THE SHORT ANSWER
Modelled solar panel job values in France run EUR 6,850 to EUR 13,700 in 2026, midpoint EUR 10,300. That midpoint carries 18 to 28 percent gross margin, which is EUR 1,850 to EUR 2,900. Winning the customer takes 3 to 5 exclusive leads at EUR 100 to EUR 150 each, so acquisition costs EUR 250 to EUR 750 and absorbs 9.5 to 41.3 percent of the margin on a single project.
Ask five solar panel installers in France what an average job is worth and you will get five sincere, different answers. What follows is a modelled 2026 band for solar panel work in France, plus the two calculations that turn a band into a decision: gross margin on the midpoint, and the cost of putting a signed customer in front of it.
Treat the width of the band as information rather than vagueness. The variables are system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity, and on top of them sits the market itself: in France, the Paris region behaves like a separate, more expensive market from the rest of the country, so a national average hides a factor of two.
The numbers, at a glance
Typical project value: EUR 6,850 to EUR 13,700 for a standard solar panel job in France, midpoint around EUR 10,300
Gross margin: 18 to 28 percent of contract value, which is EUR 1,850 to EUR 2,900 on the midpoint job
Cost to win one customer: EUR 250 to EUR 750 in lead spend, assuming 3 to 5 exclusive leads per signed job at EUR 100 to EUR 150 each
Acquisition as a share of margin: 9.5 to 41.3 percent of the gross margin on a single job, before any repeat or referral value
What a typical solar panel project is worth in France
The solar panel band above describes a complete, permitted, installed project for a private homeowner. It excludes VAT, excludes anything a landlord or housing association would tender competitively, and excludes emergency call-out work, which prices on a different logic entirely.
What separates the bottom of the band from the top is system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity. France is a market of roughly 68 million people spread over a large surface area, and the number of installers chasing that population is what decides how firmly you can quote the upper half.
Bottom of the band, around EUR 6,850. A straightforward job on an accessible property with standard specification and nothing unexpected behind the wall.
Midpoint, around EUR 10,300. The job most quotes are written for, with one or two upgrades the customer asked for after the first visit.
Top of the band, around EUR 13,700. Larger scope, difficult access, or a household that chose the premium option in every category.
Ile-de-France prices like a separate country
Paris and the inner suburbs run 20 to 30 percent above the French national figure on almost every trade, for reasons that are practical rather than mysterious: parking permits, restricted delivery windows, hoists instead of ladders, apartment access and a labour pool that can charge accordingly. Outside the region, Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine sit below the national average. One national price list therefore either loses work in Toulouse or works for nothing in the 15th arrondissement. Quote by department, and inside the peripherique price the logistics as their own line.
Dividing job value by what a customer costs
The whole calculation in one line: EUR 100 to EUR 150 per exclusive lead, 3 to 5 leads per signed customer, EUR 250 to EUR 750 to win that customer, against EUR 1,850 to EUR 2,900 of gross margin on the midpoint job. Acquisition is therefore 9.5 to 41.3 percent of the margin from one project.
Compare that against the alternatives rather than against zero. A shared lead at half the price, reaching four solar panel installers at once, typically needs two to three times as many to produce a sale, which lands in the same place or worse and costs three times the sales effort. The cheapest sticker price is rarely the cheapest customer.
What is actually left after materials and labour
Strip materials and installation labour out of a solar panel contract in France and 18 to 28 percent remains. On the EUR 10,300 midpoint that is EUR 1,850 to EUR 2,900, and it is the only figure on this page with any bearing on whether a marketing budget is affordable.
Two businesses with identical turnover can therefore have completely different capacity to buy work. Before comparing your acquisition spend with anyone else's, convert it into a percentage of gross margin. Ten percent is conservative, 20 percent is normal, and above 30 percent you are financing growth out of next year's profit, which is a legitimate decision but should be a decision rather than an accident.
TVA at 5.5 percent, and the trap of quoting the wrong rate
France applies a reduced VAT rate of 5.5 percent to qualifying energy-improvement work in dwellings completed more than two years ago, 10 percent to other renovation work and 20 percent as standard. The customer sees a materially different total depending on which applies, and the contractor is responsible for the classification and for holding the client attestation. Mixed jobs are where this goes wrong: an insulation measure at 5.5 percent alongside decorative work at 10 percent has to be split on the invoice rather than averaged across it.
Deposits, stage payments and the cash a job this size ties up
A solar panel contract at EUR 10,300 does not arrive as cash on completion. Materials are ordered weeks ahead, and on a job of this size that is commonly 40 to 55 percent of the contract value leaving your account before an invoice is raised.
