Local Governments should digitize solar permitting for success

Local governments are the bedrock of communities, providing crucial infrastructure, public safety and transportation to cities across the US. Mayors, city managers and civil servants are charged with addressing some of the world’s biggest problems through a local lens: from stimulating regional economic growth to making our communities more resilient to climate change.

Rooftop solar addresses both of these issues by supporting local businesses and giving homeowners a choice in their energy and shifting away from fossil fuel-based power.

Across the country, homeowners are increasingly choosing to power their lives with solar energy. Paired with battery storage, rooftop solar provides resilience during power outages, saves residents money on electricity, and reduces reliance on emissions-heavy power plants. Even so, many potential solar customers face roadblocks that are not just an inconvenience but also have real economic and environmental consequences.

The United States has more than 20,000 jurisdictions issuing permits, each with their own unique codes, regulations, and review processes. This patchwork of requirements leads to unnecessary complexity and delays for all sorts of permitting. Compared to countries like Germany, where residential solar installation costs are significantly lower, a major contributor to the higher price tag in the U.S. is the “soft cost” of permitting. In fact, lengthy approval processes and inconsistent requirements add thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical solar system.

The solar permitting backlog also puts additional strain on local government offices. Staff must manually review applications, navigate a wide range of requirements, keep track of fast changing equipment used in the industry, and handle backlogs that slow down projects. As local governments operate under increasingly tight fiscal conditions and staffing capacity, this manual application process make it harder to allocate resources effectively.

Thanks to modern technology though, local leaders have the power to address this problem in an automated fashion. SolarAPP+ (Solar Automated Permit Processing), developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with industry partners and building officials, is a free, easy-to-implement platform that automates and streamlines the home solar permitting process. By adopting SolarAPP+, cities and counties can accelerate approvals, cut administrative costs and provide a seamless experience for both homeowners and solar installers.

More than 275 jurisdictions across the 13 states have implemented SolarAPP+, reducing permitting times from weeks to minutes. The platform ensures that applications comply with safety and code standards, providing real-time feedback to installers and eliminating the need for extensive manual review. Projects that go through SolarAPP+ are safer, and fail an inspection review 29% less often than when permitted through traditional review.

Cities like Denver have demonstrated the power of making the permitting process transparent and consistent, having already saved city staff approximately 320 hours of total review time. Tucson has taken it a step further, implementing a virtual inspection process that allows homeowners to complete approvals quickly.

Many cities have digital processes to capture permits, and SolarAPP+ can work with those existing government technology platforms to automate the plan review part of the jurisdiction’s job, without requiring any complicated implementations.

Unlike large-scale infrastructure projects that require extensive regulatory approvals and years of planning, removing permitting barriers for residential solar is an immediate, local-level action that delivers quick results. By adopting tools like SolarAPP+, cities and counties can cut red tape, foster economic growth and help their residents access clean, affordable energy—all without requiring new federal policies or complex legislative changes.

For local elected officials looking for a common-sense, non-controversial way to improve public services and support their communities, streamlining solar permitting is an easy win. The technology is available. The benefits are clear.

Matthew McAllister is the chief executive officer of the SolarAPP Foundation. Previously, Matthew co-founded and led the Colorado Digital Service, an internal consultancy that revolutionized state agency operations to improve service delivery for Coloradans. Before that, he spearheaded Smart City initiatives in Denver and served as special assistant and policy advisor to the U.S. chief technology officer during the Obama Administration. 

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