Solar installations are beneficial, safe and a good complement to the buildings that incorporate them.
To make sure all solar installations will meet those standards, we’ve got to follow permitting and inspection processes for every solar project, large or small. All that paperwork adds up. Any solar company has to have one or more operations staff exclusively to handle all the bureaucracy. So what does that mean for solar installation contractors and our customers?
There’s a bureaucracy problem in solar
According to this recent article the red-tape for solar and battery installations in the U.S. is worse than in all other developed countries. It’s making many projects both slower (and thus unfortunately more likely to be canceled due to extended review wait periods.) This dynamic also makes solar projects more costly to complete (by up to a $1/Watt) than they need to be.
Paperwork and delays add hundreds or thousands of dollars per solar project in some places, as personnel from solar companies wrestle with form submissions and play phone tag with everyone from county engineers to utility employees.
We can fix this
For those who’d like to see solar installations as affordable as possible, to encourage the rapid build-out of consumer-sited solar, this is dismaying. Solar advocates are seeking a way to overcome this problem by making solar approval processes more consistent and friendlier. So there’s a plan to reform and standardize solar permitting across the country.
Follow the link above to see a flyer about this proposal that would allow instant permitting, save residents and small businesses nationwide collectively $2.2 billion.
In closing, we need help in order to help customers
So keep an eye out for opportunities to show support for this solar application reform plan, and defend and strengthen it. It stands to reason we can create more solar installation jobs, and marketing and sales jobs if we streamline the process and perform more projects. You can also encourage your local representative(s) to join the Solar Caucus. Find out more here!
Meanwhile, thank your local solar installer for having put in the time and effort to get familiar with how to navigate the current permitting system. Our goal is to keep your solar project as timely as we can while pushing for saving future customers money and hassle from an outdated, cumbersome process.