A deposit of around 30 percent, which is EUR 3,100 here, plus a stage payment when materials are delivered, keeps the job close to cash neutral. Contractors who take a token deposit and invoice on completion are lending roughly EUR 4,650 per job at their own risk, and at eight or ten jobs running concurrently that is the entire working capital of the business sitting in other people's houses.
How system size sets the number before anything else
Solar is quoted per watt-peak, not per job. A 4 kWp array and a 9 kWp array on the same house use the same scaffold, the same survey and largely the same day of labour, so the larger one is far cheaper per watt even though the contract is roughly double. Price per kWp typically falls from around EUR 1,300 on a small domestic system to under EUR 900 once you pass 8 kWp. If your average contract is stuck at the bottom of the band, the usual cause is quoting the array the homeowner asked for rather than the array the roof will carry and the consumption justifies.
Batteries move average job value more than any other option
Storage is the single biggest lever on solar contract value. A 5 to 10 kWh domestic battery adds roughly EUR 3,500 to EUR 7,000 to a job that started near EUR 8,000, fitted by the same crew on the same visit, so almost none of the mobilisation cost repeats. Attach rates vary enormously between installers selling identical hardware, from under 15 percent to more than half, and the difference is nearly always whether the battery appears as a priced line on the first quote or as something to discuss later. Quote it as a line the customer removes, not one they have to request.
Use your median job, not your average job
The mean is the wrong statistic for a contractor. One solar panel project at the top of the band drags the average above anything you will quote next week, and a marketing budget built on it overspends quietly for months.
Take the median of your last twenty signed contracts instead. In a band of EUR 6,850 to EUR 13,700 the mean typically sits 8 to 15 percent above the median, because the distribution has a long right tail and no left one: there is a floor below which the job is not worth doing, and no ceiling above it. Budget against the median and let the large jobs be upside rather than assumption.
Turning this benchmark into your own figure
Start from invoices, not quotes: a median of twenty signed solar panel contracts is worth more than any published average, including this one.
Take materials and installation labour out of each contract so you are working with margin rather than turnover.
Divide the number of enquiries you received by the number of customers you signed. That ratio, not the lead price, is what most contractors get wrong.
Price a signed customer by multiplying that ratio by the quoted lead price, then express it as a share of your median margin.
Re-run all five twice a year. Job values drift, conversion drifts faster, and a benchmark from eighteen months ago is a guess.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote. The band is an industry base range for solar panel multiplied by a French construction cost index of 0.98, where the Benelux baseline is 1.00. Construction cost and advertising cost are modelled separately on purpose: cheap clicks and cheap labour do not reliably occur in the same market.
How Flock Leads prices this
If the arithmetic works at your conversion rate, this is what buying that volume costs outright, with no retainer sitting on top of it:
Starter - 10 leads for EUR 750, which is EUR 75 per lead
Growth - 25 leads for EUR 1,750, which is EUR 70 per lead
Scale - 45 leads for EUR 2,925, which is EUR 65 per lead
Pro - 70 leads for EUR 4,340, which is EUR 62 per lead
Max - 90 leads for EUR 5,400, which is EUR 60 per lead
No retainer, no contract term, and no lead sent to a second business. Unused volume rolls over under the Flock Lead Promise.
Want leads like this in your pipeline?
Flock runs the campaigns, screens the enquiries and hands you only the ones that match your service area, job size and capacity. You pay per lead, not per month.
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Related answers
Frequently asked questions
How much does a solar panel project cost in France?
Between EUR 6,850 to EUR 13,700 for a private household in 2026, midpoint around EUR 10,300, excluding VAT and excluding competitively tendered work. Where a specific job lands depends on system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity.
Is job value in France rising or falling in 2026?
Material prices have largely stabilised after the volatility of the early decade, while installation labour remains the tighter constraint across most of Western Europe. The practical effect is that job values drift upward slowly and the labour component grows as a share of each quote. Re-check your own median twice a year rather than trusting a published figure.
What gross margin should I expect on solar panel work?
18 to 28 percent of contract value is the working band, which is EUR 1,850 to EUR 2,900 on the EUR 10,300 midpoint job. Below 18 percent you are either buying materials badly or quoting labour at a rate that does not cover a wet week.
How much should I spend on winning one customer?
Set it as a share of gross margin rather than as an absolute. Ten to 20 percent of margin is normal for an established business, and 30 percent is a deliberate growth position that pays back on the second and third job. Here 20 percent of margin would be about EUR 350 per signed customer.
Does a higher job value make lead buying easier?
Usually, yes, because the lead price is close to fixed while the margin scales with the contract. At the EUR 10,300 midpoint, acquisition is 9.5 to 41.3 percent of gross margin. Raise the average job by a fifth and that percentage falls by roughly the same proportion without a single change to what you pay per lead.
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