$7,000 for Rooftop Solar Permitting!? Time to Automate It

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According to an analysis from Environment America and Frontier Group, permitting requirements can add a whopping $7,000 to the cost of a rooftop solar power system. $7,000?! That’s a crazy amount of extra money to add onto a solar power system just to get a permit.

The good news in New York is that lawmakers are pushing to do away with complicated, costly permitting requirements and actually automate the permitting process in a streamlined way. Those of you who have been reading CleanTechnica for several years probably know how they plan to do that — using SolarAPP+. We’ve written about it several times, including when I interviewed someone behind the early implementation.

As one might expect, SolarAPP+ makes solar (and battery energy storage) permitting quicker, cleaner, and easier through an app-based system. “SolarAPP+ (Automated Permit Processing) is making clean energy more affordable through the automation of residential solar and energy storage permitting,” the company currently summarizes it. “Developed by the government with the solar industry, this online platform delivers compliant and quick plan review for local governments and contractors.” There are now more than 350 jurisdictions using the app, more than 150,000 permits have been issued through it, and it is estimated to have saved 150,000+ staff hours.

Notably, this is not another get-rich-quick billionaire-wannabe scheme to make a founder and some venture capitalists a fortune. SolarAPP+ is managed by a nonprofit organization, SolarAPP Foundation, and its aim is simply saving people money and supporting the solar industry. As noted in the quote above, it was developed by the US government. It’s long been known that permitting is a disaster — or at least a major challenge — in the US for solar power, so people in service to the country tried to do something about it. The solution has been very useful, and now it may get deployed in New York on a large scale.

In particular, the New York legislation would make it a requirement for any municipalities with more than 5,000 residents to automate their solar permitting process. They would have until June 30, 2027, to implement a platform for this. Though, SolarAPP+ is already sitting right there easy to use.

The small city of Kingston, NY — which I actually happen to have some personal history with, funny enough — is on the verge of becoming the first jurisdiction in New York to start using SolarAPP+.

Solar power costs much more in the US than in comparable economies such as Australia and some European countries, and part of that is arcane, irrelevant, and overly complex permitting processes. A few days ago, I wrote about the CEO of a large solar power manufacturer highlighting this point as a key thing that needs to be improved in the US. It has become a bigger problem on the large-scale solar side of the industry under the Trump administration due to their unhealthy and expensive preference for fossil fuels, but it’s a problem in the small-scale solar industry due to local and state regulations across the country.

“Slow and complex permitting processes remain one of the largest non-hardware barriers to residential solar adoption. While module prices and other hardware costs have fallen over time, US residential solar costs remain elevated compared with peer markets. As hardware has come to account for a smaller share of total installed costs, policymakers and installers have increasingly focused on soft costs such as permitting, interconnection, customer acquisition, financing, and labor, making these barriers central to the cost discussion,” MaryElizabeth Q. Mooney of pv-magazine writes. “Permitting and other bureaucratic hurdles can often add significant amounts to the total cost of a typical residential rooftop solar system, according to a report from Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group. The study found that navigating complex permitting and inspection processes can add an estimated $6,000 to $7,000 to the cost of a typical residential solar system. The report also found that these barriers can delay projects and discourage customers from completing installations.”

Separately, previous research from NREL found that a significant 22% of projects that reached the point of submitting an application for permit, interconnection, or incentive — so, serious projects — never reached installation. That seems like far too high a percentage, and the counterproductive permitting processes in many places is the reason for that.

“Kingston is setting the pace for New York by embracing automated permitting for residential solar and showing that cutting red tape is one of the most powerful ways to deliver affordable, reliable energy to homeowners,” said Jonathan Cohen, policy director for the New York Solar Energy Industries Association. “By eliminating delays and reducing unnecessary costs, automated approvals make it easier for families to access the long-term savings that solar provides, while also streamlining workloads for local governments and improving efficiency for municipal staff.”

Indeed. It’s the smart way to go. Hopefully New York passes the legislation quickly and other states follow suit and keep growing SolarAPP+ adoption.