Red Tape and Rooftop Solar: How instant permitting can help more Illinois families go solar faster

Solar power is clean and efficient, and it’s on the rise in Illinois. Thanks in part to pro-solar policies and financial incentives, solar power makes both environmental and economic sense for Illinois residents.

By some estimates, however, less than 2% of the state’s rooftop solar potential is currently being utilized.

One of the main obstacles preventing Illinois homeowners from making the switch to solar energy is excessive red tape during the permitting and inspection process.

Excessive bureaucracy can make the process of obtaining permits slow, complicated, inconsistent and hard to navigate, adding costs for families who want to install solar panels and, in areas with the most difficult permitting processes, making it almost impossible to “go solar” at all. Instant online permitting for solar – now in use in more than 270 jurisdictions across 13 states – can reduce these permitting delays, making it faster, easier and cheaper to install solar panels.

Permitting can be complex, costly and time-intensive

We interviewed representatives from nine companies that install residential solar panels in Illinois to learn about the problems they face with permitting and inspection in Illinois cities and counties.

These installers highlighted a number of specific problems that create extra work and costs for both solar companies and permitting review staff, making it more expensive, and therefore less appealing, for families to install rooftop solar systems on their homes.

• Inefficient and onerous submission procedures. Jurisdictions that don’t offer an online portal for submitting a solar permit application use slower or less reliable alternatives – including in-person drop-offs and mail and email submissions – that can increase the cost, work and/or time it takes to get a permit application approved.
• Lack of unified, statewide codes. Illinois does not adopt national structural, electrical, fire and other relevant safety-related codes and apply them statewide. Instead, each jurisdiction in the state is free to use its own versions of these codes. Lack of clarity over the nuances of each jurisdiction’s requirements can cause delays in the permitting process, installers say, and the need to keep track of varying requirements frequently entails substantial staff time, which means extra costs passed on to their customers.
• Permitting departments often do not communicate clearly and can be difficult to contact. Poor communication can exacerbate many problems that arise during the permit review process. For example, if a jurisdiction’s permitting process is unclear, installers don’t know who to follow up with or how many sets of comments to expect from permit reviewers. If feedback or requested corrections to an application are unclear, it is hard for the applicant to make proper corrections.
• Inefficient procedures for corrections and revisions. The permitting process can entail significant back and forth between the installer and the jurisdiction, in particular in instances when permit reviewers require installers to make changes to the submitted plans. Navigating this process can sometimes add weeks of delay.
• The permit review process may involve many different parties, either in the same department or across multiple departments or outside entities. In some Illinois jurisdictions, an installer needs approval from the utility before permitting (which can take several weeks). Some require a letter from the local fire chief, which installers report can again add to the timeline and create extra work for the installer. All of these slow the process.
• Conflicting requirements of permitting authorities and inspectors. Permitting offices and the inspectors conducting the final inspections to ensure compliance with code and safety requirements may have different interpretations of the relevant codes, with inspectors requiring that plans meet criteria that differ from those laid out in the code.
• Outsourcing of plan review to third parties, as often happens in jurisdictions without in-house reviewers, can introduce delays, as well as make the process more costly for installers and require more hours to be spent on permitting-related issues.

Many of these obstacles can be mitigated or removed through the use of instant permitting systems by local authorities to review, process and approve permit applications instantly without the need for each application to be reviewed manually by permitting officials.

By streamlining the permitting process and cutting out the bureaucracy and extra costs associated with traditional permitting processes, instant permitting can remove some of the barriers preventing families from going solar, making solar panels faster and cheaper to install.

