FlowMarket
Where to find solar equipment: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the installation — roof or ground, system size, inverter topology, mounting situation, grid connection and certification requirements — and the agent matches you with suppliers of modules, inverters, mounting systems and balance of system, then requests quotes, datasheets and lead times so you can compare them in one place.
Sourcing solar equipment
Solar hardware has become a commodity in price and anything but a commodity in consequence. Modules from very different manufacturers can look identical on a datasheet and differ enormously in whether the warranty behind them will still exist in year twenty-five, which is the part of the purchase that cannot be inspected on delivery.
The enquiry that gets a serious answer describes the site rather than the shopping list: the roof type and its age, what the structure can carry, the available area and orientation, shading, the grid connection you have or expect, and the timeline. From that a supplier can propose a system, and you can compare proposals rather than component prices.
The grid connection is the real gate
Most commercial solar projects are limited not by roof space or budget but by what the network operator will allow you to export. Connection studies, queue positions and curtailment conditions decide the size and the economics, and they run on their own timescale regardless of how quickly the hardware can be delivered.
So establish the connection position before specifying equipment, and tell suppliers what it is. A system designed for export behaves differently from one designed to offset your own consumption — different sizing, different inverter choices, often a different business case — and a supplier who knows which one you are building will not quote you the wrong system.
The roof decides more than the modules do
Structural capacity, roof age, membrane type and penetration policy shape the mounting system, and the mounting system shapes the installation cost. A twenty-year-old roof under a twenty-five-year array is a problem being deferred rather than solved, and it is much cheaper to discover that before the panels are on it.
Ballasted, penetrating and clamped systems each suit different roofs, and ballast adds load precisely where capacity may be short. Ask for a structural assessment and a wind and snow load calculation for your location and roof zone, not a generic layout — edge and corner zones carry far higher uplift than the middle of the roof, which is where lightweight systems fail first.
Inverters: topology before brand
- String inverters — the commercial default, simple to replace, with several units meaning a fault costs part of the output rather than all of it.
- Central inverters — efficient at large scale with fewer devices to maintain, at the cost of concentrated failure risk.
- Module-level electronics — optimisers or micro-inverters, useful under real shading or complex roofs, adding components on the roof.
- DC to AC ratio — oversizing the array against the inverter raises yield in poor light and clips peaks; the right ratio depends on your latitude and load.
- Grid code compliance — the inverter must hold the certification your network operator requires, and that list is national and changes.
Warranties are only worth the company behind them
A thirty-year performance warranty is a promise from a manufacturer that has to exist in thirty years to honour it. The solar industry has a long history of companies disappearing and warranties disappearing with them, so ask about the manufacturer's financial position, how long the specific product line has been in production, and whether third-party warranty insurance is offered.
Read what the warranty actually covers as well. Product warranty and performance warranty are separate, degradation is guaranteed as a curve with an annual rate, and labour, shipping and cranes for a replacement module are usually excluded. The difference between 0.25% and 0.5% annual degradation compounds into a large number over the system's life, and it is a line on the datasheet most buyers skip.
Certification, fire and insurance
Ask for the module and inverter certifications, and confirm they cover the model actually being shipped rather than a related one. IEC certification, CE marking and, for the inverter, national grid code approval are the minimum; for roofs, fire classification of the system as installed can matter to your insurer more than to the regulator.
It is worth involving your insurer early rather than at handover. Some will require specific DC isolation, arc fault detection, fire-rated cable routing or module spacing, and retrofitting those requirements is far more expensive than designing for them. A supplier who has dealt with commercial insurers before will raise this without prompting.
How the AI agent matches suppliers
The agent reads your requirement rather than your keywords. It searches the FlowMarket network and connected industrial directories together, scores every candidate on how well it answers what you described — module and inverter technology, mounting system for your roof type, system size, certification and grid code, warranty backing, delivery window and region — and drops anything that does not clear the bar. Each match comes back with a plain-language reason, so a module manufacturer, a mounting specialist and a distributor never look the same.