Staff from NREL and GRID Alternatives Colorado install rooftop solar panels during a volunteer event. Residential solar PV installations like these can benefit from NREL’s free SolarAPP+ automated permitting software. Photo by Joe DelNero, NREL.
Recent data on the SolarAPP+ platform suggest that the entire permitting process—plan review, permit issuance, installation, and inspection—takes around 14.5 business days fewer with SolarAPP+ than traditionally permitted projects. Since the inception of SolarAPP+, NREL has completed a performance review for the platform each year. In these performance reviews, researchers summarize adoption trends to date and compare various metrics for solar PV and solar-plus-storage systems permitted through SolarAPP+ to those permitted through traditional permitting processes.