Previous owner of my house I purchased here in Kailua spent $66,000 for a solar system that's in my opinion probably worth max $25,000 installed. Even then these guys are overpriced and unresponsive - I emailed multiple times to ask to get our electricity permissioned with hawaii electric so that we can sell back, they are ignoring. I was going to buy another powerwall thru them but now i'm not. AVOID at ALL COSTS! You can get probably 50% the price or more elsewhere. read more

I received a bill from this company, but no issues have been fixed. The system is still not connected. Neither my mom nor I received a message or call from them to confirm the visit. I request a service for the week of August 22nd, 2025. It has been 4 months since the request service, but the solar is still not working. Is this the kind of service they provide to their customers? We have a loan of $80,000.00 for the 26 panels and 2 batteries and are still paying HECO an average of $300.00 since the connection. They said that our bill would be lowered to at least $30.00 a month, but we have never seen such reduction. I have complained before, and they mentioned high consumption was the reason. You based your calculation on the recent two months' electric bill to determine our needs, but you failed to deliver the promised $30.00 lower bill. My mom has been contacting them but there has been no response or call back. Both of us are frustrated with this long wait. I hope that this company will feel the same frustration that we have felt in 2026. read more

"Malama Solar" knows nothing about trouble shooting any problems associated with the solar/battery they install. They are just installers. SunRun Solar fixes all of their f ups. Thank You SunRun Solar for fixing what Malama Solar could not! read more

I encourage everyone to read my ENTIRE review BEFORE you decide to go with Malama Solar for your Solar needs. Then you can decide. This review gives a lot of detail but in short, Malama Solar states that they are committed to helping the local customer stating "Malama is to care for" and they are "The Hawaiian solar company with local crew members and local priorities in mind." I share my personal experience so far and you can decide if Malama Solar is the right contractor for you to meet your needs. I have reached out to Malama for support and in our first year, our system has had 8 system shutdowns of 103 days. Malama has provided us little to no support since system approval in April 2024. This is my first negative review on a company but feel compelled to let everyone know my personal experience with Malama Solar, and their primary contractor of choice, Sunnova. The reason we chose to go with Malama Solar was because they are a local company who we felt would assist us during our entire solar experience. We were mistaken in our assumption. During our year and a half of solar ownership, we have been very, very dissatisfied! Our system was installed by Malama Solar on 24 Feb 2024 and we received HECO approval on 4 Apr 2024. I paid $39,400 upfront for the entire system in Feb 2024. Our system went down on 6 Apr 2024, the second day of system operation. I called Malama Solar to assist and was brushed off and told to call Sunnova (a mainland company) for all subsequent service needs. I did and my system was repaired on 20 Apr 2024. My system experienced a second shutdown on 10 May 2024. I called Sunnova and the system was repaired on 24 May 2024. I reached out to Malama Solar on 10 Jun 2024 and expressed our concerns about the poor system performance. The President of Malama Solar, Chris Sue, returned my call the same day and wanted to hear about my experience and provided me his personal contact number in case I had any other issues in the future as he said he was deeply concerned. Following is a short of my experiences since then: System down 29 Jul 24, repaired 2 Aug 24 System down 25 Sep 24, repaired 2 Oct 24 System down 1 Nov 24, repaired 22 Nov 24 System down 1 Jan 25, repaired 14 Jan 25 System down 15 Mar 25, repaired 18 Mar System down 4 Apr 25, partial repair 26 Apr 25. I personally reached out to Chris Ah Sue on 17 Mar 25 to ask for his personal assistance that he promised me. The next day, I received a call from Mike of Malama Solar and not Chris himself. I gave Mike a full rundown of the system operation from the very first day and he told me that Malama Solar has NOTHING to do with service calls and I had to go through Sunnova. I pleaded with him to help us and as I am a local resident needing support on a system Malama Solar installed. He said there was very little they could do! I asked him about their commitment to helping the local community with our solar needs. Mike said that by contract, they can't help get our system back up and running properly. But he could send an email to Sunnova. Well, today is 10 Sep 2025 and the only support I have received from Malama was they sent a couple emails to Sunnova and haven't heard back from them! (Update: Mike of Malama called me two weeks ago and reported they are waiting for parts). I have personally called Sunnova four times in the past two months for an update on my service request and was told each time that someone would return my call. Nothing. In Oct 2024, I asked Sunnova for reconciliation of costs I incurred since my system was not functioning for a duration up to that time. Sunnova replied that they will reconcile after one full year of ownership. I called Sunnova in April 2025 (after one full year of ownership) asking for reconciliation and was then told that my system reconciliation would be done after three years of ownership! I am not sure why the change from one to three years! read more

