More solar energy on roofs, less bureaucracy

The power outages that affected 325,000 residents in Southeast Texas and 650,000 in North Texas in late May served as another reminder, if needed, that major changes to our grid are urgently needed. Recently, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas stated that the power grid has a 16% risk of blackouts this summer and a 12% risk of rolling blackouts.

We saw a surge in solar and battery installations after the February 2021 winter storm, and we will likely see additional growth following the recent storms. Households and businesses across the state are realizing that switching to solar energy can lower their electricity bills and increase the reliability of their energy supply. According to Environment Texas’ latest report, Texas ranks third in the nation for rooftop solar panels, growing more than 646% from 2017 to 2022.

Even the city of Dallas is getting in on the act, with plans to install 739,000 kilowatts of solar power by 2030 and 3,695,000 by 2050. And thanks to state and federal incentives – including tens of billions of dollars available through the Inflation Reduction Act – it’s more cheaper than ever to go solar.

However, the momentum behind rooftop photovoltaics risks becoming entangled in local government bureaucracy. When families or businesses make the decision to go solar, they often have to go through an unnecessarily slow and expensive permitting process. Any application to install rooftop solar must be approved by a city employee, who may have to manually review 100 compliance and obtain approval from the structural, electrical, fire, planning and zoning departments.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s SolarTRACE database, in 2022 it took an average of 22 days to obtain a permit for residential rooftop solar from the city of Dallas, while in Fort Worth it took 4 days and the average permit in Frisco was approved within 24 hours.

We spoke with local solar installers from Texas Best Solar, Hoss Solar, and Solar Cowboys who said recent applications in Dallas took anywhere from two weeks to 52 days in one case. A big city like ours can do much more.

For Dallas to meet its Climate Action Plan solar goals, we need a permitting process that can scale to meet the growing number of applications in a timely and efficient manner, without compromising safety and other necessary controls. Fortunately, there is a tried and tested app for this. SolarAPP+, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, is a free online portal that automates permitting in a fast and reliable process.

Hundreds of cities are already successfully using SolarAPP+ to quickly and efficiently enable residents to install reliable solar energy on their roofs and the associated lower bills. Houston and San Antonio are already piloting the service. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that in the areas where it is used, SolarAPP+ saved approximately 15,400 hours of local government employees’ time in 2023 and accelerated the permit issuance process by an average of 14.5 days.

Last December, the Dallas Environmental Commission unanimously recommended that the city’s permitting department adopt SolarAPP+.

Given the city’s bold climate goals, ongoing fight against air pollution and public demand for clean energy, the next step is clear: we need more solar energy and less red tape.

In the coming years, most Dallas homes and businesses will be able to generate their own reliable, clean and affordable energy directly from their rooftops. They could free themselves from dependence on utilities and polluting power plants miles away. But to build a clean and reliable energy grid of the future, we must act quickly and change our approach to permitting.

Patrice “Pete” Parsons is the executive director of the Texas Solar Energy Society. Ian Seamans is the Dallas City Hall spokesman for environmental protection in Texas.

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