- How the Six Domains Fit Together
- Exam Format and Where the Domains Show Up
- Domain Weights at a Glance
- Domain 1: Qualifying Prospects (30.00%)
- Domain 2: Site Analysis (21.70%)
- Domain 3: Conceptual Design (16.70%)
- Domain 4: Performance Analysis (6.70%)
- Domain 5: Costs, Incentives, Savings, and Returns (16.70%)
- Domain 6: Proposal Preparation and Presentation (8.30%)
- Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain
- Eligibility and Fees That Shape Your Timeline
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The exam blueprint has six weighted domains; Qualifying Prospects is largest at 30.00%, followed by Site Analysis at 21.70%.
- Published weights total 100.10% because of rounding, which the issuer acknowledges, so don't treat that as an error.
- The exam is 70 multiple-choice questions in 4 hours: 60 scored, 10 unscored pilot items, and a 75 scaled passing score.
- It is closed-book with an on-screen basic scientific calculator; PVTS is not on the issuer's lists granting NEC-reference access.
How the Six Domains Fit Together
PV Technical Sales Certification (PVTS), issued by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), tests whether a solar sales professional can carry a prospect from first contact to a defensible proposal. The six content domains follow that workflow almost exactly: you find and qualify the customer, evaluate the site, sketch a system, estimate what it will produce, calculate what it costs and returns, and then package and present the result.
That sequence is useful for studying because the domains build on each other. A weak grasp of site analysis undermines your conceptual design, which undermines your performance estimate, which makes your financial figures unreliable. Questions often reward candidates who can see how an early-stage decision ripples forward.
The weights come from the issuer's PV Technical Sales Job Task Analysis, August 2018, version V.08.18. Those percentages are official examination objectives, not chapters in a third-party course. If your training provider organizes material differently, map it back to the six domain names below rather than assuming equal coverage. For a broader preparation plan, see our PVTS study guide for passing on your first attempt.
Exam Format and Where the Domains Show Up
The exam is a computer-based, English-language, multiple-choice test delivered through Meazure Learning, either at a test center or through live remote proctoring. According to the 2025 handbook delivery table, both options are available for initial PVTS examinations and retakes.
- Length: 70 questions in 4 hours.
- Scored items: 60 count toward your result; 10 are unidentified, unscored pilot items, so you cannot tell which ones to ignore.
- Answer options: four per question.
- Passing score: 75 on a scaled 0-99 range. This is not a percent-correct figure, so do not translate it into a number of questions you can miss. Our PVTS passing score explainer covers this in detail.
- Reference rules: closed-book, with an on-screen basic scientific calculator. No personal calculator, notes, or study books. PVTS is excluded from the issuer's current FAQ and handbook lists granting NEC-reference access, so do not assume a codebook will be available.
It is also worth being clear about what the exam is not. It is not a live sales-presentation or practical performance assessment. You will not role-play a customer meeting. Domain 6 asks you to demonstrate knowledge of proposal content and presentation through multiple-choice items, not through a recorded pitch.
If you are weighing difficulty, our guide to how hard the PVTS exam is discusses what makes the format challenging, and you can test yourself against the format on the PVTS practice test site.
Domain Weights at a Glance
| Domain | Name | Published Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qualifying Prospects | 30.00% |
| 2 | Site Analysis | 21.70% |
| 3 | Conceptual Design | 16.70% |
| 4 | Performance Analysis | 6.70% |
| 5 | Costs, Incentives, Savings, and Returns | 16.70% |
| 6 | Proposal Preparation and Presentation | 8.30% |
Two observations stand out. First, Qualifying Prospects and Site Analysis together make up more than half of the blueprint (51.70% combined), which is a notable emphasis for an exam about solar sales. Second, Conceptual Design and Costs, Incentives, Savings, and Returns carry identical published weights of 16.70%, so neither should be treated as a secondary topic.
Domain 1: Qualifying Prospects (30.00%)
This is the heaviest domain, and it reflects a commercial reality: a salesperson who cannot tell a viable prospect from a poor one wastes site visits, design time, and proposal effort. Expect questions about the early conversation and screening decisions that determine whether a project is worth pursuing.
What candidates must understand
How to evaluate a customer's situation, goals, and constraints before committing resources to a detailed proposal.
