How Renewable Energy Installers Can Win Solar, EV Charging and Heat Pump Jobs Without Lead-Gen Fees

If you run a renewables business, you already know the script: you pay £40–£90 for a 'qualified lead' that's been sold to four other installers, you race to phone them first, and you still lose half the jobs on price because everyone is undercutting everyone. The lead-gen tax on solar PV, EV charging and heat pump work has quietly become one of the biggest line items on a small installer's P&L — and it's getting worse as more aggregators move in.

The hidden cost of being a renewables installer in 2025

Demand has never been higher. Domestic solar installs in the UK are climbing again on the back of rising electricity prices, the EV charge point market is booming as company car fleets electrify, and the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is finally pulling heat pump enquiries out of the early-adopter ghetto. But the path between a homeowner (or facilities manager, or fleet operator) and an MCS-certified installer has been colonised by middlemen.

A typical lead-gen platform will:

• Charge £30–£90 per shared lead, sold to three to five installers
• Take a percentage on top if the job converts (sometimes 5–10%)
• Lock you into monthly retainers regardless of lead quality
• Hide the buyer's contact details until you've paid
• Offer no refund when the 'homeowner' turns out to be a tyre-kicker or a tenant with no decision-making power

Multiply that by a year of trying to keep two install teams busy, and you're easily looking at £15,000–£40,000 a year just on lead acquisition — before you've torqued a single roof-bracket.

Why direct buyer requests change the maths

The alternative is simple in theory and frustrating in practice: get the buyer to come to you directly with a real brief. That's exactly the model ZeozGig was built around. A homeowner, landlord, SME or facilities team posts a request describing what they want — say, '10kW solar PV plus 10kWh battery, south-facing pitched roof, EPC C, Bristol BS7' — for a flat £1. Installers respond with a quote. If the buyer wants to take a conversation further, they pay a one-off £5 to open a direct channel with the installer of their choice.

No commission. No revenue share. No drip-fed monthly subscription. And crucially: if a buyer posts a request and gets zero responses, the £1 fee is refunded automatically, so they're not punished for trying.

What that looks like for a solar installer

Imagine you're a four-van solar firm in the South West. Instead of buying 40 shared leads at £60 each (£2,400) to win maybe four jobs, you:

1. List your installation service in the marketplace for £1 — a permanent shop window.
2. Watch the live RFQ feed for domestic and light-commercial solar requests in your service area.
3. Quote on the ones that genuinely fit your capacity and certifications.
4. Pay £5 only when you and the buyer both want to open a direct chat, voice or video call.

Even if you opened ten direct connections in a month, you'd spend £50. Win one 10kW install at £12k and the customer-acquisition cost barely registers.

Where this works hardest: the three growth areas

Solar PV and battery storage

Buyers increasingly know what they want — panel wattage, inverter brand, battery capacity, whether they care about MCS or just want the cheapest compliant install. An RFQ format lets them spell that out once and get like-for-like quotes, instead of fielding five identical phone calls from installers who all bought the same lead.

EV charging — domestic and commercial

This is where the lead-gen model is weakest. A landlord with eight flats wanting shared chargers, a logistics firm needing twelve 22kW posts at a depot, a hotel adding destination charging — none of those fit the 'one homeowner, one driveway' template that the big aggregators optimise for. Posting a detailed RFQ and inviting OZEV-authorised installers to respond directly is a much better match for the work.

Heat pumps and low-temperature heating

Heat pump jobs require a survey, a heat loss calculation and trust. Buyers don't want to be cold-called by five firms; they want to read responses, look at installer profiles, then pick one or two to talk to properly. The £5 direct-connect fee is a soft filter that screens out the unserious on both sides.

Practical tips for installers using a direct-RFQ marketplace

• Be specific in your listing. 'MCS-certified solar PV and battery installer covering Somerset and Bristol, 10+ years, average install 2 days' beats 'renewable energy solutions provider'.
• Respond fast but not first. A thoughtful quote 90 minutes later beats a copy-paste reply at the four-minute mark.
• Include indicative pricing bands. Buyers reward installers who don't make them chase numbers.
• Use voice or video before site visits. At £0.50 a voice call or £1 for video, you can qualify a job in 15 minutes instead of driving 40 miles to discover the roof is asbestos.
• Ask the buyer what else they need. Solar leads often hide an EV charger upgrade or a hot water cylinder swap — adjacent revenue at zero extra acquisition cost.

Keep more of what you earn

The renewables transition is one of the genuine growth stories of the decade. There's no reason installers doing the actual work — climbing the scaffold, pulling the cable, commissioning the system — should hand 8–15% of every job to a platform that just forwarded an email.

If you install solar, EV chargers or heat pumps, list your service on ZeozGig for £1 and start responding to live buyer requests today. If you're a homeowner, landlord or business looking for quotes, post your RFQ for £1 — and if nobody replies, you get your pound back. Simple fees, direct conversations, and 100% of the deal stays between the two parties doing it.