From design to reality

A great design on screen still has to become a permitted, inspected, switched-on system. This last module is the bridge from your model to the real roof — and an honest map of where you, and where licensed professionals, belong.

The path to “on”

1. Local permits — a building & electrical permit from your city/county (the AHJ). Rules and fees vary; see worked examples like Houston or Dallas.
2. HOA approval if applicable — Texas’s Solar Rights Act blocks outright bans, but submit plans for written approval first.
3. Utility interconnection — apply to connect your distributed generation; the utility sets a bi-directional meter. Your utility’s guide has the specifics.
4. Inspection → Permission to Operate (PTO) — the city inspects, the utility commissions the meter, and only after PTO can you legally energize.

What your design gives you here

The work you did pays off in this stage: your layout, panel/inverter specs, string configuration, and one-line are most of what permit and interconnection applications ask for. You can fill them confidently, or hand a clear, correct spec to your installer instead of taking their word for everything.

Where the pros take over (the honest part)

This course taught you to design and model a system and evaluate it like an expert. It does not qualify you to do the physical electrical work. Mounting, DC wiring, MPPT and battery connection, and the service-panel tie-in are licensed-electrician work under the NEC — for safety, code, and to pass inspection. Even committed DIYers typically pull permits as the owner and bring in a licensed electrician for the interconnection.

You finished System Design 🎓

You can now read a spec sheet, lay out orientations, size strings to the MPPT window, allocate MPPTs, set a sane DC/AC ratio, design a battery bank, and read a simulation — then carry it into the real-world process. That’s genuinely more than many salespeople know. Go design your own system.