Southern New England barely passed the Solar Permitting Scorecard. All three states earned a D. No refrigerator fame this year.

Residents in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut interested in adding rooftop solar and battery storage to their homes face unnecessary bureaucratic barriers, according to a new report by Environment America.

The “Solar Permitting Scorecard: Grading all 50 states on removing obstacles to rooftop solar and home batteries” found 46 of the 50 states have done little to nothing to adopt commonsense practices that reduce the costs and delays that permitting and inspection requirements impose on households wishing to install solar panels and batteries.

“Rooftop solar offers Rhode Islanders the chance to harness pollution-free energy right at their homes, but going solar is harder and more expensive than it needs to be,” said Rex Wilmouth, state director of Environment Rhode Island. “With instant permitting and other solutions readily available, there’s no reason families who want rooftop solar should have to endure such a laborious process.”

The United States is facing an increasing demand for energy — largely because of the rapid growth of data centers to support the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence — and rooftop solar and home batteries are a cleaner alternative to burning more fossil fuels.

Besides the six New England states earning a D, 18 other states also barely passed. Twenty-two states failed, two earned a C, and two earned a B.

Navigating complex permitting and other bureaucratic barriers can add an estimated $6,000 to $7,000 to the cost of a typical residential solar energy system, according to Environment America. These unnecessary hurdles can deter some households from accessing these proven energy solutions and savings.

Utility bills have risen faster than inflation since 2022, and are set to continue to rise as utilities request record increases in rates from regulators, according to a recent Permit Power report. As a result, 1 in 7 U.S. households are living in energy poverty.

If the United States cut red tape and adopted other policies to bring solar in line with the cost in peer countries, we could see 18 million more households installing solar by 2040, according to the Permit Power report. This solar-power increase would result in $1.2 trillion in utility bill savings and nearly 200 additional gigawatts of residential solar nationally — equivalent to some two-thirds of U.S. current solar capacity.

The Permit Power report also noted the cost of residential rooftop solar and batteries in the U.S. is expensive relative to other countries. At a median of $28,000 for a 7-kilowatt system, U.S. solar is up to seven times more costly to install than Australia ($4,000) and Germany ($10,000).

The Environment America report gives credit to some Rhode Island policies, such as allowing power purchase agreements and leases and having a statewide building code, which gives installers a consistent regulatory framework.

But Wilmouth said there are areas for improvement. He noted Rhode Island legislators have an opportunity to improve the state’s grade and rooftop solar access if they pass reforms included in the energy bills H7726 and S2801.

Rep. Jennifer Boylan, D-Barrington, the sponsor of H7726, said the legislation “would have some big winners: homeowners get solar deployed faster and cheaper and save money on energy bills; installers get streamlined permitting and inspection processes; municipalities get modernized permit and inspection processes without sacrificing safety; and the environment wins when we decarbonize our homes.”

For some Rhode Island solar advocates, however, permitting and red tape at both the state and local levels aren’t the main impediments when it comes to installing residential solar. They believe the state’s focus should be on offering incentives and improving programs, not taking them away as is happening at the direction of a monopoly, Rhode Island Energy, and supported by the governor and some General Assembly members.

Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.