What is the Rooftop
Solar Challenge?
Twenty-two teams from across the country are taking the Rooftop Solar Challenge to make installing rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) easier, faster, and cheaper for homeowners and businesses. The Challenge is part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative, which seeks to make solar electricity cost competitive without subsidies by the end of the decade.
Complex permitting and grid connection processes increase the cost of solar energy systems and limit the growth of the solar industry. With support from DOE, these teams are working to reduce administrative barriers to residential and small commercial PV solar installations by streamlining, standardizing, and digitizing administrative processes.
Streamlined SolarNon-hardware costs, or "soft costs," associated with processes such as permitting and interconnection can make up as much as 40% of the total installed cost of a rooftop PV system. Teams are taking actions in four areas to bring down these soft costs and make it faster, easier, and cheaper to go solar:
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Rooftop Solar Challenge IIDOE announced a second round of funding on December 20, 2012. The Rooftop Solar Challenge II focuses on scaling up the nation's most effective approaches to local solar market transformation and soft cost reduction, while driving new innovations that decrease the cost of solar deployment. |
Team ProgressRooftop Solar Challenge teams hail from 19 states and U.S. territories and represent a combined population of more than 47 million people. These teams have developed model ordinances, building codes, guidebooks, education curricula, and online permitting systems that can be used and scaled within their regions and around the United States to make it faster, easier, and cheaper to go solar. With more than 18,000 different authorities having jurisdiction over solar PV permitting requirements, land use codes, and zoning ordinances across the United States, communities that aren't part of DOE's Rooftop Solar Challenge can still challenge themselves to become more solar friendly by tapping into Rooftop Solar Challenge resources and products. Lessons learned and best practices from the Challenge will be shared through the SunShot Resource Center. Visit the SunShot Initiative website to learn more about each team's efforts. 
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Team Spotlight: Go SOLAR (Broward County, Florida)Pizza delivery or solar permit in 30 minutes? With the launch of an online permitting system, residents in southeastern Florida can get a solar energy system permit and a preapproved set of design plans in just half an hour thanks to the Broward County Rooftop Solar Challenge team.
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Team Spotlight: Evergreen State Solar Partnership (Washington State Department of Commerce)Communities across Washington State will soon have access to more affordable residential and small commercial rooftop solar systems, thanks to the work of Rooftop Solar Challenge team Evergreen State Solar Partnership (ESSP). ESSP is working with jurisdictions, utilities, and industry partners to lower the cost of installing PV systems.
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Team Spotlight: Solar Ready KC (Mid-America Regional Council)The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) has made significant improvements to the process for installing solar in the Kansas City region. Six months after signing on to take the Rooftop Solar Challenge, MARC produced a streamlined permit checklist and application for local residents wishing to install solar PV systems on their homes.
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Team Spotlight: Efficient Solar Market Partners of Northern California (SolarTech)The sun is rising over solar permitting in California's San Francisco Bay Area. The SolarTech Rooftop Solar Challenge team that represents the Bay Area is working to make lengthy permit reviews, high costs, and inconsistent procedures things of the past.
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The Rooftop Solar Challenge supports the goals of the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Program and the SunShot Initiative, which seek to make solar electricity cost competitive without subsidies by the end of the decade.