...but is it too little too late?

So, California Senate passes the Solar Access Act designed to speed up residential PV permitting. But is it too little too late? Let's dive in and take a look.

As a CA licensed solar professional, I speak first-hand having experiences I've been through with my clients going through the process of solar installation. Many of my clients cringe at the idea of having to wait on permits for 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and sometimes longer to get a permit for their home’s solar installation. In many cases leads to change orders. A change order is typically required when some aspect of the project must change from the initial agreed-upon plan. Sometimes these have no impact on your cost and are simple technical details, but often these are required because the equipment initially sold is no longer available.

This has been problematic for many small to medium size solar contractors and their customers, made worse by recent global impacts to supply chain and LG’s departure from the PV manufacturing business. For the first time in over a decade solar equipment and installation costs in is the United States have steadily increased over the last 2 years. Combine that with increasing interest rates, and proposed changes to Net Energy Metering (NEM) rules in CA, and the result has added up to $MILLIONS of dollars wasted while “waiting” for the right and left hands of the solar installation process to get on the same page. Unfortunately, when this happens, it’s the contractors and the homeowners trying to do right by switching to clean solar energy that have been paying the price. The major utility companies know this, and likewise are not eager to get you switched over, so they too are responsible for interconnection delays, which we the Solar Access Act identifies.

While this would have been welcome news years ago and would have saved the industry and its customers a lot of hassle, the fact of the matter is that such efforts to speed up the solar installation process are needed and much welcomed. So, in spite of the many challenges on the horizon of clean energy and sustainability – the best is ahead…

https://www.pv-tech.org/californias-senate-passes-solar-access-act-designed-to-speed-up-residential-pv-permitting/