Retained by Counsel - Never by Installers

Expert Witness & Litigation Support for Residential Solar Disputes

Most technical experts in these matters are engineers who have never seen the inside of a sales pitch, or industry consultants who still take installer money. I'm neither. Four years as Technical Director at a Texas solar company - system design, financing, installation and commissioning - now working exclusively for homeowners and the attorneys who represent them.

Request a Complimentary Case Screen Read a Redacted Expert Report →

Solar Forensic Consulting Group is a d/b/a of Optimus Cog LLC, a Texas limited liability company. CV, full fee schedule and prior testimony list available on request.

Qualifications

Why an Industry Insider

Residential solar disputes turn on three things at once: whether the system was designed to produce what was promised, whether the contract said what the salesperson said, and where the money actually went. Those are three different literacies, and most experts have one of them.

I spent four years inside a Texas solar company, the last stretch as Technical Director, responsible for system design, financing, installation and commissioning. I've built the production models these cases dispute, sat in on the financing conversations, and been the person the homeowner called when the original installer disappeared. I know where the numbers get buried because I was in the room when they were written.

Before solar I spent two decades in technology - data center operations at Iron Mountain, then Apple - and four years teaching STEM. That last part matters more to this work than it sounds: an expert opinion is worth nothing if an arbitrator or a juror can't follow it. I write findings that a non-engineer can check, and I can explain the math out loud without a slide deck.

Independence is the product. Solar Forensic Consulting Group has never sold a solar installation and never will. No equipment sales, no installer referral fees, no lender relationships, no contingency arrangements. My opinions do not change based on who is paying for them - whatever figure appears in a homeowner assessment is the figure I will defend under oath.

Scope of Analysis

What I Examine

Engagements are typically scoped to some combination of the following. I'll tell you at the screening stage which of these the facts actually support, and which would be a waste of your client's money.

Production forensics

  • Array-level modeling in NREL PVWatts using as-installed azimuth and tilt, with disclosed, reproducible inputs
  • Reconciliation against metered production from inverter telemetry - Enphase, SolarEdge, Tesla and third-party portals
  • Derivation of the shading and loss allowance implied by the seller's own estimate
  • Shading characterization from 3D aerial and satellite imagery, including imagery predating the agreement
  • Offset representations tested against the homeowner's actual metered consumption

Contract & disclosure review

  • Texas Business & Commerce Code Ch. 115 disclosure items mapped against what the documents contain
  • Degradation schedules, performance guarantees and underproduction reimbursement mechanics
  • Payment escalators, estimated-billing provisions and buyout or prepayment terms
  • Change orders compared line by line against the original agreement and the system as built
  • Internal inconsistencies between marketing-facing figures and guarantee-defining figures

Financing & economic forensics

  • Contract price tested against independent fair market cash value for the scope of work
  • Dealer, platform and program fee structures, with the federal and state-AG record documenting them
  • UCC-1 fixture filings, recorded loan amounts, and title and refinancing implications
  • Federal Investment Tax Credit ownership and the position of a homeowner under a PPA or lease
  • Lifetime cost modeling against measured production and published utility rates

Licensing, permitting & equipment

  • Permit records, declared valuations, inspection history and interconnection status
  • Contractor and salesperson licensing status, including TDLR registration where applicable
  • Equipment substitutions against what the contract specified
  • Storage capacity analysis - rated output against measured starting and running loads
  • Manufacturer warranty terms compared against the assumptions used in the agreement
Work Product

Built to Be Attacked

An expert report is only worth what survives cross-examination. Every engagement report is written on the assumption that someone competent and hostile will go through it line by line.

Report standards

  • Reproducible methodology - every input disclosed, every figure independently checkable. PVWatts is public and requires no login; opposing counsel can run the same model.
  • Materials considered list - itemized, dated and sourced
  • Numbered exhibits and a stated scope of opinion
  • Opinions to a reasonable degree of professional certainty, with the basis stated
  • Explicit limits - I state what I did not determine, and reserve supplementation if additional documents are produced
  • Identified discovery items - the workpapers, fee schedules and design files that would sharpen the analysis

Discipline about the line

  • No legal conclusions. Where a statute is relevant I describe what it requires on its face and what the documents contain. Whether the one satisfies the other is reserved for counsel and the finder of fact.
  • No findings about intent. I state what two documents say and where they diverge. I don't characterize why.
  • No adjectives doing the work of numbers. A system delivering 18.5% against a contract representing 103.81% needs no adverb.
  • Available for testimony - deposition, arbitration hearing and trial
  • Plain language throughout, written to be understood by an arbitrator or a jury and not only by an engineer
Engagement

Fees & Working Arrangement

Analysis is performed remotely from contract documents, monitoring telemetry, billing records and public filings - nationwide, and in most matters without a site visit. Where the facts call for physical inspection, it's scoped separately and quoted before it's performed.

