How does SolarAPP+ help my community meet our clean energy goals?
The Problem: Communities around the country are committing themselves to combating climate change by adopting clean energy goals. One way to help meet those goals is to promote deployment of residential rooftop solar energy. The corresponding, rapid increase in residential solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption has challenged Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) to keep pace with the higher volume of solar applications requiring review and approval. Permitting requirements and delays, paired with similar inspection- and interconnection-related delays, may lead to lower PV adoption rates both directly through higher costs and indirectly through negative customer experiences.
The Solution: To address residential solar PV permitting resource constraints and streamline solar permitting processes among AHJs, NREL led a collaborative effort to develop the Solar Automated Permit Processing Plus (SolarAPP+), a solar permitting software solution provided at no cost to AHJs. The SolarAPP+ is an online portal that automates permit plan review, thereby enabling an instant permit approval process for code-compliant residential PV systems. Based on national model building, electrical, and fire codes, SolarAPP+ automatically performs a compliance check of permit inputs against code requirements and produces an inspection checklist that can be used to verify installation practices, workmanship, and adherence to the approved design.
SolarAPP+ may be a catalyst for communities to enable greater solar deployment in a shorter period of time, helping achieve clean energy goals. By enabling the automation of residential solar, a community could see residential solar projects installed 2.5 business weeks faster than those projects approved via the traditional human-review process. Solar companies may then see this business friendly signal as an indicator of where to allocate time and resources thereby spurring more competition, more deployment and potentially lower costs to consumers.