489.105(3)(o) is one of the 17 contractor categories the statute defines, and it is a Division II specialty class. A solar contractor’s services consist of the installation, alteration, repair, maintenance, relocation, or replacement of solar panels for potable solar water heating systems, swimming pool solar heating systems, and photovoltaic systems, along with the appurtenances, apparatus, and equipment connected to them.

The statutory definition — 489.105(3)(o)

“(o) “Solar contractor” means a contractor whose services consist of the installation, alteration, repair, maintenance, relocation, or replacement of solar panels for potable solar water heating systems, swimming pool solar heating systems, and photovoltaic systems and any appurtenances, apparatus, or equipment used in connection therewith, whether public, private, or otherwise, regardless of use. A contractor, certified or registered pursuant to this chapter, is not required to become a certified or registered solar contractor or to contract with a solar contractor in order to provide services enumerated in this paragraph that are within the scope of the services such contractors may render under this part.”

Quoted from Fla. Stat. 489.105(3)(o).

Three systems sit inside the definition: potable solar water heating, swimming pool solar heating, and photovoltaic systems. The paragraph’s second sentence carries its own overlap rule: a contractor already certified or registered under ch. 489 is not required to become a certified or registered solar contractor to provide solar-related services that already fall within that contractor’s existing scope.

Solar is a Division II class

Fla. Stat. 489.105(3) defines 17 contractor categories, (a) through (q): General, Building, Residential, Sheet metal, Roofing, the three air-conditioning classes, Mechanical, the three pool and spa classes, Plumbing, Underground utility and excavation, Solar, Pollutant storage systems, and Specialty contractor. The statute splits that set in two:

“Contractors are subdivided into two divisions, Division I, consisting of those contractors defined in paragraphs (a)-(c), and Division II, consisting of those contractors defined in paragraphs (d)-(q).”

Quoted from Fla. Stat. 489.105(3).

Division I is General, Building, and Residential, at (a) through (c). Solar sits at paragraph (o), inside Division II, between underground utility and excavation at (n) and pollutant storage systems at (p). For the Division II trade class definitions as a set, and for how the license classes divide between Division I and Division II, see those pages.

Solar is named in the 489.113(3) subcontracting exceptions

Fla. Stat. 489.113(3) requires a licensed contractor to subcontract electrical, mechanical, plumbing, roofing, sheet metal, swimming pool, and air-conditioning work unless that contractor holds a state certificate or registration in the respective trade category. One of the statute’s seven lettered exceptions runs to a solar contractor:

(f) A solar contractor shall not be required to subcontract minor, as defined by board rule, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, or roofing work so long as that work is within the scope of the license held by the solar contractor and where such work exclusively pertains to the installation of residential solar energy equipment as defined by rules of the board adopted in conjunction with the Electrical Contracting Licensing Board.

Quoted from Fla. Stat. 489.113(3). The full duty sentence and all seven exceptions are quoted on the page covering when trade work must be subcontracted.

Exception (f) leaves two terms to board rule rather than to the statute itself: what counts as minor electrical, mechanical, plumbing, or roofing work, and what residential solar energy equipment means for this purpose. The board’s rule, adopted jointly with the Electrical Contracting Licensing Board, fixes both; this page quotes the statute and does not state the rule’s content.

Where solar’s scope meets swimming pool servicing

Fla. Stat. 489.105(3)(o) places “swimming pool solar heating systems” inside the solar contractor’s scope, quoted in full above. Fla. Stat. 489.105(3)(l) defines a swimming pool/spa servicing contractor’s scope to include, among other listed work, “the reinstallation or addition of pool heaters”. Neither paragraph cross-references the other, and which one reaches the reinstallation of a solar pool heater turns on how “swimming pool solar heating systems” in 489.105(3)(o) and “the reinstallation or addition of pool heaters” in 489.105(3)(l) are construed against each other.

Financial responsibility and insurance

Rule 61G4-15.006, F.A.C., is written for “an applicant” generally rather than by category, so it reaches a solar applicant unchanged. The financial stability ground for refusal is “Failure to provide proof of a credit score, FICO derived, of 660 or higher.” An applicant unable to provide that score “shall meet the financial stability requirement by completion of a 14-hour financial responsibility course approved by the Board.”

Quoted from Rule 61G4-15.006, F.A.C..

On insurance, DBPR’s Construction Industry FAQ places a solar contractor, as a category other than General and Building, under “all other categories”, at $100,000 public liability and $25,000 property damage — coverage minimums, not premiums.

Source: DBPR Construction Industry FAQ.

The examination structure for a Division II class

DBPR’s Bureau of Education and Testing states that “Division II contractors (all other specialties) must pass two examinations: Business and Finance and General Trade” knowledge. Solar is a Division II class, so this two-part structure applies to it.

Source: DBPR examination structure.

Common questions

Does a Florida solar contractor need a separate license for pool heater work?

Fla. Stat. 489.105(3)(o) includes swimming pool solar heating systems in the solar contractor’s scope, and Fla. Stat. 489.105(3)(l) includes the reinstallation or addition of pool heaters in the pool/spa servicing contractor’s scope. Neither provision states which one governs a solar pool heater specifically, and the point turns on how the two are construed against each other.

Does a contractor already licensed in another class need a solar certification too?

Fla. Stat. 489.105(3)(o)‘s second sentence provides that a contractor already certified or registered under ch. 489 is not required to become certified or registered as a solar contractor, or to contract with one, to provide services described in that paragraph that already fall within that contractor’s existing scope.

Related pages

When trade work must be subcontracted quotes 489.113(3) in full; the Division II trade class definitions compares the trade scopes; Florida GC license requirements covers financial responsibility, experience, and the exam generally; how the license classes divide covers Division I. Start from Florida’s contractor licensing framework.

This page quotes Fla. Stat. 489.105(3) and 489.113(3); general information, not legal advice.