Dear Mayors, City Council Members, and County Supervisors:

On behalf of my organization, I write to express our strong support for local governments to swiftly comply with The Solar Access Act (SB 379) to streamline the process for issuing code-compliant permits for rooftop solar and batteries. This will help make rooftop solar and batteries more accessible to local residents, helping people reduce utility bills, protect themselves from blackouts, decrease pollution, and support local jobs and businesses.

It costs twice as much to install solar panels and batteries in California as in other developed places like Germany and Japan because  they have streamlined systems for issuing permits for solar and battery projects. 

The  National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) worked with the nation’s leading building safety organizations to develop software that automates and standardizes the process for issuing permits for common residential rooftop solar systems and solar batteries. The software, called SolarAPP+ (Solar Automated Permit Processing Plus), is free for all permitting offices and easy to use. The California Energy Commission provides grant funding for municipalities to cover the work-hours to adopt SolarAPP+.

By adopting SolarAPP+ or an equivalent permitting system, as specified by SB 379, local residents, community organizations, and businesses can go solar faster and at a lower cost. 

For these reasons, we ask that you please move quickly to comply with SB 379 and streamline the permitting process for installing solar panels and solar batteries.

Thank you,