Source: Greentech Media California just moved a bit closer to reducing some of the “soft costs” of installing solar with an assembly bill meant to streamline permitting and inspection for small residential solar systems. As solar hardware costs have plummeted, overhead (or “soft costs”) have become the majority cost piece of the installation. Soft costs...

Solar permitting is but one small, easily overlooked piece of the solar installation process. However, because we have upwards of 25,000 local jurisdictions in the country, there are staggering possibilities for variations of local permitting procedures. This means that permitting costs and filing requirements often vary widely from one jurisdiction to the next, which inevitably drives up costs for solar and creates unintentional barriers to market growth.