Op-Ed: “More Rooftop Solar, Less Red Tape”

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Dallas Should Adopt Department of Energy App to Speed Solar Permitting.

Power outages affecting 325,000 people in southeast Texas and 650,000 in North Texas at the end of May were a further reminder, if we needed one, that major changes to our grid are urgently required. More recently, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said this summer will bring a 16% chance of an electrical grid emergency and a 12% chance of rolling blackouts.

After the winter storm of February 2021, we saw a bump in solar and battery installation, and we’re likely to see an additional bump following the recent storms. Households and businesses across the state are realizing that by going solar they can reduce their electricity bills and increase the reliability of their power supply. According to a recent Environment Texas report, Texas ranks third in the nation for rooftop solar, growing more than 646% from 2017 to 2022.

Even the city of Dallas is getting in on it, with plans to install 739,000 kilowatts of solar capacity by 2030 and 3,695,000 by 2050. And thanks to state and federal incentives — including tens of billions of dollars available from the Inflation Reduction Act — it’s more affordable than ever to make the switch to solar.

But the momentum behind rooftop solar is in danger of getting tangled up in local government red tape. Once families or businesses make the decision to go solar, they often have to navigate a needlessly slow and costly permitting process. Every application to install rooftop solar has to be approved by a city employee, who might have to manually work through 100 compliance checks and get approval from 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 residential rooftop solar permit from the city of Dallas, while Fort Worth took 4 days and the average Frisco permit was approved within 24 hours.

We spoke to local solar installers from Texas Best Solar, Hoss Solar and Solar Cowboys, who said that recent Dallas applications took between two weeks and, in one case, 52 days. A major city like ours can do a lot better.

In order for Dallas to meet the solar goals in its Climate Action Plan, we need a permitting process that can scale to meet the increasing number of applications in a timely and efficient manner, without compromising on safety and other necessary checks. Thankfully, there’s a tried and tested app for that. SolarAPP+, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy, is a free web-based portal which automates permitting in a quick, reliable process.

Hundreds of cities are already successfully using SolarAPP+ to quickly and smoothly allow residents to install reliable rooftop solar energy and the lower bills that come with it. Houston and San Antonio are already piloting the service. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that in those areas where it is being used, SolarAPP+ saved around 15,400 hours of local government staff time in 2023, and sped up the permitting process by an average of 14.5 days.

In December of last year, Dallas’ Environmental Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the city’s permitting department adopt SolarAPP+.

With the city’s bold climate goals, ongoing struggles with air pollution, and the public clamoring for clean energy, the next step is clear: We need more solar and less red tape.

In the coming years, the majority of Dallas homes and businesses could be generating their own reliable, clean, affordable energy, directly from their rooftops. They could break free from reliance on utility companies and polluting power plants located miles away. But to build the clean, reliable power grid of the future, we need to act quickly to 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 advocate for Environment Texas.