May 13th, 2020
by Shawn Martin

In recent years jurisdictions in some parts of the country have seen a dramatic increase in the number of residential solar energy system permit applications. While this is still a regional issue, a number have reported difficulties in processing the large number of permit applications in a timely way. The U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the solar industry have teamed up to develop a new national solar permitting portal as a way of meeting this challenge. The portal, when completed, would be an optional tool available to jurisdictions to streamline and speed the submission and processing of the majority of permit applications for residential photovoltaic solar systems. The developers introduced the first draft version of the web portal during a recent webinar and are working to test it in several jurisdictions around the country in the coming months.

To better understand how we can support our members, the Code Council is seeking feedback on this topic and the proposed SolarApp approach. We’ve developed a brief survey to help us to understand how widespread these permitting challenges have become, and your thoughts on whether something like the SolarApp portal can help to address it. We welcome the feedback of Governmental Members.

Haven’t heard of SolarApp yet? We’d like to hear from you too. But if you would like to learn more about the SolarApp project, visit https://solarapp.nrel.gov/

About the Author
Shawn Martin
Shawn Martin, vice president of technical services with the Code Council’s Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (ICC-SRCC), manages the solar heating and cooling certification and standard development programs for ICC-SRCC. Most recently, Martin was director of PMG activities with the International Code Council, leading its plumbing, mechanical and fuel gas program. Martin has extensive experience managing consensus standard development, product design, building technology research and testing programs, particularly in the fields of fluid dynamics and building technologies.