As a real estate agent I highly recommend Les Leong at Malama Solar for my clients' solar needs. Les is diligent and puts your best interest first. He knows the market well and his knowledge in the industry is exceptional. He is very responsive and always returns calls. Best of all, he saves my clients thousands in electricity bills. Born and raised in Hawaii, he understands local culture and able to relate to anyone with concerns on sustainable renewable energy. He is direct and trustworthy. read more

Malama Solar was referred to me from my coworker. There was already a PV system on the home when we purchased it, but it wasn't enough panels and didn't have batteries. Even with the old system, we were still paying a 250ish electric bill because I have an electric car. Malama helped install additional panels and backup batteries. Malama was a great experience from the initial consultation, to the permits, to the installation. We highly recommend them. read more

This guy came to my house, opened my gate and knocked on my door. I answer, he try's to build rapport by telling me what he did for some of the people that live by me. He doesn't say who he represents, but I see his shirt I cut him off and ask him to get to the point because I'm watching Monday night football. He asks if I'm interested in solar and I say no and give the reasons why. He leaves, but when he leaves this guy slams my gate super unprofessional. I will now tell everyone how shitty this company is. read more

"From the initial sales pitch to the final installation, we were thoroughly impressed with Malama. The Malama team went above and beyond--handling the HOA application and permit process seamlessly. We highly recommend Malama Solar for their outstanding service and professionalism." read more

The good: The engineer they sent knew seemed to know his stuff. The bad: They refuse to breakdown the price of what you paying for each panel, inverter, labor, etc... They won't budge on an itemized breakdown of parts and labor costs. I asked for the price of two addition panels and they quoted me an extra 4K. Now if you do that math on that each panel should be about $200 and each individual inverter about $200 for grand total of 800-$1000 in parts. Seems to me they are charging about $30K and higher just in labor for jobs. They won't install equipment you purchase even if it's the same thing they would use enphase, q-cell, tesla etc... My take away here is they don't want you to know how much they charge you to install the system and hope you don't know what the equipment they install costs. read more

The installers were great, took a little more time to complete the job but they did a fantastic job. Pat the electrician was very professional with his job and Keanu the one on the roof installing the panel was also professional with his work. They also cleaned up after themselves leaving my home spotless. Mahalo's to the crew of Malama Solar and Mahalo's to my salesperson Sam. read more

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Worst large investment ever made in my life! My brand new system isn't even working properly. Repairs have not been made. I have a huge loan on this system which is a large monthly payment. AND I am still paying HECO over $200 per month because my system needs power from the grid . I now have to turn my a/c system off just to afford this loan and pay HECo. I have a solar system and can't even air condition my home!! I would be happy to get this piece of shit ripped off my roof and refunded. I was better off with HECO...it was even cheaper to have no solar system and run my central air all day!! read more

Malama Solar - Solar Installation Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

I'm writing this review only because of the Sales guy who is roaming our neighborhood and stopped by tonight. I told him we'd love to do solar down the road but since we just did a massive remodel it wasn't in the budget. He proceeded to tell me there will be no money out of our pocket, multiple times. I asked him there would be really no money out of our pocket and he said "no". This is false advertisement and a poor sales technique. Directly from the Companies website it says install costs from $40-$50K before tax credits. While you can assume in the long run it will save you money, there is a significant up front cost. Not saying I wouldn't go with these guys, but to flat out lie that there is no cost is a poor sales technique. The companies own website aside, we got a quote previously during the remodel and all of our neighbors have solar and they have shared what they spent. It isn't free! read more

Our system has issues for over 5 months now and almost 3 months of not generating anything. Your team visited us 2 or 3 times but nothing is fixed. I experienced 7 red flags from you. 1st, you provided us with a blueprint that doesn't work according to installers. 2nd, the installers put the remaining battery to be 12%. when I called the office they informed that me that it shouldn't be 12% when 20% is the minimum. 3rd, comparing to other companies they already know that there is something wrong with the system before we even notice, while your team left us be even when the system is not operational. 4th, your team asked me to contact Tesla, and other companies when I didn't associate with them. That is your job to contact them and know what is going on. Not me!!! 5th, you're making excuses like waiting for the parts for weeks, when it seems are no new materials are present for replacing old parts like the 7 broken solar panels. 6th, you told me that I wasn't communicating when I keep calling you guys and you even told me to refrain myself from calling you. 7th, comparing our system from one of our neighbors how has a bigger property and has more appliances. This neighbor doesn't have a single solar panel before and they bought 14 solar panels. Now they are paying the minimum amount of electricity bills. Us, who already had 9 solar panels, your company told us to buy 18 more panels. Now our electricity bills are negative $200 to $300. We are not getting paid for this and we still have to pay the minimum amount of electricity bills. It is clear that they took advantage of our ignorance. Over selling solar panels to make more profit. I would stay away from this company. read more

