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Vent: my town finally hit 500 home solar roofs and nobody mentions the real reason it happened
I live in Fresno and our city just passed 500 rooftop solar installs in one year, which for a place this hot is a big deal because everyone runs AC from May to October. Here is the part people keep getting wrong, they think it was all rebates and tax credits. It was actually the new online permit tool the county rolled out back in March. Before that, a homeowner had to drive downtown, wait in line, get plans checked, and come back two more times, and I watched folks give up halfway through. My neighbor Rosa got her permits same day on a phone while we were standing in her driveway. Funny thing is almost nobody talks about permits when they talk about climate action, but the paperwork is what kills these projects. Her system went live in 3 weeks instead of the 4 months her brother waited back in 2022. Has anyone else seen a city where the permit process, not the money, was the thing holding solar back?
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noahpark10h ago
Wait, Rosa got her permits approved on a phone in the driveway the same day? That is wild to me because I always figured the wait times were about safety checks or the power company dragging its feet, not the city counter itself. It makes you wonder how many other places are sitting on good ideas just because the front door is so hard to walk through.
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