Why do Solar Installations take so long

[NYHeel]

One thing I noticed from reading this forum is the variability in speed in which these PV systems get up and running. I'm in NJ and it's a 3-4 month process and that's down 2 months from what it used to be. You need permits/approvals from your town, utility company, and the New Jersey Clean Energy Program (in order to get SRECs) just to begin any work. The town and utility permits are relatively quick, taking about a month or a little less. However NJ Clean Energy takes 1-2 months with their new online submissions just to give an approval to begin work and that's way down from the 3-4 months it used to be with paper submissions. Add 2-4 weeks to order materials and get the work done with town inspections needed during the process and then 4 more weeks for final utility inspection and NJ Clean Energy approval before turning on the system. It all just takes so long.

I signed my contract on 4/4 and am still waiting on NJ Clean Energy. I'll probably be waking at least a few more weeks. I get that this is electricity and much care needs to be taken to do everything right. However all this red tape adds so much time and probably cost to installing a PV system. It's nice that NJCE finally got an online system to speed things up but in my opinion 3-4 months is still way too long for this to take. I can't even imagine when it was a 6 month process.

Now my installer was very up front about how long this process would take so I'm not surprised. But it's still frustrating, especially as I'm seeing long sunny days with temperatures in the 60s. Is it this slow in other states? Am I just whining and should learn a little patience?

[SunEagle]

I understand your frustration. Waiting on local regulators or a company approval is like watching paint dry. Long and boring.

What I might add for your consideration is that think of a solar pv installation similar to a major electrical project that will be connecting to a "system" or the grid that is maintained by people that could be hurt if the install is wrong.

While there is always bureaucratic red tape in most processes, when it comes to electricity safety is viewed a much higher priority then expediency. So some things take longer to review and approve then what you would think. Unfortunately there is also the side that the final approval is with your POCO. While they may be very happy for the additional generation so they "meet a political mandate" there is also the possibility that your generating power eats into their bottom line of profits so it is possible they may drag their feet a little.

Having new electronic filing will speed things up along with increase the work force that reviews and approves pv installations. As the use of solar technology increases in size I would expect the approval process to get reduce in time. I hope it all works out for you.

[solarix]

One of the facts of life about grid-tied solar is that you are bucking the system. The whole electrical grid system was designed for central generation with the power flowing FROM the utility TO you the consumer. Now, you want to be a generator yourself and it means being able to pump power back upstream (so to speak) through the system. The solar industry has figured out how to do this and is technically not a problem, but commercially - you are threatening the utility's monopoly and basically causing regulatory difficulties. The bottom line is you have to just persevere to get it done.
Our utility has cut their solar staff, and then claims they are "overwhelmed" by solar but go through our applications with a fine tooth comb to reject them for all sorts of trivial errors, "loses" documents occasionally, and generally looks for anyway to discourage people from going solar. Oh, you want to have solar? you need to replace the service lateral from the street while you are at it....
Oh to be like Germany where you just install your system and send the utility a one-page document registering your system.... By the way, solar systems in Germany cost half what they do here in the USA, Land of the Free (I mean Land of the Red Tape).

[SunEagle]

One of the facts of life about grid-tied solar is that you are bucking the system. The whole electrical grid system was designed for central generation with the power flowing FROM the utility TO you the consumer. Now, you want to be a generator yourself and it means being able to pump power back upstream (so to speak) through the system. The solar industry has figured out how to do this and is technically not a problem, but commercially - you are threatening the utility's monopoly and basically causing regulatory difficulties. The bottom line is you have to just persevere to get it done.
Our utility has cut their solar staff, and then claims they are "overwhelmed" by solar but go through our applications with a fine tooth comb to reject them for all sorts of trivial errors, "loses" documents occasionally, and generally looks for anyway to discourage people from going solar. Oh, you want to have solar? you need to replace the service lateral from the street while you are at it....
Oh to be like Germany where you just install your system and send the utility a one-page document registering your system.... By the way, solar systems in Germany cost half what they do here in the USA, Land of the Free (I mean Land of the Red Tape).

A solar pv system may be cheaper in Germany but when you compare the cost of electricity in that country compared to the average cost in the US at ( ~ $0.11/kWh) you have to understand that their cost went up when they headed off in the direction of more RE and less Nuclear.

Oh by the way since they have shut down most of the Nuclear power generation plants they have had to increase the output of their coal power generating plants to fill in the power needed when their RE does not produce.

[solarix]

Don't worry, I'm not moving to Germany.

[NYHeel]

I understand your frustration. Waiting on local regulators or a company approval is like watching paint dry. Long and boring.

What I might add for your consideration is that think of a solar pv installation similar to a major electrical project that will be connecting to a "system" or the grid that is maintained by people that could be hurt if the install is wrong.

While there is always bureaucratic red tape in most processes, when it comes to electricity safety is viewed a much higher priority then expediency. So some things take longer to review and approve then what you would think. Unfortunately there is also the side that the final approval is with your POCO. While they may be very happy for the additional generation so they "meet a political mandate" there is also the possibility that your generating power eats into their bottom line of profits so it is possible they may drag their feet a little.

Having new electronic filing will speed things up along with increase the work force that reviews and approves pv installations. As the use of solar technology increases in size I would expect the approval process to get reduce in time. I hope it all works out for you.

Yeah, I know you're right. The weird thing though is that it's actually NJ Clean Energy, the government group that supports solar, that's the real bottleneck in NJ. In order to get SRECs, you need to go through their approval process. The utility approval is slow but not too terrible.

Though I shouldn't really complain about NJCE. The SREC inventive program in New Jersey is incredible and really makes buying solar in NJ a no brainer. If it means an extra month or two to get those benefits I should just deal with it.

[randomuser]

NYHeel, to answer your question if it's this slow in other places, no it's not. I just received the permission to turn on my system today from San Diego Gas & Electric. I signed my contract with my installer on 3/18 and today, on 4/27, I crossed the finish line with permission to generate electricity. My city permit took about a month to approve, with a fix problems and resubmit requirement. Everything else was pretty fast. I don't know if CA is faster because the people in the process are more used to doing this? I hear some installs in San Diego take quite awhile too, so an install may just "depend" I guess.

[SunEagle]

NYHeel, to answer your question if it's this slow in other places, no it's not. I just received the permission to turn on my system today from San Diego Gas & Electric. I signed my contract with my installer on 3/18 and today, on 4/27, I crossed the finish line with permission to generate electricity. My city permit took about a month to approve, with a fix problems and resubmit requirement. Everything else was pretty fast. I don't know if CA is faster because the people in the process are more used to doing this? I hear some installs in San Diego take quite awhile too, so an install may just "depend" I guess.

My guess is that where you are the POCO is required to have a specific amount of their power coming from RE. So they might rush a home installation if that kWh can be counted in their total.

For other POCO's if there isn't any state mandate to meet an RE goal the approval process may be slower.

While I understand that NJCE is supporting solar installs my guess is that how the SREC's are used may be the dilemma. For some companies purchasing those can help them meet Carbon Reduction but while they want them they also do not want to over pay. So the process of how many SREC and how much they are worth could slow down the approval system.