The city of Denver wins a prize for streamlining their solar permitting process. Learn how you can lead permitting reform efforts in your community!

 

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NEWS YOU CAN USE: SOLAR SOFT COSTS

Maybe you have heard the cry for Solar Freedom Now! And you are wondering-what is all the fuss about? Did you know that it costs almost twice as much to install solar in the USA as Germany? Did you know the difference is mainly “soft costs,” like permits, interconnection fees, and other paper work? According to a recent report by SunRun, permitting and inspection add about $2,500 to the cost of a residential solar system.

Did you also know that there is a movement afoot to bring down these costs to help make solar more affordable for all? Denver was recently recognized as the first Solar Friendly Community. Denver’s permitting office can issue a permit at the counter in 15 minutes and for $50, while it can take other cities up to 20 days and cost hundreds of dollars. Denver also offers a special low-interest loan for solar systems to residents that participate in the Denver Energy Challenge and reduce energy use in their home by 15%. The city helped organize a 20% solar group discount offered to 150,000 city, state, and federal employees in Colorado. On January 28th, Aurora, Colorado was the second city to win the Solar Friendly Community designation.

TOOLS FOR ACTION: GRADE YOUR TOWN’S SOLAR PRACTICES

Solar Friendly Communities’ 12 Best Practices: A Roadmap to a Solar Friendly Community offers local communities a menu of options and an easy-to-follow roadmap to make progress in reducing soft costs. Use the wheel to see how your community is doing and email the program for more info!

Here are some fantastic resources on solar soft costs! Tell us what you think! Send us your stories and experiences with solar permitting to ASchoolman@ases.org.

DOE’s SunShot Initiative The Department of Energy’s SunShot initiative has many resources on efforts to drive down the cost of solar energy. Go!		Cutting the Price of Solar Forbes Magazine did an interesting article on cutting solar costs. Go!		ICLEI ICLEI offers “Local Governments for Sustainability” webinars on reducing barriers to solar for local governments. Go!
California Solar Permitting   Guidebook A guidebook to help local governments in California reform and streamline their permitting process. Go!		Solar 3.0! Solar 3.0 initiative is a metrics-driven program that seeks to reduce solar PV soft costs by 50% in targeted communities by 2014. Go!		IREC The Interstate Renewable Energy Council has produced a report on permitting rooftop solar systems. Go!

SOLAR CITIZEN PARTNERS

Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA)  We are an award-winning nonprofit association leading Colorado’s solar industry. Our mission is to expand solar markets and to generate jobs and prosperity for the people of Colorado. Learn more.

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Your Organization Here Let us feature your project, campaign, or company in the next Solar Citizen update! Contact us.

One Stop Green We are a company dedicated to providing practical, user friendly solutions for homeowners and businesses working to reduce waste, produce renewable energy, and implement efficient energy consumption methods. Check out our list of carefully selected products and installers to learn how you can go green today! Learn more.

According to a new study from NREL, in 2010 the average soft costs for residential systems averaged $1.50 per watt, or roughly 23 percent of system cost. For commercial systems, the median 2010 soft costs were $0.99/W for systems smaller than 250 kW (about 17 percent of system cost) and $0.25/W for systems larger than 250 kW (about 5 percent). The study, “Benchmarking Non-Hardware Balance-of-System (Soft) Costs,” included typical permitting fees but did not measure installer profit, overhead, financing and contracting, which are significant and would add to these figures. The study follows the Lawrence Berkeley Lab report, “Tracking the Sun V,” which suggested that the median cost of installing large systems fell to about $4.50 per watt by the middle of 2012, based largely on the declining cost of modules.

Read the full report here:  http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/56806.pdf

LBL Chart

The answers won’t surprise you. German installers reported average soft costs of $0.62 per watt in 2011, roughly $2.70 per lower than the average soft costs reported by U.S. installers.  Customer acquisition costs averaged just $0.07 per watt in Germany, roughly $0.60 per lower than in the U.S.
Labor costs were about $.55 per watt lower in Germany for equivalent systems.  Permitting, interconnection, and inspection (PII) processes required 10 hours of labor, on average, in Germany, with no permitting fee, resulting in PII costs roughly $0.20 per watt less than in the U.S. Read the full report:

http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/german-us-pv-price-ppt.pdf