Solar Freedom Now Releases White Paper “A Roadmap for Reducing Rooftop Solar Costs by 50%” – Introduces Advisory Board Of Solar Industry Veterans
PRESS RELEASE
Solar Freedom Now Releases White Paper “A Roadmap for Reducing Rooftop Solar Costs by 50%”
Introduces Advisory Board Of Solar Industry Veterans
March 4th, 2013 – Solar Freedom Now (SFN), a grass roots initiative to make solar power more affordable and accessible for all Americans, releases its White Paper: “A Roadmap for Reducing Rooftop Solar Costs by 50%,” and also introduces its Advisory Board of solar industry veterans. Solar Freedom Now’s goal is to make 2013 the year of eliminating the paperwork and red tape that burdens solar installations.
A Roadmap for Reducing Rooftop Solar Costs by 50%
Solar panel prices have plummeted over the past five years. But homeowners in the U.S. still pay about twice as much for rooftop solar as homeowners in Germany. Research indicates that this large price difference is due to the high “soft costs” in the U.S. – local permitting, complicated incentive documentation, exhaustive interconnection requirements, multiple inspections and all the extra time this red tape requires.
“In order to lower the price of a solar system, it’s easier to find a way to cut red tape by 20% than to find another 20% in incentives or reduced equipment costs” says Ron Kenedi, co-founder of SFN. “Eliminating the paperwork and red tape is the industry’s biggest cost saving opportunity.”
Numerous efforts have been made to reduce and simplify this paperwork. But like a nationwide game of mutant “whack a mole” – regulations and requirements are expanding. With 18,443 cities, 3,273 utilities and 50 states – all of which have some jurisdiction over rooftop solar systems – localized efforts to simplify solar installation paperwork are not scalable across the country. This paperwork is a brick wall impeding the solar industry’s cost reduction goals.
Solar Freedom Now is committed to reducing these soft costs on a nation-wide basis. It is a policy problem, one that new solar technologies, better software or less expensive solar panels cannot solve. We recommend the implementation of a single national policy that would grant homeowners the right to install a standardized, under 10kw system, using UL listed components, following National Electrical Code standards, installed by a qualified contractor and subject to a single local inspection.
“Who wouldn’t want to generate electricity on the roof of their own house? But the costs are kept artificially high because of all the ridiculous paperwork and red tape,” said Barry Cinnamon, co-founder of SFN. “Cutting this red tape is a message that appeals to both sides of the political aisle, and will help the solar industry grow even faster without the need for additional incentives.”
Solar Freedom Now Board of Advisors
The new group is made up of the following veteran solar executives: Jesse Pichel, CEO and Founder of Pichel Cleantech Advisors; Paula Mints, Founder/Chief Market Research Analyst at Paula Mints Solar PV Market Research; Tom McCalmont, CEO of McCalmont Engineering; Ron Kenedi, President/CEO Ron Kenedi Consulting; and Barry Cinnamon, Founder Cinnamon Solar Technology.
Solar Freedom Now’s first goal is to communicate the message of reducing “soft costs” to the approximately 110,000 working professionals in the solar industry, as well as millions of solar power supporters across the US.
Join Solar Freedom Now to reduce solar installation costs and move our industry in the right direction in 2013.
For more information about Solar Freedom Now:
www.solarfreedomnow.org
FaceBook: Solar Freedom Now
LinkedIn Group: Solar Freedom Now
CONTACTS:
Ron Kenedi, 714-222-3236, ronkenedi at hotmail.com
Barry Cinnamon, 408-406-0058, bcinnamon at gmail.com
info@solarfreedomnow.org
Solar Freedom Now – 2013 March Whitepaper
A Roadmap for Reducing Rooftop Solar Costs by 50% – by Solar Freedom Now
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Report
Why are Residential PV Prices in Germany So Much Lower than in the United States? – by Joachim Seel, Galen L. Barbose, and Ryan H. Wiser
Guest Post: California Utilities Are Fighting Solar Progress
GreenTechSolar Article – by Adam Browning
Solar energy is one of California’s biggest success stories. Homes, schools and businesses are going solar in record numbers. The growing industry now employs 43,000 Californians and has infused $10 billion in private investment into our otherwise limping economy…
US: Red Tape Holds Back Solar Installer Market
PV Magazine Interview – by Jonathan Gifford
New data has revealed that solar installers in the U.S. are being slowed down by red tape, which is pushing up the installed price. The survey data was collected by solar financers Clean Power Finance, which gathered responses from installers across 12 states…
More than a Third of U.S. Solar Installers Say Permitting Requirements Limit Growth
Clean Power Finance – Article
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)—Clean Power Finance today unveiled a nationwide study of solar permitting and the obstacle it poses to the widespread adoption of residential solar. The study, the largest of its kind to date, provides quantifiable evidence of the negative effects complex permitting regulations have on U.S. solar installers and also on the authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs), including municipalities and utilities, who oversee permitting processes….
