The City of Kingston will become the first jurisdiction in New York to adopted automated residential solar and storage permitting.
“As rising utility costs continue to burden household budgets, we are looking for ways to help our residents,” said Steven Noble, mayor of Kingston. “By utilizing this free app, Kingston homeowners will be able to cut red tape and install rooftop solar more quickly and easily. We are pleased to partner with SolarAPP+, which will not only benefit our residents but will also help alleviate some of the Building & Safety Department’s workload.”
Starting in July, Kingston residents will be able to use SolarAPP+, a free platform developed by the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies in collaboration with building safety experts, to select from pre-qualified local companies to install solar on their homes.
Automated permitting offers residents a safe, expedited alternative to manual plan review for simple home solar installs. Applications are automatically screened for local codes and standards, and permits are issued for compliant projects in minutes rather than weeks.
“Kingston is setting the pace for New York by embracing automated permitting for residential solar and showing that cutting red tape is one of the most powerful ways to deliver affordable, reliable energy to homeowners,” said Jonathan Cohen, Policy Director for the New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA). “By eliminating delays and reducing unnecessary costs, automated approvals make it easier for families to access the long-term savings that solar provides, while also streamlining workloads for local governments and improving efficiency for municipal staff.”
Local solar installers will be able to submit applications and receive approved permits the same day for projects that meet the city’s code requirements.
“We are proud to partner with Mayor Noble and the City of Kingston to make clean energy more accessible for their residents,” said Matthew McAllister, CEO at the SolarAPP Foundation. “SolarAPP+ helps streamline the permitting process for the building department, contractors, and homeowners alike, and we hope Kingston’s leadership inspires other New York cities to follow.”
Slow and complicated permitting is one of the biggest barriers to going solar. Permitting hurdles can add $6,000 to $7,000 to the sticker price of a typical rooftop solar system, and roughly 20% of residential solar projects that begin the permitting process are abandoned before installation.
Kingston joins a growing coalition of more than 350 local governments across the country using SolarAPP+ to improve efficiency, enforce high-quality workmanship and safety compliance, and provide fast and reliable turnarounds for local businesses and residents. The SolarAPP+ platform is available at no cost to local governments and integrates with existing permitting workflows.
News item from SolarAPP+
