Australia, Germany and other peer countries have seen explosive growth in solar adoption over a short period, with panels added to home and apartment-building rooftops, balconies and farms. So why hasn’t the U.S. seen a similar solar revolution?
Even with the now-disappearing federal tax credits, American consumers have been paying tens of thousands more for rooftop solar and battery systems — and waiting months more for installation — than their counterparts in peer countries. Complex and expensive permitting requirements levied by U.S. local governments are driving most of those costs.
Cleaning up America’s patchwork of local permitting processes is the key to making local solar cheaper. In 2025, a study of Minnesota by our organization, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and Permit Power examined how the local permitting process influences solar costs. The results revealed that the problem is not a permitting process but the multitude of permitting processes.
Solar installers operating in more than one city must take on the huge cost of navigating each municipality’s bespoke permitting process. One installer may keep an extensive database of permitting requirements to refer to. Another may have to call each city for every project to verify that the published permitting process was accurate. Making permitting less expensive should include lowering permitting costs and simplifying procedures, but trying to keep track of hundreds of individual permitting rules contributes significantly to the cost and time required for a U.S. solar installation. An effective solution to permit-process proliferation must also be a spreadsheet slayer.
Governments need to make permitting easy and fast. Most U.S. solar projects are delayed by weeks or months while permit applications are accepted, processed and approved and projects inspected. In contrast, Australia’s municipal permits are issued in 24 hours or less, contributing to solar uptake by owners of more than 1 in 3 homes across the country. Instant permitting software promises a similar streamlined approach for the U.S., but it relies on cities to individually adopt it — the software’s ultimate value will be limited by how many cities retain different (and slower) permitting processes.
Some city governments may be tempted to fight solar permit simplification out of a knee-jerk desire to protect their local authority. The good news is that the most developed software solution — SolarAPP+, a project of the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab — was designed with input from city officials. Several local jurisdictions participated in pilot projects testing the free app in real-world use. In a 2023 survey of cities using the app (which at the time included more than 160 communities), cities found they could dramatically shorten permitting times and save significantly on staff time, a win for both solar customers and city budgets.
State policy solutions would, of course, greatly simplify these processes. States could allow the first two or three cities that act to adopt an automated instant-permitting platform of their choice but require any subsequent local permit regimes to choose from those few options, as long as permit turnaround times remain fast.
Alternatively, cities could emulate the Australian approach by focusing on installer training, minimal upfront permitting and random installation audits. Instead of mandating a city permit process, solar projects would be exempted from a local permit requirement as long as they used a certified installer. Random audits would scan for problems, and companies or individuals with repeat errors would face penalties. This kind of approach could open the way to higher-wage labor in the rooftop solar industry by capturing some of the savings from streamlined permitting to reward certified installers.
If local and state governments can lead the way in simplifying a complex permitting landscape, the U.S. can join our peer countries in having lower-cost rooftop solar. For the affordability and climate benefits alone, simplifying permitting is a good investment.
John Farrell is a co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Energy Democracy Initiative.
Governing's opinion columns reflect the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Governing's editors or management.
