Washington State Team Granted $520,000 for Solar
U.S. Department of Energy provides funding to encourage solar installations around state
Solar Washington is very excited to announce that we along with a team of municipalities, utilities and nonprofit organizations led by NW Seed and the Washington State Department of Commerce has been awarded more than $520,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to accelerate the use of solar power in the state.
Across the Washington State today, there are numerous local jurisdictions with their own PV permitting requirements, land use codes and zoning ordinances; plus all our utilities with their own implementation standards for connecting and selling energy back to the energy grid.
According to a report released earlier this year by solar company SunRun, local permitting and inspection processes alone add $0.50 per watt, or $2,500 per residential installation nationwide. In Washington State we certainly have been experiencing this for many of our permitting jurisdictions too. This is a soft cost that if continues to increase and spread could present a barrier to increased adoption of solar energy systems.
This grant will provide $523,800 to streamline and standardize permitting, zoning, net metering and interconnection processes while also improving financing options, reducing barriers and lowering the cost to install residential and small commercial rooftop solar energy equipment. Among the improvements the Washington team will work to create are an online permitting system, shorter permitting turnaround times and resolve barriers.
This award is part of $12 million in funding for the Rooftop Solar Challenge under U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShotInitiative. This challenge is part of the Energy Department’s larger effort to make solar energy more accessible and affordable, increase domestic solar deployment, and position the U.S. as a leader in the rapidly-growing global solar market.
Along with Solar Washington the Cities of Seattle, Bellevue, Edmonds, and Ellensburg; Seattle City Light, Snohomish Public Utilities District and Puget Sound Energy; Northwest SEED; Thurston Energy; and Sustainable Connections make up the team that’s working to do all that.
Solar Washington will be participating in this process by providing the forum to bring together industry experts and solar installers to dialog with permitting agencies and authorities the challenges and developing solutions.
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said the team has an opportunity to make it easier for residents and small businesses to tap into the power of the sun.
Daniel Malarkey, Washington State Department of Commerce Deputy Director, said he’s encouraged that the Department of Energy is supporting efforts to streamline processes to produce renewable energy. “Governments working together can help create a larger market that will help bring costs down,” he said.
Here's a link to an article in the Seattle PI about this: http://blog.seattlepi.com/energy/2011/12/12/wa-team-granted-520000-to-cu...