ILSR Commercial Solar Grid Parity Report
Commercial Rooftop Revolution – ILSR Report by John Farrell
Campaign to Slash Red Tape
PV Magazine Interview – by Jonathan Gifford
Right across the PV industry it is well known that system prices are falling. In the U.S. one factor that is keeping installed costs artificially high is administrative and regulatory costs. Committed to cutting the red tape is the Solar Freedom Now coalition, which is being spearheaded by Barry Cinnamon, who spoke with pv magazine to outline what effect it could have and how the goal aligns with the 300 GW p.a. initiative…
US: Installed Price of PV Systems Continue To Fall
Pv Magazine Article – by Shamsiah Ali-Oettinger
Right across the PV industry it is well known that system prices are falling. In the U.S. one factor that is keeping installed costs artificially high is administrative and regulatory costs. Committed to cutting the red tape is the Solar Freedom Now coalition, which is being spearheaded by Barry Cinnamon, who spoke with pv magazine to outline what effect it could have and how the goal aligns with the 300 GW p.a. initiative…
Tackling Solar Soft Costs From Every Angle
GreenTechSolar Article – by Herman K. Trabish
While module prices plummet, the soft (non-hardware) costs of installing solar systems remain a stubborn barrier to affordability. The difference between the U.S. $4.44 per watt average installed cost for a typical residential rooftop system and the $2.24 per watt figure for comparable German systems, GTM recently reported, is in soft costs like customer acquisition, permitting, inspection and interconnection…
US Department of Energy – Sun Shot Report
Benchmarking Non-Hardware Balance of System (Soft) Costs for U.S. Photovoltaic Systems Using a Data-Driven Analysis from PV Installer Survey Results – by Kristen Ardani, Galen Barbose, Robert Margolis, Ryan Wiser, David Feldman, and Sean Ong
Solar Installers: Tangled Up in Red
GreenTechSolar Article – by Herman K. Trabish
A solar installer in one Southern California city can take a set of plans to the proper authority and get a permit to build within 48 hours, a twelve-year solar industry veteran recently said. But in a virtually indistinguishable city of the same size that is immediately adjacent, Paramount Solar VP Todd Lindstrom said, “If I get it done in under three weeks, it’s a miracle…”
Solar Freedom Now Launch – Press Release
September 7th, 2012
For Immediate Release
Industry Leaders Partner with ASES to Launch Solar Freedom Now
Goal is to Cut Solar Costs in Half by Eliminating Paperwork and Red Tape
Orlando, FL, September 7th, 2012 – Solar industry leaders, in partnership with ASES (the American Solar Energy Society) are taking on the biggest cost hurdle for solar power – the paperwork and red tape that doubles installation costs – by establishing Solar Freedom Now (SFN). The organization’s goal is to make it as easy and fast to install rooftop solar panels as it is to install a satellite TV dish.
Panel Costs Have Plummeted, but Installations are Still Expensive
“Solar systems cost twice as much in the U.S. compared to Germany,” said SFN founder Barry Cinnamon (see: “Cut the Price of Solar in Half” at Forbes.com). Studies by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and by the University of California, Berkeley both confirm that these higher prices are almost exclusively related to the paperwork it takes to “officially” install a standard rooftop system in the U.S. “This red tape is holding back the industry from creating even more jobs, driving innovation, and building true energy security for our nation,” said Cinnamon.
“It takes only days to install a system in Germany compared to months in the U.S,” noted co-founder Ron Kenedi. “I can tell you from personal experience — as well as 30 years in the solar industry — that we can install safe, code-compliant systems here in the U.S. just as fast as they do in Germany. All the extra time, paperwork and inspections simply add to the installed cost of our systems. We are very pleased to partner with ASES, which has been working effectively at the grass roots level for decades on critical solar issues like this,” said Kenedi.
A National Approach to Paperwork and Red Tape is Required
“With 18,000 cities, 3,000 utilities and 50 states all setting their own rules and procedures for solar installations, we absolutely need a national approach to eliminating this paperwork and red tape,” said Susan Greene, President of ASES. “ASES’s campaign with Solar Freedom Now is targeted towards solving this problem in every state, city and utility across the U.S,” said Greene.
Changes like this start at the grass roots level, and Solar Freedom Now’s first goal is to generate wide spread support for eliminating burdensome paperwork and red tape. “For almost 60 years, ASES has been working to promote safe, affordable solar energy. We see Solar Freedom Now as the best path forward to reduce these stubbornly high installation costs, said Greene.”
Stop by the ASES booth #3760 at Solar Power International 2012 to sign up as a supporter and to get more information about Solar Freedom Now. You can also sign up at www.solarfreedomnow.org or Facebook at Solar Freedom.
About Solar Freedom Now
Solar Freedom Now is a non-profit organization dedicated to making solar power affordable for all Americans by eliminating paperwork and red-tape. For more information, go to:
www.solarfreedomnow.org or visit us on Facebook at “Solar Freedom.”
Contacts:
Anya Schoolman, Community Power Network
202-256-4327 or anya.schoolman@gmail.com
Barry Cinnamon
bcinnamon@gmail.com
Ron Kenedi
ronkenedi@hotmail.com
Susan Greene
SGreene@ases.org