- Customer motivation and expectations, and whether they match what solar can realistically deliver
- Reading a utility bill to understand consumption patterns and the rate structure behind them
- Preliminary feasibility screening: roof or ground availability, shading concerns, and ownership or authority to approve
- Customer type differences (residential, commercial, and larger-scale) and how the qualifying conversation changes for each
- Recognizing red flags that make a project unlikely to close or to be installable
Because this domain is worth nearly a third of the exam, treat it as the foundation of your preparation rather than a "soft skills" section to skim. The questions are scenario-driven: given a customer description, what is the most appropriate next step or the most important missing piece of information? Read the scenario for what the prospect actually said, not what you assume they meant.
Domain 2: Site Analysis (21.70%)
Site Analysis is the second-largest domain and the most technical of the front-end topics. It covers evaluating the physical location where a system would be built, including the information needed to decide what can go there and how it will perform.
What candidates must understand
How to assess a site's physical, structural, and electrical characteristics well enough to support a credible design.
- Solar access and shading: how obstructions affect production and how they are measured or estimated
- Orientation and tilt of available surfaces, and the tradeoffs between them
- Roof or mounting-surface condition, structure, and remaining service life as they relate to installation
- Available space for arrays and equipment, including setbacks and access considerations
- Existing electrical service: capacity, location of equipment, and interconnection implications
- Local conditions that influence design, such as weather exposure and jurisdictional requirements
The exam uses these topics to test judgment more than measurement technique. A typical question asks which site factor most limits a proposed system or which piece of site information is still needed before design can proceed. Because the exam is closed-book and does not grant NEC reference access for PVTS, focus on understanding the concepts and their sales consequences rather than memorizing code section numbers.
Domain 3: Conceptual Design (16.70%)
Conceptual Design asks you to move from site data to a workable system outline. This is not detailed engineering. It is the level of design a sales professional needs to size a system, select a reasonable configuration, and describe it accurately to a customer.
What candidates must understand
How system components and configurations are matched to a site and to a customer's goals.
- Main system types and when each fits the customer's objectives
- Sizing logic: relating consumption, available area, and customer goals to array capacity
- Core components such as modules, inverters, and mounting systems, and the factors that distinguish one option from another
- String and array layout concepts at the level needed to avoid unrealistic proposals
- Whether and why energy storage might be part of a design
- Basic electrical relationships a salesperson should be able to apply without a reference book
Expect some questions to involve simple calculations, which is where the on-screen scientific calculator matters. Practice working through unit conversions and capacity relationships using a plain calculator interface so the tool feels familiar on exam day. Our PVTS cheat sheet collects the must-know facts in a quick-review format.
Domain 4: Performance Analysis (6.70%)
Performance Analysis is the smallest domain by published weight, but it connects the design to the money. The energy production estimate drives every savings and return calculation in Domain 5, so errors here compound.
What candidates must understand
How the expected energy output of a proposed system is estimated and what factors reduce it.
- Solar resource and how location and season influence production
- Derating and loss factors that separate nameplate capacity from delivered energy
- The effect of shading, orientation, and tilt on output
- Using production-estimation tools and interpreting their results sensibly
- Degradation over time and what it means for long-term expectations
Domain 5: Costs, Incentives, Savings, and Returns (16.70%)
This domain turns a technical design into a financial case. It shares the same published weight as Conceptual Design, and it tends to feel different from the rest of the exam because it leans on arithmetic and on how financial concepts apply to solar.
What candidates must understand
How to estimate system costs, account for financial incentives, and express the customer's savings and returns clearly.
- System cost components and how cost is commonly expressed
- Utility rate structures and how they affect the value of produced energy
- Financial metrics used to evaluate a solar investment, such as payback and return measures
- Financing and ownership approaches and how they change the customer's cash flow
- Applying financial incentives to a cost analysis
- Comparing the lifetime economics of a solar option against continuing to buy utility power
One caution is important here. The 2018 job task analysis includes financial-incentive analysis as a topic, but the outline does not establish that any historic incentive remains available in 2026. Study the method of incorporating incentives into a financial analysis and reading the incentive terms given in a question, rather than memorizing specific program amounts that may have changed. Incentives presented in an exam item should be treated as the facts of that scenario.
Cost questions on the certification itself are a separate matter; for exam fees and renewal pricing, see our PVTS certification cost breakdown.
Domain 6: Proposal Preparation and Presentation (8.30%)
The final domain covers assembling the work into a proposal and communicating it to the customer. Remember that the exam is multiple-choice, so this domain tests your knowledge of what a strong proposal contains and how it should be presented, not your live delivery skills.