Just got my solar system installed. The bruddahs in the installation crew were awesome. Bruddah Patrick and his crew arrived on time, kept me informed on what was happening, cleaned up after themselves, took ne around my PV system and helped me download the app as well. The bug thing is they finished the job a day ahead of schedule. Who does that!?. These guys did. The office ladies were very knowledgeable and asked all of he questions that I had. Thank you Malama Solar!! read more

Nothing wrong with the reps but the company would benefit by tracking which houses they visit in a neighborhood. I've had several reps visit my residence and each time I explained that I'm not interested. I wouldn't be able to rate the company on its servicing and install but the reps are not dressed professionally. read more

Long review. TLDR; Malama Solar has excellent customer service and average prices. My house uses about 2,000 kW a month (about $850 average monthly bill), so we needed a large system to get us to zero. We started with sunrun since they're endorsed by Costco. Their reps are nice enough. Their price is not. We were quoted 56 Hanwha Q-Cells (the 2nd best panels available. First is LG but they are not warrantied for salty air) panels, 4 inverters, 4 batteries. A system size of 22.40 kW which gave us an offset of 142%. The large offset is due to living in Kaneohe, so between the rain and shortened solar hours, we would still produce a fair amount in winter. The price for all this was $174,687. A 25 year loan at 4.99% brought our payments out to about $740 a month, and that's with applying our full tax credit to the loan. If we didn't, the monthly would be $1,056. A bit eye-watering. I reached out to Tesla Solar, RevoluSun, and Malama Solar. Tesla Solar was the cheapest. I don't have access to the quote anymore, but the build was about the same as sunrun but with more panels since Tesla uses Tesla panels. Tesla panels do not produce as much per panel. Their price tag was about $85,000, nearly half of sunrun's quote. Our house currently has a new section with a 2 year old roof and an old section with a 15 year old roof. Tesla's inspection warranted us replacing the old roof, and they wouldn't consider exclusively using the new roof section until we replaced the old roof. We also wanted a different equipment location than their proposed one, but there was a shed in the way. They would not consider the new location until the shed was removed. You will get frequent emails about completing steps of the process if you do not do them within a certain timeframe. I found the local rep less than helpful in answering my questions. RevoluSun did not call me during our scheduled time nor anytime after, so I did not move further with them. (Our Malama Solar installer used to work for them and said that's a frequent problem with them. Poor customer service) Finally, we have Malama Solar. The process starts with a few questions on their website, and you get a very rough quote and a Google Maps image with panel location overlaid on your house. The next day I had a presentation of our actual proposal. She was very thorough during her presentation and answered all my questions. She even steered us away from some less than favorable options. We were quoted 46 Hanwha Q Cells (same as sunrun), 2 inverters, and 3 Tesla PowerWall batteries. A 16.79 kW system. I do not have the quote anymore, but the offset was about 110 to 120%. This came out to $113,000, and this was offered with a 3.84% APR for 25 years. The payments with full tax credit application would be $437, almost half our monthly bill! The full amount without the credit would be $625 which is still less than our current. I asked the same questions about the roof and shed, and Malama Solar was able to work with us to fit all the panels on the new section of roof. They also were able to design the equipment location without moving the shed. With all these options, we went with Malama Solar. Their friendly and responsive customer service made up for not being the cheapest option. Permitting was a breeze since they took care of that entire process, and we chose customer self supply (CSS) (no feeding excess to the grid, what you make is yours). Once all our ducks were in a row, installation was scheduled for 2 weeks later. Malama Solar sends you a video to watch to understand what to expect during installation. We only had to move our cars out of the garage for equipment storage (panels, inverters, etc.) and clear the area where the inverters and batteries were going to be. Our equipment was delivered around 9am on first install day, and the crew showed up shortly thereafter. They had a few questions and requests, but once they settled in, they were quick and efficient. Every person seemed happy and friendly, and they were more than willing to answer any questions and explain the different parts of the system. Due to the size of our system, all the equipment took two days to install, and day three was hook up day. They have to turn off the power to connect the PV system to the main panel, but that lasted less than an hour. Once the power came back on, they let us know we were now on solar. The crew setup the monitoring portion including firmware updates and all the other technical stuff. Before they left, they showed us on the app our home use and solar generation, and on a partly cloudy day, we were at 12kW producing and using about 3kW. They informed me I would get an invite within 24 hours. I did not. I was informed to contact Tesla since the monitoring is through the Tesla app. Within 20 minutes, I had access to the system. (email was spelled wrong). Malama Solar monitors the system until all inspections (building, electrical, and HECO) are complete. read more

