How to make solar power even easier for consumers

California doubled its rooftop solar power installations last year and leads the nation as a solar power giant. These are heady times for the residential solar industry, which has spurred job growth and attracted billions of investment dollars in the state.

The one dark cloud on the horizon: a lack of uniform permitting guidelines wastes time and costs homeowners more money. A new California law, AB 2188, requires 500 local governments throughout the state to improve their permitting procedures for rooftop solar by Sept. 30 of next year.

And the Sierra Club is working to make sure that happens.

Solar power, by the numbers

While California is a model for solar energy, clean energy accounts for less than 5% of national capacity. The U.S. needs to redouble its efforts to make distributed generation the default choice wherever the sun shines.

“When utility-scale solar projects are added in, California’s total solar power picture well-exceeds 4,000 MW today - nearly twice as much installed capacity as exists at California’s last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon,” according to a Dec. 2013 Solar Industry newsletter.

Manufacturing costs have decreased dramatically but related “soft” or collateral costs have not. Permitting can be a major part of this soft cost burden. It’s estimated that in municipalities without efficient solar permitting, wait times and fees can cost homeowners and businesses an extra $2,000.

The process needs to change to include:

--easy-to-find requirements online; 
--online application processing;
--a reasonable period of approval – a day or so, rather than several weeks;
--lower permitting fees; 
--single inspections by city officials, rather than multiple inspections; and 
--short windows of time in which inspections must be done.

Under the current rules, most cities in L.A. County fall short in one or more of these categories, creating wide disparities in how quickly rooftop solar panels are installed.

Working to make solar easy

For several years, the Sierra Club has lobbied cities to streamline their solar permitting procedures. In the process, activists compiled a report ranking L.A. county municipalities on how well they implemented a streamlined process.

Facing a September deadline, the Club wants cities to not only meet AB 2188 requirements, but surpass them. The idea is to give active and obvious encouragement to residents who are considering solar energy.

By locking in renewable, distributed power as a default choice on the city level, the Club offers a rebuttal to gridlocked national politics that likely precludes any federal solar permitting standards in the next few years. And consider: Distributed generation is a declaration of independence from the irresponsible fossil fuels economy.

Streamlined permitting brings solar power to the people, out of the hands of luxury markets that can afford a costly process. If “soft” costs are cut, people in middle and lower income brackets are more likely to consider making the switch.

Already, households with incomes at less than $90,000 a year account for over 70% of residential solar systems installed in California. These are homeowners rather than renters, but AB 2188 sets a precedent for streamlining permitting across the board. The Sierra Club wants to make distributed solar easier for multi-family dwellings, businesses, schools, and other public structures too.

What can you do?

Sierra Club members, supporters, and friends of a clean L.A. need to spur the shift to efficient permitting. All need to reach out to members of local municipal government throughout Los Angeles and Orange County to promote action on AB 2188, well before deadline and with an even cleaner set of procedures than required.

The Sierra Club will act as a resource and information exchange as community members tackle this much-needed step. Activists are already meeting with officials from cities around the L.A. area to help them make informed, environment-oriented decisions about their AB 2188 ordinances.

Your input and support is needed at the grassroots level to help make the case for efficient solar permitting in your community. Please contact Chapter vice president David Haake to find out how you can help take this concrete step toward a clean-energy economy.

Philip Rojc is a writer and Angeles Chapter Sierra Club member. You can find him at philiprojc.com or follow him on Twitter at @PhilipRojc.