Today, the Solar and Storage Industries Institute (SI2) released model policy that encourages the adoption of automated rooftop solar permitting software. This release comes like the American hits 5 million solar installationsof which more than 97% are on residential roofs, and this total looks set to double over the next six years.
The model policy provides states with a template to encourage local governments to adopt automated rooftop solar permitting software. The software helps governments, homeowners and solar companies reduce the costs of rooftop solar permits and inspections by standardizing, streamlining and automating the permitting process.
“As states struggle to meet their clean energy goals, one of the easiest and most cost-effective steps they can take is to increase the efficiency of their rooftop solar permitting process,” said David Gahl, executive director of SI2. “As the industry installs 1 million roof systems each year, local governments will need to find ways to efficiently handle higher volumes of permit applications, and this model policy provides the tools to do just that.”
The relatively high cost of permitting and inspections for rooftop solar in the US has long been cited as a key factor keeping residential solar costs higher in the US than in other countries. In response, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, together with private and public partners, developed SolarAPP+, an automated rooftop solar permitting software package that is free to local governments. The software has been since then adopted by 183 communities Where it has been used to process 41,000 solar permits, saving more than 33,000 hours of local government staff time.
In addition to encouraging the adoption of automated rooftop solar permitting software, the model legislation includes provisions that prevent local governments from unreasonably limiting residential solar energy systems and residential energy storage systems, the costs of permitting limiting solar to the actual cost of permit processing, and allowing applicants to request variances from the permit ordinance.
The model policy is the second to be released by SI2 under their policy Center for Model Policy Developmentafter the publication of model policy on large-scale solar installations last fall.
News release from the Solar and Storage Industries Institute
