Solar Streamline Permitting Act Exposed

The Solar Streamline Permitting Act was considered by ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force at the 2012 Spring Task Force Summit on May 11, 2012. This bill was part of the ALEC task force agenda between 2010 and 2012, but due to incomplete information, it is not known if the bill passed in a vote by legislators and lobbyists at ALEC task force meetings, if ALEC sought to distance itself from the bill as the public increased scrutiny of its pay-to-play activities, or if key operative language from the bill has been introduced by an ALEC legislator in a state legislature in the ensuing period or became binding law.

ALEC Draft Bill Text

SECTION 1.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

A) Various reports show that the permitting costs and process associated with solar distributed generation installation varies widely across jurisdictions in the state.

B) High permitting fees and a lengthy and burdensome permitting process increase the cost of installations and reduce the ability for solar to be deployed across all income spectrums.

C) A streamlined, consistent process for installations of solar distributed generation technology on residential and commercial property will eliminate unnecessary waste and variability across jurisdictions, increase the deployment of solar distributed generation, provide solar customers greater installation ease and create jobs in this state.

D) The state can assist local jurisdictions in deploying this technology by developing statewide building standards and recommendations for the installation of basic solar equipment on residential and commercial property to ensure safe, reasonable and consistent enforcement.

E) The appropriate state commission shall develop a model ordinance and guidelines that can assist local agencies to develop building standards and permitting processes for solar distributed generation technology on residential and commercial property. The commission shall post the model ordinance and guidelines on its internet website.

F) The state encourages local jurisdictions to develop or amend their building standards and permitting processes to ensure there exists a low cost, streamlined process for deployment and installation of solar distributed generation technology on residential and commercial property.

SECTION 2.

A)

• Option 1: No city, county, or city and county, with a population of over fifty thousand residents (50,000) shall charge solar rooftop permit fees of over five hundred dollars ($500) for residential solar systems and one thousand dollars ($1000) for commercial solar systems

• Option 2: No city, county, or city and county, may charge permit fees to install a solar system that, in aggregate, exceed the lesser of the city or county’s actual costs in issuing the permit or five hundred dollars ($500) for a residential application or one thousand dollars ($1000) for a nonresidential application if the device or system produces fewer than two megawatts of direct current electricity or an equivalent-sized solar system for retail electricity generation.

B) Every city, county, or city and county must create an electronic submittal process that is open to the public for permit applications

C) A city, county, or city and county shall submit a report to the state commission, no later than December 1, 2013, with the following information:

1) A finding that they have adopted fees in accordance with Section 2(A) related to the issuance of the solar installation permit.

2) An electronic submittal process for permit applications is available to the public.