Hardwire the gate if you possibly can. Solar looks convenient, but the batteries, charge controllers, and inverters fail constantly and cost real money to replace. We automate gates on LiftMaster, put them on your phone, and service what is already on your driveway.
The solar truth
A solar gate is a metal can with a large battery and its charging components, a charge controller or an inverter, living outside in Texas weather. The panel keeps the battery topped up, but the components around it fail more than anything else we touch, and replacement batteries are not cheap. If there is any way to get dedicated power to the gate, take it.
What a hardwired setup gets you
Dedicated electrical, a LiftMaster operator, and a network connection that puts the gate on your phone: open it, close it, check whether the teenager left it open, even add an intercom at the keypad. Relatively inexpensive for what it adds, and it ties into the same app as the rest of the house.
What we are, and what we are not
We are integrators. We automate the gate, connect it, set the open and close limits, and service the controller that is already there. Building the gate itself and the heavy mechanical work is a gate company's trade, and we will say so rather than pretend otherwise.
Questions we get
Usually, yes. Connecting and controlling an existing operator is exactly the kind of work we do.
When there is genuinely no power run available, it works, and it solves real problems. Just budget for batteries, because they are a consumable, not a purchase.
Most modern operators support schedules, and we check what yours can do when we connect it.