Building Permits

In order to construct a solar electric system, a permit and inspection are required by the local municipality. While California has protected consumers’ rights to install solar systems, municipalities have set additional requirements for installation permits. Furthermore, once a system is installed, each municipality may have separate requirements from those outlined by state and national code requirements to approve an installation (e.g., California Building Code and Uniform Building Code, respectively). As a result, integrators and installers as well as consumers lack consistency and transparency, which creates uncertainty and increases costs.

Objective

This section of the report seeks to streamline the permitting and approval process for residential, roof-mounted solar electric installations in Silicon Valley. In addition, this section includes specific recommendations that SolarTech will address with permitting and inspection authorities.

Solar Rights in California

Beginning in 1978, California’s laws protect a consumer’s right to install a solar energy system on their property. These laws focus on the need to ensure health and safety, while limiting the burden of other barriers, such as aesthetics. Despite these requirements, certain municipalities continue to require permit applications to go through their planning departments that are typically concerned with a system’s aesthetics. In addition, homeowner associations have tried to limit solar installations that interfere with their covenants, conditions, and restrictions. While we recognize that these laws do not outright deny control over aesthetics, SolarTech believes that unreasonable barriers should be removed, as provided for under these laws.

After a permit has been issued and the system has been installed, an inspector from the local municipality must approve it. Unfortunately, the code requirements used by an inspector are subject to requirements set forth by the local permitting jurisdiction. As a result, not only can requirements in one municipality differ substantially from those in another but they can differ from those set at the state and national levels.

Summary of Recommendations

In order to help drive down the cost of installation in a rapidly growing solar market while simultaneously lowering the permitting costs to municipalities, it is necessary that municipalities adopt more consistent and streamlined processes for permits and inspections, while maintaining consumers’ rights. The following are specific recommendations that can be addressed in the near-term. These are intended to apply to residential rooftop, flush-mounted, solar electric systems.

• Work with municipalities to assure that they fully implement and adopt the Solar Rights Act by not requiring planning department and homeowner association (HOA) reviews of solar permits. Such reviews have typically been associated with aesthetic issues in conflict with the intent of the Solar Rights Act, and as a result, this has slowed permit application approvals.
• Work to assure that permit fees are fixed rather than vary based on system size or value. Many jurisdictions still base permit fees on the value of a system, which may exceed the maximum cost recovery amount allowed under state law for solar permits. It normally takes between two and four hours to process a permit and complete an inspection. Thus, for PV systems up to 15 kW, we propose that permit fees be no more than the maximum cost recovery amount or $300, whichever is less.
• Work with municipalities to assure that solar residential permits are issued “over the counter,” especially for installations that meet the following criteria:

1. The building has a single layer of roofing material (such roofs can support the additional extra weight incurred by the addition of solar electric panels);
2. The weight of the solar panels with mounting hardware is less than four pounds per square foot;
3. The weight of the solar array at each attachment point is less than 40 pounds per such point; and
4. The solar panels are no more than 18 inches off the surface of the roof.
   It should be noted that these criteria are proposed to apply to homes built after the 1940s with adequate rafters or trusses, or for homes built to meet modern building codes designed to hold the extra weight of a few pounds per square foot (similar to the weight of an extra layer of composite asphalt roofing material, for example).

• If more than one day is required to issue the permit, municipalities should provide an estimate of the length of time required for permit issuance, so that installations can be scheduled reasonably and timely.
• Work with municipalities to adopt sections of the most recent National Electric Code (NEC) that affect PV systems, such as article 690. Some municipalities use the 2005 version of the NEC, while others and the State of California use prior versions, resulting in inconsistent standards that may reduce quality or increase costs. The updated sections in NEC 2005 improve upon some of the deficiencies in older versions, such as NEC 2002 and NEC 1999. The 2005 code, for example, allows metal conduit for DC circuits run through an attic, which for all practical purposes is prohibited by the 2002 code. The 2002 version requires a serviceable DC disconnect switch to be installed where the conduit enters the structure, making interior conduit runs in attic crawl spaces virtually impossible to do.
• Work with municipalities to establish narrow inspection windows for solar installers. This window should be a maximum of two hours on a given day, and when feasible, specific inspection appointment times should be given, such as the first inspection of the day or the first inspection after lunch. Some integrators have expressed willingness to pay additional fees (in addition to the permit cost) for such a benefit. Although many jurisdictions have half-day inspection windows, some have all-day windows, both of which are expensive for integrators and consumers because a person must be dispatched and paid to wait the whole day for the inspector. Unlike the construction industry, which has onsite project managers to address multiple inspections, a solar installation requires one inspection once it is completed. Because it is difficult at times to predict when the installation will be completed, appointments for inspections are difficult to schedule in advance of project completion.
• Work with municipalities to require manufacturers’ specification cut-sheets for major system components (i.e. solar modules, inverters and racking) as sufficient for purposes of evaluating system components for the permit issuance.
• Work with municipalities to require no more than two drawings for residential solar permits: (1) a schematic of the electrical system with wire and conduit types and sizes shown, and (2) a roof drawing showing the location of the solar modules relative to the entire roof surface with attachment points, rafter size and spacing specified. Also, the quantity and model number of the solar modules should be mentioned.
• Work with municipalities not to require a plot plan of the property or property set backs to the structure for flush-mounted rooftop systems on existing structures because the structure is already built and the roof drawing specifies relevant information about the system’s location.
• Work with municipalities not to require Professional Engineering stamps for structural issues for flush-mounted rooftop systems, unless the site is in an excessive wind zone (i.e. wind zone category D, with basic wind speeds of 80 miles per hour or greater, as defined by the California Building Code) or there are unique structural issues that need to be addressed.