What candidates must understand
What belongs in a complete, accurate, and professional proposal, and how to present it responsibly.
- Required and recommended proposal contents, including system description, production estimates, and financial analysis
- Stating assumptions clearly so the customer can understand what the numbers rest on
- Accuracy and honesty in claims about production and savings
- Contract elements and customer-facing terms at a conceptual level
- Presentation approaches that address customer questions and objections
- Professional and ethical conduct in the sales process
Ethics is not just a registration formality. Candidates agree to an ethics agreement during the application process, and sales-conduct themes reappear in how the exam frames proposals and customer communication. Consider honesty about uncertainty, in particular, to be a testable principle.
Sequencing Your Preparation by Domain
You do not need a generic study template, but domain weights do suggest a sensible order. The sequence below follows the exam's own workflow and front-loads the heaviest content.
Domain 1 and Domain 2
- These two domains hold 51.70% of the published weight, so give them the earliest and longest blocks
- Work scenario questions on prospect screening and site factors until your reasoning is consistent
Domain 3 and Domain 4
- Study design and sizing together with production estimation, since they depend on each other
- Practice the calculations on a basic on-screen calculator style interface
Domain 5 and Domain 6
- Build financial fluency, then connect it to what a proposal must present
- Finish with mixed-domain practice so you can switch topics quickly under timed conditions
Adjust this to your background. A seasoned salesperson may spend less time on Domain 1 and more on Domains 2 through 4, while an installer moving into sales may need the opposite. For the training side of preparation, see our overview of PVTS training, and for the bigger picture of what the credential represents, read what PVTS certification is.
Eligibility and Fees That Shape Your Timeline
Your preparation window is partly set by the application process, so it helps to know the mechanics before you commit to a test date. The details below come from the 2025 Certification Handbook update (January 23, 2025, V2).
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Initial cost | $125 application + $375 examination = $500 USD, before training |
| Retake | $275 |
| Recertification | $390, applied for during year three of the three-year validity period |
| Outside U.S. and Canada | Testing vendor adds $75 |
| Eligibility window | One year from application approval; follow the instructions in your candidate notice for scheduling deadlines |
Prerequisites include being 18 or older, signing the ethics agreement, holding OSHA 10 Construction or a government equivalent, and completing 58 advanced PV training hours within five calendar years (at least 40 of them advanced PVTS-JTA hours through an accepted provider, with up to 18 from permitted additional sources). You then qualify through one of two categories based on Sales Credits: Category A with 8 Sales Credits, or Category B with 4 Sales Credits plus an accepted degree, electrician license, or solar contractor license. Under the 2025 rules, a project earns 2 credits for 1-24 kW, 3 for 25-999 kW, and 4 for 1 MW or more. Our PVTS requirements guide walks through documentation, and the PVTS exam dates and scheduling article covers deadlines.
Key Takeaway
Because your exam eligibility lasts one year from application approval, finish your domain-by-domain review before you apply, or at least start with the scheduling rules in your candidate notice. Don't let the weighted outline sit unread until the clock is running.
For a sense of what the certification can mean for your career, see our analyses of whether the PVTS certification is worth it and the roles listed on our PVTS jobs page. The issuer sources we reviewed do not establish a credential-specific pass rate or a certification-only salary premium, so be skeptical of any site that quotes precise figures; our pass rate discussion explains what can and cannot be said.
Frequently Asked Questions
Six weighted domains: Qualifying Prospects, Site Analysis, Conceptual Design, Performance Analysis, Costs, Incentives, Savings, and Returns, and Proposal Preparation and Presentation. They come from the issuer's PV Technical Sales Job Task Analysis, V.08.18.
Qualifying Prospects at 30.00%, followed by Site Analysis at 21.70%. Together they account for 51.70% of the published weighting, so they deserve the most preparation time.
The issuer attributes possible non-100 totals to rounding. The decimals are published as-is, and this guide reproduces them unchanged rather than adjusting them to force a clean 100%.
No. The exam is closed-book with an on-screen basic scientific calculator. No personal calculator, notes, or study books are allowed, and PVTS is not on the issuer's current lists granting NEC-reference access. Approved accommodations are available.
No. It is an English-language multiple-choice exam, not a live sales-presentation or practical performance assessment. Domain 6 tests your knowledge of proposal content and presentation through written questions.
To start applying the six domains to realistic questions, try the timed practice questions at PVTS Exam Prep, and revisit the complete domains guide as you work through each content area.