Very professional, the staff really care about the customers and are very responsive. Good Selection of equipment and financing options too! read more

Beware of what you are signing. We were under the impression that we were giving them permission to take photos of our roof. In actuality signature was for closing documents on a loan. We had to contact the lender ourselves to cancel. Luckily we moved quick as they only give you three days to cancel. read more

Jay and his crew does awesome work! For explaining my system to training his crew to perform installation's to perfection. Can't say enough about professionalism. A+++ serves forgot to mention Abner and David their sales guys! Awesome!!! read more

Please stop going door to door! When I said I wasn't interested, your employee said, "oh no" and proceeded with his sales pitch. I said wasn't interested for the second time, he said "oh no" again and asked me if I knew that HECO was raising their rates. You may want to reconsider your marketing strategy - this is pesky and fear-mongering. read more

Had an appointment with Alex for estimate. No show! I tried replying to his text to ask if he was still coming... text cannot be sent! I tried calling the phone # he called me from...no, call cannot be completed. Sorry you lost a potential customer! read more

I called to inquire about installing solar panels and a solar water heater and spoke to John. He's professional, but puts a dedicated emphasis on the fact that he's not trying to steal our money, but genuinely wants to help people get the best deal for their family's lifestyle. You always want a local number to call in the event that you need servicing needs. read more

We paid SO MUCH money to get PV with batteries from Malama and it is such a piece of crap. It wasn't working for months after we had it installed, so we ended up paying HECO for our electric because the system didn't work. Chris said we would get reimbursed multiple times, only to eventually stop responding and obviously never reimbursing us. Tonight there was a power outage in our area and our system didn't even kick on. Why did we pay for this system with batteries which is supposed to make our house self sufficient?! Oh and they aren't open saturdays so we can't contact anyone to troubleshoot. If I could rip the whole thing down and PICK LITERALLY ANY OTHER COMPANY, I would. read more

disappointed. poor service after installation and paid for. call them about the problem was not able to help me at all. since then they send me to Philippines call center. sad for local company do business here in Honolulu and not be able to help me here Locally. read more

Chris Ah Sue and company have done well, not just with estimates and installation, but with continued service and support, too!

My review is not based on the installation of a solar system, but of the awesome customer service I've received. I requested a quote and got a response within 20 mins! Unfortunately, Malama Solar is unable to work on my current home. I had asked if they could point me in a direction that might work for me. Surprisingly I received recommendations! Customer service has been so amazing. If they are this great knowing that they can't install a system on my home, I can just imagine how awesome they'll be if I was able to get a system. Many thanks to Chris for all your help read more

We were puttering in the garage when this tall good looking guy walked up to ask if we'd be interested in a solar PV system, we said no, then he asked about a solar water heater. We asked a couple questions, his answers were reasonable and he asked if he could provide a quote. Sure we said but we're not going to buy anything today, we don't like the pressure tactic. No problem and he went on his way. The guy was Chris, owner of Malama Solar. His is a young company so he was out doing cold calling himself. A couple days later we decided to accept the offer. Chris took care of providing drawings and specifications to our HOA for approval. Once approved had a team out to do the installation within a week. The tank, plumbing and roof top solar collector were all installed first rate. The electrical however was a bit shoddy. I was worried that I would have to fix it since the installers had left. Nope. A couple days later Chris called to ask if they could come back out to fix the wiring. Turns out the installation crew didn't have the parts needed so they cobbled something together to get us going, but were conscientious enough to come back out without being asked. And best of all every morning we have piping hot water, hotter on some days than the old regular electric unit used to deliver, and power has been turned completely off! (They said we might need some electric heating after October but at least we get 1/2 a year with no charge.) I highly recommend Malama Solar. read more

Chris is the owner & very understanding! His response time was 100% as I was up late losing sleep and stressing about a last minute situation. He worked with me and made sure to get the problem fix. His worker Cameron came out around 11am which was the expected time. They don't only do solar they do electric problems also!! My breaker was making noise that it sounded like something was frying. Thankfully he solved it and no wire problems. He also educated me on the appliances and what not to turn on all together which may make the breaker trip or affect the wires. I'm honestly so thankful they solved it right away & made is so much easier. I highly recommend this company! read more

Submitted an inquiry on the website and never heard anything. It's been a few weeks and nothing.

