Spurring Solar

Thanks to the efforts of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, it now costs less to permit solar panel installations in many San Francisco Bay Area communities. The price reduction is the result of a survey the chapter conducted six months ago in which they queried 40 building and planning departments and asked how much it would cost for permits to install a typical solar system on a house. As the San Jose Mercury News reports, the survey showed "wild variations in fees and red tape."

Saratoga, for example, charged $95 for a permit. But in Los Gatos, two miles away, city planners told the Sierra Club they would charge $1,287 for a permit to install the same system. Some municipalities with streamlined processes, like San Jose, took minutes to issue a solar permit, while others, like Hillsborough or Santa Clara County, could take a month or longer.

12 cities cited in the report have since lowered their permit fees, some quite dramatically. In San Mateo, for example, the permit price dropped from more than $1200 to just over $200. Two cities -- Los Altos Hills and San Carlos -- now waive the fee entirely. The change makes sense in a state that whose governor is spearheading a "Million Solar Roofs" campaign. As the Mercury News's Paul Rogers explains:

The largest investment in solar power of any state in U.S. history, the [Million Solar Roofs] plan tacked a new fee of about $1.10 a month on utility bills to provide $3.2 billion in rebates over the next 11 years. The subsidy will pay about one-third of the costs for people who install solar power on their homes or businesses.

With incentives like that, it's crazy to perpetuate dis-incentives like high permitting fees.