Letter to Assembly Speaker Coughlin In Support of Smart Solar Permitting

Dear Speaker Coughlin:                                                                    March 5, 2025

On behalf of 33 organizations and businesses, we write to express our strong support for the proposed legislation (S4100/A5264) from Senator John McKeon and Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak that will accelerate permitting review and approvals for residential solar and batteries. Putting statewide automated permitting in place will make installing residential clean energy more accessible to New Jersey families – helping to reduce utility bills, decreasing air pollution, alleviating municipal permitting burdens, and growing the residential solar industry.

In the last decade, the cost of solar panels has fallen more than 90% nationwide. Thanks to those rapidly declining costs, as well as federal and state-specific tax credits and rebates, more than 200,000 solar installations have been installed across New Jersey, producing nearly 5,500 MW of clean, renewable energy.

But despite ambitious solar goals in the State Energy Master Plan and the progress made to-date, the residential permitting process has been a roadblock to families across New Jersey looking to go solar. This process and its delays have slowed down installations, frustrated municipal officials, and led to cancelled projects.

As of 2024, New Jersey had the third-slowest solar permitting timelines in the country, far longer than many states without any climate goals. Approximately 22 percent of residential solar projects that apply for permits are canceled, with contractors citing permitting issues as the biggest reason for the cancellations. For projects that proceed, permitting and related barriers increase costs to homeowners from anywhere from $3,800 to $4,500, according to an upcoming Greenhouse Institute analysis. In addition, more solar installed will save New Jersey ratepayers more than $87 million by 2030 and add more than 560 clean energy jobs.

By adopting a proven automated permitting platform for local communities to use, the State can help alleviate many of the challenges that stop New Jerseyans from installing clean energy equipment in their homes, making clean energy more affordable and accessible to all.

Automated permitting can reduce the variability and complexity of the approval process – making residential rooftop solar and home batteries faster to install, cheaper for families, and less burdensome for jurisdictions to review. Installers submit detailed information about their proposed project to an online platform which automatically evaluates permit applications to ensure compliance with the relevant building codes and safety standards. If an application meets all requirements, permit approval is granted immediately, allowing installation to begin right away. Automated permitting can shorten permit approval timelines, reduce costs, and help local governments save valuable staff time.

By 2030, the broad availability of automated permitting would increase the number of New Jersey families going solar by approximately 15%, totaling more than 19,000 new projects. By 2040, statewide automated permitting would increase the number of New Jersey families going solar by approximately 50%, totaling approximately 220,000 additional projects. This would unlock more than 150 megawatts of clean energy by 2030 and more than 1,680 megawatts of clean energy by 2040.

Tried and tested automated permitting systems, including the SolarAPP+ platform developed by the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, are free for government permitting offices to adopt and easy to use. The software is already in use by hundreds of jurisdictions across the country and statutorily required for municipal use in two states. The New Jersey Legislature has already done great work to streamline municipal permitting processes, and this is the natural next step to ease the process for residential solar.

Automated permitting for home solar and storage is a clear win for New Jersey families and communities. We ask for your support for S4100/A5264 and urge that you work to quickly hear and pass this legislation this spring.

 

Doug O’Malley

Director, Environment New Jersey

 

Hannah Birnbaum

Chief of Advocacy, Permit Power

 

Leah Meredith

Director, Mid-Atlantic State Affairs, Solar Energy Industry Association

 

Elowyn Corby

Mid-Atlantic Regional Director, Vote Solar Action Fund

 

Winn Khuong

Executive Director, Action Together New Jersey

 

Jennifer Coffey,

Executive Director, ANJEC

 

David Pringle

Steering Committee, EmpowerNJ

 

Aaron Nichols

Sales Engineer, Exact Solar

 

Ben Airth

Policy Director, Freedom Forever

 

Bill Kibler,

Executive Director, Great Swamp Watershed Association

 

Ben Haygood

Director of Policy & Partnership, Isles Inc.

 

Drew Tompkins

Director, Jersey Renews

 

Keith Voos

Chair, EJ Committee, Metuchen-Edison-Piscataway Branch, NAACP

 

Lyle Rawlings

President, Mid-Atlantic Solar and Storage Energy Industry Association

 

Billy Parrish

Executive Chairman, Mosaic

 

Jackson Morris

Director, State Power Sector, Natural Resources Defense Council

 

Ray Cantor

Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer, NJ Business & Industry Association

 

Michael Egenton

Executive Vice President, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce

 

Ed Potosnak

Executive Director, NJ League of Conservation Voters

 

Nicole Rodriguez

President, NJ Policy Perspective

 

Anjuli Ramos-Busot

Director, NJ Sierra Club

 

Richard Lawton

Executive Director, NJ Sustainable Business Council

 

Debra Coyle

Executive Director, NJ Work Environment Council

 

Anna Barcy

Coalition Development, New Labor

 

Andrew Birch

CEO, OpenSolar

 

Ruthie DeWit

Policy Associate, PosiGen

 

Chris Bunch,

VP Design Operations, Powur PBC

 

Robert Freudenberg

VP, Energy & Environment, Regional Plan Association

 

Glen Brand

VP, Policy & Advocacy, Solar United Neighborhood Action

 

Bronte Payne

Senior Manager, Sunrun

 

Jordan Graham

Managing Policy Advisor, Tesla

 

Jeremy Friedman

Campaign Strategist, Third Act

 

Rev. Charles Loflin

Executive Director, Unitarian Universalist FaithAction New Jersey

 

Rachel Dawn Davis

Public Policy & Justice Organizer, Water Spirit

 

 

Cc:

Seth Hahn, Executive Director, Assembly Majority Office

Dan Harris, Deputy Executive Director, Assembly Majority Office

Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak

Assemblywoman Shama Haider

Assemblyman Bill Spearman

Members of the Assembly Democratic Caucus