From Olia.k (Sales) to Pat and his install/integration team, SIMPLY AWESOME! Olia always knew and provided current and accurate feedback to my questions regarding permitting, scheduling, etc. As for Pat and his crew, outstanding install and professionalism throughout. read more

Huge Mahalos to Braddah Patrick and his crew Kaluna, Mycah, Keoni, and Dan. They showed outstanding service and professionalism at my home today. They showed my family and I what truly Malama solar stands for and really appreciate the Aloha. Thank you again Braddah's and proud that i went with Malama Solar. read more

Customer service sucks. Just got solar installed in October and we noticed our electric bill went down a little but not that much. In January we noticed the batteries wasn't charging and a red light blinking, so someone came out and "fixed" it and a day later it wasn't charging again. Then someone came out to fix it again and told us they needed to order a part for the battery system and this was in February. Now it's May and nothing and when I called to follow up because it's bee a couple months, on 05/02/2022 they just took my name and number to follow up and didn't call me back for a whole week. Now I called this morning 05/06/2022 and did the same take my name and number, still nothing. Called before 4pm on 05/06/2022 and was asked to take my name and number and someone will probably call my back on Monday 05/09/2022. Mind you I am paying monthly payments on this solar and battery system that doesn't work and paying my electric bill still. CUSTOMER SERVICE ISN'T HELPFUL AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM DOESN'T EVEN WORK. JUST STICK TO YOUR ELECTRIC COMPANY. read more

Malama Solar is a great company that provides excellent service. My existing PV system was disconnected from the internet when I changed my modem and internet system name. The owner, Chris A,, came out and reconnected the system in less than 10 minutes. I was impressed with his knowledge and professional service and would recommend him to anyone who is interested in having a new system installed or needs help in troubleshooting their existing one. read more

Service was on it that's for sure! We did have some rough patches but their team always made it right and was there through it all. Thank you malama solar and team! read more

We meet Jon initially as we were shopping around forbsolar for our home. He came to meet us at first and gave us his background in the business, basically he had built a great rapport with us without sounding like a sales man. I've been in customer service for a while, and customer relationship is what we stand by, which goes to say Jon passed with flyinh colors. I enjoyed the fact that he hold values similar to ours. He was very transparent with us and trust is very hard to come by. He's been available to us whenever we had questions. Very easy guy to talk too and he's been efficient as well. MALAMA HAS A GREAT GUY ON THEIR TEAM read more

I had Malama Solar install my solar system last fall. They were wonderful. The salesman, John Yeh, was reliable and always available for questions. The process occurred just as he outlined, from permitting through installation. The crew who installed the system were courteous, completed the job quickly and with minimal disruption. One follow up issue occurred which was quickly resolved over the phone. Thank you all. read more

Chris and his team did a great job installing my new PV panels back in December. Definitely would recommend them to anyone interested in PV. Just got my first full month bill and let's just say i love only paying an admin fee. read more

Malama gets 5 stars! We bought a pretty large system and I had LOTS of questions every step of the way. Karson (salesperson) was absolutely incredible to work with. I cannot say enough good things about him. He is super knowledgeable and was patient with me throughout the entire process from quoting to installation. The technicians (Pat, Justin and Kaluna) who came to install were great and very friendly. Project coordinator Ella was always easy to reach and quick to answer any questions. There were some minor hiccups along the way but it's unrealistic to expect perfection. For me, what matters most is how responsive and helpful they were through everything. We put $0 down and had no issues with any step of the financing process. With the current tax credits for both federal and state, this decision was a no-brainer. We pay less than half of what we were paying to HECO. Highly recommend this company for your solar needs and 10/10 recommend working with Karson if possible. read more

Malama sent a technician today. So far all i can say is the technicians are great! good personality and both technicians that came by always reached out to the offices for me when i didnt hear from them. I give technicians a 10 star out of 5 and the sales guys like i mentioned before are great too! The office kind of left me in the dirt, but i dont know they tried helping in the beginning but after not finding any solutions i didnt hear from them. But i know the technicians are super busy too, so maybe they couldnt schedule something right away thats what i hope was the case so others can get better experience. But now my solar system is working as it should shout out to Ashley and Bo very friendly helpful technicians when i told them the office didnt reach back to me they would call them on the spot and try their best to get my solar going. Overall this company is a solid 4 out of 5 for me. Cant compare it to others because i dont have 2 systems but it was a pain free process to get it and even though my solar wasnt working correctly for a few months knowing that malama got 2 good technicians i got to meet im pretty happy in the end. read more

Requested a quote/consultation earlier in the week and Dillon came to meet us on the weekend. We were amazed by how knowledgeable he was! It was an excellent experience and felt that we made the best decision for our family/home. Definitely the company to work with. Mahalo Dillon! --The Saramosings read more