The best cold email for a commercial solar company asks a building owner for one thing: twelve months of electric bills, so you can send back a production and savings estimate for one specific roof. Five complete emails are below, along with the Gmail volume that keeps your domain safe, what to personalize, and the mistakes that get solar emails deleted.
The sender in every example is Tessa Ruiz, who runs Sunridge Commercial Solar in Albuquerque. She installs rooftop systems on warehouses, light-industrial buildings and large retail roofs. The company, the buyers and the addresses are all made up. Swap in your own details and send.
Who you are writing to
Residential solar is mostly sold by phone and door. Commercial solar is sold to a handful of people who each own or run a building: the owner of a warehouse, the chief financial officer of a regional distributor, a facilities director, or a landlord with a flat roof and a tenant who pays the power bill. The roof and the electric bill are public enough to research before you write. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted about 31,100 solar photovoltaic installers in 2025 and projects 37 percent growth through 2035, so more crews are chasing the same set of buildings every year. A generic email will be one of many. A specific one will not.
Start with 40 to 60 buildings in one metro area. Look at each roof on a satellite map before you add it to the list. Skip buildings with heavy shade, small roofs, and anything you can see is about to be replaced unless you plan to pitch that timing on purpose (Email 3).
Email 1: the electric bill ask
Subject: The roof at 4410 Mesa Industrial Way
Hi Daniel,
I'm Tessa with Sunridge Commercial Solar in Albuquerque. I was looking at the roof at 4410 Mesa Industrial Way. It's a large, flat, unshaded roof, which is the kind that tends to pencil out for solar.
If you send me twelve months of electric bills, I'll send back a one-page estimate of what a system on that roof would produce and what it would save, no charge. I won't need to visit until you ask.
Tessa Ruiz, Sunridge Commercial Solar, 810 Copper Ave SE, Albuquerque NM 87102. Reply "stop" and I will not write again.
Why it works: it names the building, says what you noticed about the roof, and asks for something the owner already has in a drawer. The deliverable is one page, which sounds like an hour of your time and not a project. Bills sent by email can be read without a meeting.
Email 2: the landlord whose tenant pays the power
On many leased buildings the tenant pays the electric bill and the landlord owns the roof. The landlord has no bill to send you, so asking for one stalls the conversation. Ask something the landlord can answer.
Subject: Your tenants' power bills at Ridgeview Commons
Hi Marion,
Sunridge Commercial Solar puts systems on leased buildings in a way that works for the owner when the tenant pays the power. In some arrangements the owner earns lease income from the roof, and in others the tenant gets a lower bill and renews. Which one fits depends on your leases.
Do the Ridgeview Commons leases say who pays for electricity? If you can tell me that and the roof's age, I'll tell you whether it is worth a longer conversation. If it isn't, I'll say so.
Tessa Ruiz, 810 Copper Ave SE, Albuquerque NM 87102. If you do not want these, reply "stop."
Why it works: it asks two questions a landlord can answer in two lines, and it admits the answer may be no. The line about lease income is a model, not a promise, so do not put a dollar amount there unless you are quoting a signed agreement of your own.
Email 3: tied to a roof replacement
A roof that is near the end of its life changes the economics, because panels have to come off and go back on if the roof is replaced later. Building permits are often public records at the city or county. A permit for a new roof tells you the owner has already decided to spend money on the exact surface you want.
Subject: Re-roofing the Alder Street warehouse
Hi Ravi,
I saw the city permit for the new roof at 2290 Alder Street. If you have not already planned for solar, the time to do it is before the membrane goes down, not after. Conduit paths and roof attachments are much cheaper to coordinate with a new roof than to retrofit.
Could I send your roofer a short list of what we would need? It costs nothing and keeps the option open.
Tessa Ruiz, Sunridge Commercial Solar, 810 Copper Ave SE, Albuquerque NM 87102. Reply "stop" to be removed.
Why it works: it uses a public record, it explains why the timing matters in one sentence, and the ask is a note to a roofer, not a purchase decision. Send it the same week you see the permit.
Email 4: the follow-up for a long decision
Commercial solar decisions often take months, so a follow-up is part of the plan and not a nudge. Send this after about five working days of silence on Email 1.
Subject: Re: The roof at 4410 Mesa Industrial Way
Daniel, one more try, then I will leave you alone for a while. If a full year of bills is a hassle, send me the last three months and I will estimate from those. If solar is not on the table this year, a one-line reply saying so is all I need.
Tessa
Why it works: it lowers the ask and gives a polite way to say no. People who say "not this year" are worth emailing again in six months.
Email 5: the break-up that leaves the door open
Subject: Closing the file on 4410 Mesa Industrial Way
Daniel, I have written twice and I will not keep filling your inbox. I am closing the file. If the building's electric costs, a new roof or a lease renewal puts solar back on the agenda, reply to this and I will pick it up where we left off.
Tessa Ruiz, Sunridge Commercial Solar, 810 Copper Ave SE, Albuquerque NM 87102
Why it works: a plain statement that you are stopping makes some people answer who ignored the first two. Send it about a week after Email 4 and then leave that address alone for at least three months.
Subject lines that fit solar
Use the street address, the building name or the permit: "The roof at 4410 Mesa Industrial Way," "Re-roofing the Alder Street warehouse," "Your tenants' power bills at Ridgeview Commons." Avoid "Go solar and save," "Zero money down," or any percentage. A subject like that reads as a residential flyer and also invites a claim you would have to back up.
What to leave out about incentives
Federal tax rules for commercial solar have changed more than once in recent years, and the details depend on when construction starts and on the owner's tax position. Keep credit percentages and deadlines out of a first email. If a buyer asks, say you will walk them through the current rules with their tax adviser. A wrong figure in writing is the fastest way to lose a careful CFO.
The sending pace that keeps Gmail happy
Google Workspace allows up to 2,000 messages per user in a rolling 24 hours, according to Google's Workspace Admin help page on Gmail sending limits. Go over and the user gets an error and cannot send for up to 24 hours. That is a ceiling, not a target. For cold outreach to 50 buildings, 15 to 25 emails a day from one inbox is plenty. Count the follow-ups: if every owner gets Emails 1, 4 and 5, then 20 new owners a week is 60 sends a week, or about 12 a day. Warm up a new address first, as described in how to warm up a Gmail account for cold email.
What the law says
The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide for business states that the law makes no exception for business-to-business email. Your From line and subject must be truthful, your message must include a valid physical postal address, and you must honor an opt-out request within 10 business days. The FTC says each separate email in violation can carry penalties of up to $53,088. The examples above carry the address and an opt-out line for that reason; is cold email legal goes through the rest.
Mistakes that kill solar emails
Writing "dear business owner" to a building you never looked at. Quoting savings before you have seen one bill. Attaching a brochure. Pitching a rooftop you can see is shaded. Sending a follow-up that says "just checking in," which adds nothing. And skipping the permit and ownership checks, so you email a tenant about a roof the landlord controls. For wording after the first reply, a cold email follow-up sequence that doesn't nag shows the spacing.
If you would rather not run this by hand every week, Rocketship is an AI salesperson that reads each building owner's website, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up and books the call on your calendar; the plans, starting at $12 a month with a 7-day trial that needs a card, are on the pricing page.