Fee schedule

Written expert report engagementsfrom $2,500
Hourly consulting & analysis$300/hr
Deposition, arbitration & trial testimony$475/hr
Travel timehalf rate + expenses
Retainer against fees$2,500
Complimentary case screen30 minutes

How engagements run

  • Turnaround - typically two to three weeks from a complete case file
  • No contingency arrangements, and no fee tied to outcome
  • Conflicts checked before any substantive review begins
  • Homeowner-tier work converts - if your client already paid for an assessment, that fee is credited toward the expert engagement and the findings don't change
  • Documents by secure transfer; I'll send instructions with the engagement letter

Rates effective 2026 and subject to revision on notice. Fee schedule, curriculum vitae and prior testimony list furnished on request. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice, and I am not an attorney.

Work Samples

Read the Work Before You Call

Two redacted expert assessments, published in full. Different fact patterns, same structure - scope of opinion, materials considered, reproducible methodology, statutory mapping, identified discovery items and reservations. Judge the work rather than the pitch.

Expert Assessment

Power Purchase Agreement - Production, Guarantee Mechanics & Fixture Filing

PDF · 12 pages

A 25-year PPA on a Collin County home. Independent modeling, the interaction between the billing schedule and the performance guarantee, and a recorded UCC-1 encumbering the property.

Why it holds up: independent PVWatts modeling reconciled to actual metered production within 2 kWh on a 22,600 kWh system - roughly one hundredth of one percent. The report also identifies an 84,068 kWh band that the agreement bills for but does not guarantee.
Open the expert report →
Expert Assessment

Production, Shading & Change-Order Discrepancies

PDF · 12 pages

A working system, verified module by module, on a heavily shaded lot - plus a change order that matches neither the original agreement nor the system as built.

What it found: the contract represented solar would supply 103.81% of the home's electricity. Measured across a full year, with every module confirmed operational, it supplied 18.5%. The equipment was never the issue.
Open the expert report →
How the same findings read for a client. The first matter above was also written up in a homeowner version - same figures, same conclusions, no jargon. If you want to see how I'd explain the technical case to your client, or to an arbitrator: read the homeowner version.

About the redactions. Names, addresses, instrument and permit numbers, legal property descriptions and the identities of the installers, lenders and providers involved have been removed or generalized. Every production figure, calculation, contract observation and source citation is reproduced as written. Referenced exhibits - contract excerpts, filing records and monitoring screenshots - are omitted from the published versions. No sample is drawn from a matter currently in dispute.

No Retainer

Complimentary 30-Minute Case Screen

Send me the contract and whatever monitoring or billing data exists on a matter you're evaluating, and I'll tell you candidly whether the technical facts support a claim - usually within five business days.

If there's nothing there, I'd rather you hear it before you've invested in the case. I don't take contingency arrangements, so I have no reason to tell you a weak case is a strong one.

Start a Case Screen Read a Sample Report First →
Questions

Questions Counsel Usually Asks

Usually not. Most of these matters turn on the contract, the production data and the public record - and module-level monitoring establishes equipment status and production history with more precision than a visual inspection does. I perform the analysis remotely, nationwide, from documents your client already has or that exist in public filings. Where the facts genuinely require physical inspection - suspected workmanship defects, water intrusion, code-compliance questions - I'll say so and quote it separately rather than building it into every engagement.

The executed agreement with all exhibits and schedules, any change orders, the financing documents, and whatever monitoring access or production history exists. Twelve months of utility statements from before and after installation are extremely useful. If a recorded filing exists against the property, the instrument. If you have less than that, send what you have - part of the screen is telling you what's missing and whether it's obtainable.

The findings are the findings. I write reports that state their own limits - what I determined, what I did not, and what additional documents would change. That's deliberate: an opinion with no stated boundary is the easiest kind to dismantle. If a fact emerges that undercuts something I wrote, I'll say so, and the report reserves the right to supplement for exactly that reason.

No, and it saves money. Homeowner-tier assessments are prepared for the client's own decision-making, not as litigation expert reports - no qualifications section, exhibit numbering or sworn opinion language. When a matter goes forward, the engagement converts, what your client already paid is credited toward it, and the underlying analysis carries over unchanged. The numbers in the homeowner assessment are the numbers in the expert report.

Yes. The production modeling, financing analysis and contract mechanics are jurisdiction-neutral, and I've prepared reports for matters outside Texas. Where a report references a state disclosure statute, I describe what the statute requires on its face and leave interpretation to counsel - so the analysis travels, and the legal framing stays yours.

Yes - request it through the case screen and I'll send the CV, the full fee schedule and the prior testimony list. I'll also run a conflicts check against the parties before any substantive review begins.