Streamlining solar permitting can bring down prices after tax credit phases out, expert says

Now that solar power subsidies are being phased out, solar systems of all kinds are about to become more expensive. But Andrew Birch, the founder of automated solar permitting nonprofit SolarApp+, told Tech Brew that some of those costs can be offset by streamlining the solar permitting process—and that now’s the perfect time to reform it.

“This is a massive opportunity,” Birch said, “to focus the industry on reducing our costs.”

Installing a solar power system in the US, Birch said, is two and a half times more expensive than in other countries he’s worked in, like Australia, because of “bureaucracy and process that you have to go through when you’ve sold a system to get it to an install.”

“In the US, you have about 16,000 jurisdictions—cities, basically. Each has their own individual permit process, which is very paperwork-heavy. It requires multiple site visits to the home, truck rules to deliver permit packs, a lot of uncertainty about what you are and are not allowed to install,” Birch said. “All of that creates rework and operating expenses and delay.”

Birch claimed that all the work that goes into correctly permitting solar systems doubles their cost because more people need to work on each project. So to combat timing, personnel, and cost increases, Birch created SolarApp+ to automate the solar permitting process. The software is free to use and collects and processes permits for local governments, “instead of asking people in a department in a city that haven’t been fully trained on electrical code to judge” the safety and efficacy of solar power systems, he said.

“It’s about saving customers money without subsidies, and that is something we know we can do. It’s been done overseas,” Birch said. “And if we deploy the right technologies and automated permitting approach, then we can deliver that in the US.”