A new report says streamlining rooftop solar permitting could lower costs by up to 61%, enabling 20 million more US families to install solar by 2040 and save $1.2 trillion on energy bills.
A recent report by Permit Power, As Cheap as Our Peers: How cutting red tape can lower the cost of rooftop solar and offset rising utility bills finds that by cutting the red tape in rooftop solar permitting, almost 20 million more families would install solar by 2040.
Solar in the U.S. costs up to seven times more to install than in Australia and Germany, according to the Permit Power report. It estimates that in the U.S. the median cost is $28,000 for a 7kW system, whereas it would be $4,000 in Australia and $10,000 in Germany. These high costs are impediments to adoption, the report notes, with just one in ten families in the U.S. having solar, compared to one in three in Australia.
