Looking for strategies to not feel/get scammed with solar.

So I guess we are in the market for new solar panels. Some of the ones we have work, some don’t (I’ll get to that later.) We also need to replace our 23 year old roof.

When we got our old panels done, we used Sunentric which was a well established company back then. They dissolved, were actually ran by a company in Oregon, taken over by a company in the midwest, and then disappeared. Our panels, which are still under warranty, were by Suniva and made in the good ol USA. Sounds great right? Well they declared bankruptcy and those warranties are bunk from the research I have done.

There doesn’t seem to be a path to get our current system back up and running, which really sucks.

Getting back into this solar thing is making me anxious. We did research and due diligence back then and here we are.

I’ve read a few things recently about people getting solar in Hawaii. One direction is doing the roof and solar at the same time and the roofing company having consultants and hiring sub contractors to install it. Would the roofing company take on the role of the solar company in a way. At there’s a better chance that the roofing company isn’t going to disappear. Am I understanding that correctly? Something else I read is people buying their equipment directly from a supplier and having a contractor install it. Are either of these ways strategic for any reason?

Is there another way? I just don’t want to feel burned like I do now.