So... for anyone who cares to read this, I'll share an experience I had at the end of last year.
My friend decided to get a solar system. She contacted a popular company that does these in order to do these installations. Said company told her that her roof was not suitable due to pitch and orientation. She would have to supplement with a carport or have one big enough to have it installed. No big deal so she decided on a carport for all the panels.
It's just a carport. She checked city permit and limitation requirements. Nothing prevented her to install this carport with the help of a carpenter. When it came time to figure out what the load of the panels would be on the structure, said Solar company could not tell her. They gave her a number needed for the foundation baring, which I don't remember, but calculated to be the equivalent of having a car on the roof. That made no sense. So, I told her to ask to speak to their engineer because that made no sense. So the rep starts to tell her now that she needs the carport designed and signed by a structural engineer. Well... that's money she doesn't need to spend if she knows the load or if said solar company would approve the structure. She eventual spoke with an engineer. Who would not go on record about the load they needed and the rep would take over telling her she needs a structural engineer.
That seemed a bit odd. So I looked it up. Said Solar company does not have a civil or structural engineer on staff. The engineer my friend spoke with went to my university for undergrad and we are one year apart. So I looked him up in alumni records. He is a mechanical engineer, in MA not CA, and no PE. I then started looking into the company and there are no PE on record that I could find.
In any event, I told my friend to ask the Solar company to at least give her the load that will need to be supported. Heck... I can do some calcs or find her a structural PE to make sure it's suitable and up to code for CA and stamp it. The rep came back with a "Dear Blahblah, I would recommend that you consult other local solar companies for your solar installation, because they might have less stringent installation guidelines versus XYZ. Another company might be able to install a solar system on the structure as-is. Thank you for your time and consideration. I apologize that XYZis not able to help you meet your solar goals."
Basically, when you speak with someone from these Solar companies, you're dealing with a titled "Energy Consultant" with no engineering background. Then, the company wants to pass on liability of building the supporting structure to the customer and/or have the customer have the roof certified to receive the system. They don't have a civil engineer on staff and most often only has a MechE that does the calculations for the power needed. In addition, they often take the customer's tax credit through the deal that they setup and in the end rip all the benefits. If people were a bit smarter and saved for what they needed instead of borrowing, they could pay for their own system with battery backup rather than paying back into the grid for a cost reduction. A friend of ours has a theory that all of these companies are basically building a network on the back of consumers to sell back to the power grid. You might be getting a bit lower rate but remember that you're also being exploited.
@sadi... I know this will come across as judgmental but really I don't mean to be. But... you need to step away from cutting corners. Engineers get sued way to often to just stamp things without a second thought. You'll have a hard time finding one. My advice, is that you go to the website of the states boards where you work. If you google "NJ PE Lookup" you'll likely find the right site. Do a general search by city/county etc... to narrow it down. You'll then get a list and under "type" you'll see "C" for Civil, "E" for Electrical etc... Find the ones with the type that you need who doesn't have an expired, delinquent license or is not dead. Then email/mail/call them depending on the contact info they have on there. Most of them have their full name and if there's no address, use LinkedIn to find a good number you can contact through LinkedIn or just google them to see where they work. Once you have a number of them, contact them to ask for a partnership and negotiate a rate with them. I know a lot of people who do jobs on the side. If they do the calculations or review someone else's fully, they won't mind putting their stamp on it. Alternatively, you can straight up do a LinkedIn search for PEs in a certain field and ask them to partner. Another option is to find out who your competitors use and approach them for a referral. They might volunteer themselves if they can legally do it or send you to someone else. You might find out where they work and approach one of their co-workers. I've used that tactic before. You just need the power of the World Wide Web and a few worded emails/phone calls. Otherwise, I really don't know if this forum is the best way for you to find a referral but I could be wrong. Someone might have the confidence to venture that route. Personally, I wouldn't put my name on anything if I don't have an agreement with someone or a company. Any engineer thinking beyond the initial income will turn you down because they'd be worried that, once they stamp these calcs, you'll just replicate them for other projects/customers without telling them. Sure, they "lose" money but if anything goes wrong, they'll end up being the ones getting sued.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck!