A commercial solar or battery storage lead is a building whose roof, electric bill and ownership make a project pencil, tied to the person who approves capital spending on it — usually the owner, not the tenant and not the facilities lead. Residential solar sells one roof to one household that owns the roof and pays the bill. Commercial splits those apart: one party owns the roof, another may pay the bill, a third manages the building, and the project only closes when the right one of them says yes.
This guide is for installers and storage developers selling to small and mid-sized buildings: which buildings to put on the list, the questions that qualify them, and how to get to the person who signs.
Three kinds of commercial energy lead
| Lead | What you sell | What makes it warm |
|---|---|---|
| Building without solar | An array, often paired with storage | Big flat or low-slope roof, daytime load, owner-occupied, roof with years left |
| Building with solar and no storage | A battery for demand charges or backup | The owner already bought energy on the roof once; demand charges still on the bill |
| Building whose roof is due | Roof first, then solar — or solar with the re-roof | An owner who has to spend on the roof anyway, and a natural time to add the array |
The second row is the one most installers underwork. A building that already carries panels has a known owner who once said yes to an energy project, an interconnection already in place, and a bill that the panels may have lowered without touching the part that storage fixes. Residential installers know the same move as the battery attach; the homeowner version is in how to sell solar batteries.
Demand charges, in one paragraph
Many commercial electricity bills have two parts: energy, priced per kilowatt-hour used, and demand, priced per kilowatt of the customer’s peak. The demand part is typically set by the highest average usage over a 15-minute interval in the billing period. One quarter-hour when the compressors, ovens and chargers all run together can set the charge for the whole month. Solar lowers the energy part on sunny hours; it cannot promise to be producing during that one peak, which may land on a cloudy afternoon or after sunset. A battery can: it discharges during the peak and lowers the number the utility measures. That is the storage pitch to a building that already has solar.
A worked example
A cold-storage building peaks at 200 kW on a tariff with a $15 per kW demand charge. The demand part of the bill is 200 × $15 = $3,000 a month. A battery sized to shave 50 kW off the peak brings it to 150 kW, or $2,250, which is $750 a month and $9,000 a year off the demand charge alone, before any energy savings or backup value.
The building, the tariff and the figures are an illustrative example to show how the charge is computed, not a quote, a real tariff or a savings estimate. Real savings depend on the building’s load shape and its utility’s rate schedule.
Qualify the building before you find the person
Every hour spent finding the owner of a building that cannot take a project is wasted. Run each candidate through these questions first — most can be answered from the street, the aerial and one phone call to anyone at the building.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who pays the electric bill? | The bill payer gets the savings. If it is a tenant and the owner owns the roof, both have to agree. |
| Is the business inside the owner? | Owner-occupied buildings close fastest: one decision maker, one set of savings. |
| How much life does the roof have left? | An array is meant to stay up for decades. On a roof that is due, the honest pitch is roof first, and the job may be a commercial roofer’s before it is yours. |
| When does the building use power? | Daytime loads line up with solar production; evening and spiky loads point at storage. |
| Does the tariff carry a demand charge? | Without one, the storage case rests on backup alone. |
| How long will the owner hold the building? | A project pays back over years. An owner about to sell may not care. |
| Is there existing solar, and does it work? | Working panels mean a storage lead; dead panels on a building whose installer is gone mean a service lead. |
Federal and state incentives for commercial solar and storage have changed more than once in recent years, and they turn on details of the project and the owner. A lead list cannot settle eligibility; the owner’s tax adviser does. Leave the incentive math out of the first call and bring it to the proposal.
Who signs, by building
- Owner-occupied small business — an auto shop, a small manufacturer, a grocery, a winery. The owner signs, often with their accountant in the room. This is the closest thing to a residential sale and the best place to start.
- Church or nonprofit — a board or finance committee votes. Find the member who handles buildings and grounds, and time the proposal to the meeting calendar.
- Single-tenant leased building — read who pays what. On a lease that passes operating costs to the tenant, the tenant has the savings motive and the owner has the roof; the project needs both.
- Multi-tenant building — the owner or asset manager signs, usually through the property manager, and the savings are spread across tenants’ bills or the common-area meter. Harder; worth it when the roof is large.
- Portfolio owner — the decision sits at the head office, and one yes can cover several roofs. Find the other buildings before the first call.
On leased buildings the property manager is still a useful first conversation, for access and for the bill data, as how to find the property manager of a commercial building explains. The owner is behind an LLC more often than not; how to find who is behind an LLC that owns a building covers the public steps.
The first call
Open with the building, not the technology. “You’re running compressors around the clock and the roof is wide open” lands better than a pitch about panels. Ask for one thing: twelve months of electric bills, or permission to pull the interval data. Without the bill, every number in the proposal is a guess; with it, the conversation moves from whether to how much. If the owner says the roof leaks, stop selling solar and ask who is fixing the roof — and if it is nobody, refer a commercial roofer you trust and come back after the re-roof. The roofer side of that conversation is in commercial roofing leads.
Where Scout Data fits
Scout Data starts from the building and what it needs — solar on the roof and no storage, a big roof with no solar, a roof near the end of its life, a storm that hit it — and gets you to the person who controls the budget. Each building comes back as an owner dossier: the business inside, the entity that owns it, the named decision makers with their numbers, every other parcel they hold, the energy work they have already paid for, and the load shape and tariff the building implies. It covers small owner-occupied buildings — churches, auto shops, small industrial, local retail — as well as larger ones, and it is delivered building by building with no annual seat. See commercial data for the full dossier, or the commercial research databases compared if you would rather research buildings one at a time.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a good commercial solar lead?
A building with a large unshaded roof that has years of life left, a daytime electric load, an owner who expects to hold it for years, and a clear answer to who pays the electric bill. The best leads are owner-occupied, because the person who owns the roof also pays for the power.
Which commercial buildings need battery storage?
Buildings whose bills carry large demand charges — the part of a commercial bill set by the highest 15-minute peak in the billing period. Short, sharp peaks from compressors, kitchens, chargers or motors are what storage shaves best. A building that already has solar and no storage is often the warmest storage lead, because the owner has already said yes to energy on the roof once.
Who signs for commercial solar on a leased building?
The owner signs, because the array sits on the owner’s roof for decades. But on a lease where the tenant pays the electric bill, the tenant gets the savings, so the deal usually needs both: the owner’s consent to the roof and an agreement on who pays and who benefits. Owner-occupied buildings skip that negotiation entirely.