About the author
Taylor Crouse
Founder, Helios Energy Global — the reviewer of record on every system design, and accountable for every guide published on this site.
Taylor founded Helios Energy Global in 2018 in Santa Monica with a simple position: solar quotes in Southern California should read like engineering documents, not sales scripts. A mechanical engineer by training, he has overseen 1,000+ installations — more than 8 megawatts of residential solar — across 94+ SoCal cities, on every roof type from beach-city composition shingle to hillside clay tile — and still personally signs off on every design before equipment is ordered. Helios holds CSLB C-10 Electrical license #982201 and is a Tesla Certified Installer.
What we publish follows a process built for accuracy at volume. Guides are researched with AI tools, checked automatically against Helios's current price sheet and dated primary sources before they publish, and corrected when the facts change. Every guide, answer page, and data table on this site — including the SoCal Solar Index — carries Taylor's byline because he is accountable for its accuracy: the utility rules by city, the honest post-2025 incentive picture, and price ranges that match what quotes actually say. If something on this site is out of date, tell us and it gets fixed.
Mechanical engineer
Design-first approach: load calcs, mounting detail, and watertight flashing over sales volume.
1,000+ SoCal installs
Across 94+ cities and five utility territories — SCE, LADWP, PWP, RPU, and APU.
Owner-reviewed designs
Taylor signs off on every system design before equipment is ordered. Guides are checked automatically against the current price sheet and dated sources before they publish.