New Jerseyans are bracing for a summer of skyrocketing energy rates while continuing to grapple with the ever-worsening effects of climate change. We should be taking every opportunity to deliver energy savings to families while unleashing clean energy, which means that we need to double-down on installing residential rooftop solar.
New Jersey has long been a solar leader, with more than 200,000 installations across the state. But our progress is being hindered by burdensome permitting red tape that drives up install costs for homeowners and leads to more than one in five projects to be cancelled.
Fortunately, there’s a fix working its way through the Legislature. S4100/A5264, which is championed by Senator John McKeon and Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak and already unanimously approved by the Assembly, would make it cheaper and easier for homeowners to install solar. We urge the State Senate to quickly approve this bill and send it to Governor Murphy’s desk for his signature.
If you have ever tried to perform even a simple home improvement project in any municipality in New Jersey, you know that getting your permit can be a challenge. The process to get rooftop solar approved is no exception. RPA recently released a report examining local barriers to home solar and battery installs in our state. It found that New Jersey has the third-slowest permitting timelines for residential solar projects in the country. Families that want to go solar typically have to navigate a morass of local government hurdles, including confusing multi-departmental reviews, communications challenges, inconsistent or outdated requirements, and antiquated, analog sign-off procedures. The process is so difficult in some municipalities that many installers avoid them, leaving consumers with limited, if any, options to choose from if they want to go solar.
To address this, RPA recommended that New Jersey implement “smart permitting” for rooftop solar – which allows homeowners with code-compliant projects to get the approvals they need online, almost instantly. S4100/A5264 would do just that by requiring the State to make a smart permitting platform for home solar and battery projects available to all New Jersey municipalities.
Smart permitting has a proven track record of success and safety nationally. It is available in hundreds of jurisdictions, constituting a third of the U.S. rooftop solar market, and required in two states. After Pima County, Arizona, one of the earliest adopters, started offering smart permitting, rooftop solar deployment increased at double the rate of the rest of the state.
We know that smart permitting can unlock tremendous benefits for New Jerseyans and our grid. Brown University Climate Solutions Lab estimates that adopting smart permitting statewide could result in an additional 200,000 residential solar systems being installed by 2040.
Consumers could save as much as $4,500 per install because of the simplified approval process, as well as up to $78,000 on their electricity bills over the lifetime of their panels.
With electricity rates on the rise, energy demand projected to increase, and urgent action needed to stem the effects of climate change and reduce air pollution, making rooftop solar more accessible is an obvious solution. Easing the permitting process is one of those rare wins for all involved – saving time and money for families, local installers, and local governments alike.
There’s no time to waste getting smart on solar, and we commend Senator McKeon and Assemblyman Karabinchak for their leadership on this important issue. Let’s pass S4100/A5264.
Doug O’Malley is the director of Environment New Jersey, a state-wide environmental advocacy organization with more than 80,000 citizen members and activists focused on making New Jersey a cleaner, greener and healthier state. Robert Freudenberg is VP, energy & environment at the Regional Plan Association, which has promoted programs to improve the economic health, environmental resiliency and quality of life in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut metropolitan areas for more than 100 years.
