San Francisco Chronicle: California looks to ease permitting process for rooftop solar panels
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By J.D. Morris
San Francisco Chronicle – April 29, 2021
California wants to make it easier for homeowners to get solar panels and batteries installed as the state searches for new ways to accelerate its transition to clean energy.
The goal is simple: dramatically reduce the time it takes for contractors to receive standard permits from local governments.
To accomplish that, local agencies are starting to use a federally funded web application that creates an automated solar permitting process for cities and counties. Called SolarApp+, the technology allows contractors to seek and receive permits for typical rooftop solar installations instantaneously, if their application fulfills all requirements, instead of waiting potentially weeks to receive approvals.
The app is being deployed to about 500 government agencies in California, including Pleasant Hill, and 1,000 agencies in other states, officials announced Thursday. Those agencies hope to mirror the success already seen in places such as San Jose, which saw a sixfold increase in residential solar panel approvals after implementing its own speedy online permit program several years ago.
Jeff Cook, the SolarApp+ project lead at the federal government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory where the app was developed, said some jurisdictions in the country take up to a month and a half to process standard rooftop solar permits. That costs contractors valuable time and causes frustrating delays for homeowners.
“You’ve lost six weeks of potential electricity bill savings just because you haven’t been able to get that permit reviewed,” Cook said. “And it’s not because the jurisdiction is sitting on them and not revising the permits — there are huge backlogs. One of the key goals of the app is around helping jurisdictions that are overwhelmed.”
“To meet our climate goals, a dramatic expansion of solar and energy storage is critical,” Wiener said. “The permitting process often takes way too long and is too expensive. Automated, app-based permitting is the future, and we should bring the future to California now.”
SolarApp+ was developed with a $920,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, along with help from companies such as Tesla and Sunrun.
Much of the app’s expansion is happening with help from the San Ramon firm Accela, which provides software to local governments. Agencies that contract with Accela can essentially use SolarApp+ as a free add-on.
“We can significantly reduce the cost, because we don’t have all the cost of the human aspect of reviewing the plans,” said Amber D’Ottavio, Accela’s vice president of product management. “Now those resources can be focused on more important or more complex plans.”
About 10% of Californians have solar panels attached to their homes, a number that would need to triple over the next decade to keep the state on track to meeting its climate goals, according to the California Solar and Storage Association, an industry group that was involved in developing SolarApp+.
Bringing the app to cities and counties across the state, a likely effect of SB617, would do more than just accelerate the approvals process, supporters say.
“SolarApp+ can certainly increase the speed with which a permit is approved, but even in locations where it’s already moving pretty quickly, the other benefit of the app is error-proofing,” said Igor Tregub, senior policy adviser with the solar and storage association. “It actually has the potential to improve the accuracy of the approvals.”
Within the large counties subject to SB617’s requirements, cities and unincorporated areas with more than 50,000 residents would have until Sept. 30, 2022, to comply. Smaller areas would have to comply by the same date in 2023.