Two bills have moved forward in New York State that aim to streamline the residential solar permitting process.
Senate bill 5781 and an identical Assembly bill 6270A require all municipalities with more than 5,000 residents adopt a residential automated solar permitting platform by June 13, 2026.
The bills were put forth as a remedy to the delays in obtaining residential solar permits. Sponsors of the bills see the permitting delays as impeding the state’s climate goals. The automated platform would prevent those delays by providing an “expedited building permit for qualified residents.”
New York State’s Climate Act, established in 2019, set it on a path to achieving a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70% renewable energy generation by 2030, and economywide carbon neutrality by mid-century.
With solar as a strong part of the clean energy mix, the State created a framework to achieve at least 10 GW of distributed solar by 2030, enough to annually power nearly 700,000 average-sized homes. That framework provides a strategy to expand the state’s already successful NY-Sun initiative into one of the largest and most inclusive solar programs of its kind in the nation.
Solar permitting delay is often cited as a reason that about a third of residential solar contracts are canceled, which raises installers’ pre-installation costs by about 25%, according to a 2022 study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
The New York bills would require implementation of a solar permitting platform, such as SolarAPP+, a free web-based platform developed at the National Renewable Energy Lab, that is said to cut about 12 days off the permitting process.
“SolarAPP+ ensures solar projects meet code requirements, enhancing safety while significantly shortening cycle time and accelerating the trajectory towards our climate goals,” said Mark Rodriguez, chief engineering officer of the SolarAPP+ Foundation, which is responsible for SolarAPP+’s long-term stewardship.
The text of the Senate bill states that the legislation “will make it faster, easier, and less expensive for local governments to approve solar and storage systems… This bill is necessary to help New York meet its climate goals and will make the transition to renewable energy easier and less expensive for every-one.”
The bills have been referred to committee.
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