Solar panels in Granada Hills
Installing solar panels in Granada Hills means designing for two very different kinds of homes: the mid-century ranch houses on wide, flat lots along the Balboa Boulevard corridor and Chatsworth Street, and the hillside homes climbing north toward O'Melveny Park. We've done both, from our office one neighborhood over in Northridge, since 2010.
Two kinds of Granada Hills homes, two kinds of solar design
On the flats — Old Granada Hills, the streets between Balboa and Zelzah, the blocks around San Fernando Mission Boulevard — the typical home is a postwar single-story ranch with a low-pitch composition-shingle roof. These are about the easiest solar installs there are: plenty of unbroken roof plane, simple attachment, short conduit runs. The main design question is usually tree shade. Granada Hills takes its trees seriously — the deodar cedars along White Oak Avenue are a local landmark — and a mature tree on the south side of a house changes where panels should go. We model shading panel-by-panel before we quote, not after.
Up in the hills near O'Melveny Park — at roughly 672 acres, the second-largest park in Los Angeles — and around Knollwood, the homes are larger and the roofs more complex: multiple planes, varied orientations, sometimes a slope behind the house that shades the north side. Hillside designs take more care, but they often come with an advantage: elevated lots with open southern and western exposure and no neighboring two-story house blocking the sun.
The utility math: Granada Hills is LADWP territory
Granada Hills is part of the City of Los Angeles, so your electric bill comes from LADWP. That matters more than most homeowners realize: Because LADWP is publicly owned, a City of Los Angeles department rather than an investor-owned company, the CPUC doesn't set its rules — so the NEM 3.0 decision that cut export credits for Edison customers across much of LA County never applied here. Granada Hills exports are still credited against your own retail rate. That single difference moves payback more than panel brand or roof angle ever will, and we'll walk you through the current program terms at your free estimate — not last year's rules.
Add hot Valley summers and rising rates, and the picture is simple: the households that feel LADWP increases most — big AC loads, pool pumps, an EV in the garage — are the same ones with the most roof to put to work.
Solar services we bring to Granada Hills
Every service we offer runs here, minutes from our Northridge office: new solar installation with zero-down financing, a lease, or cash and a 25-year warranty; solar repair for underperforming or orphaned systems — including ones whose original installer no longer exists; panel removal and reinstall when an aging ranch-house roof finally needs replacing; and EV charger and electrical panel work for homes still running their original service panel.
Permits go through LADBS, the City of LA's building department, and interconnection goes through LADWP — we file and chase both. We also serve neighboring Northridge (our HQ), Van Nuys and Sylmar .
Granada Hills solar questions
Does NEM 3.0 apply to solar in Granada Hills?
No. Granada Hills is served by LADWP, a municipal utility outside CPUC jurisdiction, so the NEM 3.0 rules that apply to SCE customers do not apply here. LADWP runs its own net metering program with its own export-credit rules. Terms can change, so we confirm the current program details for your address during your free estimate.
My house is on a hillside near O'Melveny Park. Can I still go solar?
Usually, yes. Hillside roofs have more planes and orientations to work with, and sometimes terrain shading, so the design takes more care than a flat-lot ranch house. We model your roof's actual sun exposure panel by panel and only propose a layout that produces. If your lot genuinely doesn't get enough sun, we'll say so rather than sell you a system that disappoints.
How do I choose the best solar company in Granada Hills?
Compare companies on three Granada Hills facts. Your utility is LADWP, because Granada Hills is part of the City of Los Angeles, so exports are credited against your own retail rate and NEM 3.0 does not apply. The permit goes through LADBS and the interconnection through LADWP. And someone has to service the system for decades, including after the original installer is gone. Ask each company how it models tree shade on the flats or a multi-plane hillside roof near O'Melveny Park. Collective Solar designs each Granada Hills system from your LADWP bills, prepares the LADBS and LADWP paperwork, and repairs systems whoever installed them. We work from 9221 Corbin Ave #110 in Northridge and hold a 4.8 rating from 50 Google reviews.
Are composition-shingle roofs good for solar panels?
They're the best common roof type for it. Most Granada Hills ranch homes have composition shingle, which allows simple, well-sealed mounting. The real question is the roof's remaining life — panels last decades, so if your shingles are near the end, we'll recommend re-roofing first and can coordinate the removal and reinstall.
Will a big tree in my yard ruin the solar math?
Not necessarily, but it has to be modeled honestly. A mature tree south or west of your roof can cut production on the panels behind it. We map shading before quoting and design around it — different roof plane, different layout, or a smaller system that still pencils. What we won't do is quote you production numbers that ignore the tree.
Solar in Granada Hills, by the numbers
Solar contractors pulled 3,469 permits on houses in Granada Hills between January 2013 and May 2023, with the most in 2021.
3,469
solar permits on houses, January 2013 to May 2023
2021
the busiest year, with 543 permits
452
permits in 2022, the last full year the City has published
| Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Permits | 196 | 246 | 408 | 363 | 244 | 258 | 315 | 345 | 543 | 452 | 99 |
*January to May 19. Source: City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety electrical permits, through May 19, 2023, the latest the City has published. Counts permits on one- and two-family homes pulled by solar contractors inside the Granada Hills North and Granada Hills South neighborhood council boundaries. A permit is not a home: one job can need more than one permit, and solar put in by general electricians isn't counted, so read these as a measure of activity, not a count of homes.
Get a free solar estimate in Granada Hills
Ranch house on the flats or hillside near the park — tell us your address and we'll run the real numbers for your roof and your LADWP bill.