Where these systems have been adopted, they have delivered tangible benefits for homeowners, solar installers and permitting offices, including:

• Shorter waiting times for permits: Jurisdictions that have adopted instant permitting have been able to eliminate the often-lengthy permit processing periods associated with traditional review methods.  In Arizona, for example, the City of Tucson has reduced average permitting review time from around 20 business days to zero.
• Streamlining the corrections and revisions process: With instant permitting, any necessary revisions and corrections can be submitted quickly and easily, and, provided the revised plans are up to code, approval is instant.
• Standardized inspection process: Automated permitting can reduce costs and avoid holdups after a permit has been granted, for instance by automatically generating a standardized inspection checklist for use by inspectors.  Data from 2023 indicate that a typical project processed through the instant permitting platform SolarAPP+ (Solar Automated Permit Processing Plus), which has now been adopted by more than 270 jurisdictions nationwide, is permitted and inspected 14.5 business days sooner than projects processed through traditional permitting processes.
• Reduced permitting office workloads: In 2023, according to SolarAPP+ performance review data, instant permitting saved around 15,400 hours of municipal staff time and accelerated solar permitting by a total of around 150,000 business days. Having an instant, automated and standardized process can also help mitigate timeline issues arising from permitting office staff turnover, ensuring the smooth and predictable running of the application process.
• Reduced costs for homeowners seeking to go solar: The so-called “soft costs” of solar installation, including costs associated with the permitting process, now account for more than 65% of the total cost to install residential solar, and these costs are a major barrier for many families interested in going solar. Data published in 2024 indicate that automated permitting through SolarAPP+ reduced the cost of installing residential solar projects by  up to 13% – and this figure itself is an extremely conservative estimate.
• More solar installed: Jurisdictions that have adopted instant permitting have seen dramatic increases in the amount of solar being installed. In Arizona, for example, since Tucson and Pima County automated their permitting for residential rooftop solar systems, home solar installations increased 140% – more than double the rate of the rest of the state.

To enable more Illinois homeowners to make the switch to solar energy, state and local governments should:

• Adopt instant permitting systems that remove unnecessary red tape, reducing costs and expediting residential solar and battery installations. Instant permitting platforms, such as SolarAPP+, ask the contractor a series of questions to verify that the solar system’s design is up to code and then approve the permit application automatically.
• Ensure all jurisdictions across Illinois adhere to the same versions of national building, fire and electrical codes, and encourage clear and consistent permitting processes across jurisdictions. Lack of standardized, statewide codes in Illinois means that solar permit requirements vary from one jurisdiction to the next. This forces installers to spend extra time tracking the nuances of each jurisdiction’s requirements, which adds staff time and extra cost to the permitting process. These extra costs can be passed on to homeowners, making it more expensive and therefore less appealing for families to go solar.
• Allow remote inspections once a residential solar project is installed. Once a residential solar project is permitted and constructed, installers should have the option for a remote inspection sufficient to guarantee the safety of the system. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has created a standard for remote inspections and the International Code Council (ICC) has created recommended best practices.

To address other bureaucratic obstacles that hinder the permitting process and may dissuade Illinois residents from going solar, state and local governments should also:

• Establish one permitting authority per project: In Illinois, as in other parts of the country, multiple jurisdictions – cities; counties; multiple departments within cities and counties, such as the fire department and building department; and other units of local government – can be involved in permitting a single residential solar system. To streamline the permitting process, one authority should conduct permitting for all components of the system.
• Encourage clear and consistent permitting processes across jurisdictions: Jurisdictions should standardize as many processes and requirements for solar permits as possible, including the application, required documentation, code requirements and steps to receive a permit. All components of a solar system, such as a battery, and related work, such as a main panel upgrade, should be part of the permit application and follow the same standardized permitting process. Authorities should post the process and requirements for applicants on their websites, and all plan reviewers should adhere to these to eliminate variation within the permitting office.
• Reconsider permitting requirements not based on health or safety: Review of residential solar permit applications should be focused on determining whether the proposed system meets the safety requirements of building codes. Local governments should not deny a solar permit based on arbitrary aesthetic considerations, such as the visibility of the system from the street, which solar installers report as being a common obstacle to the adoption of rooftop solar in jurisdictions across Illinois and elsewhere.