BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 2135
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: blumenfield
VERSION: 6/11/12
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 19, 2012
SUBJECT:
Local government permitting of solar energy systems
DESCRIPTION:
This bill requires specified state entities to develop a
guidebook to assist cities and counties in implementing building
standards and permitting processes for solar distributed
generation technology. The bill also allows the Air Resources
Board and the California Energy Commission to give priority in
certain grant programs to cities and counties that adopt the
policies in the guidebook.
ANALYSIS:
The California Building Standards Law establishes the California
Building Standards Commission (BSC) and the process for adopting
state building standards. Under this process, relevant state
agencies propose amendments to model building codes, which the
BSC must then adopt, modify, or reject. For example, the
Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is the
relevant state agency for residential building standards. The
State Fire Marshal is the relevant state agency for building
standards related to fire safety in all occupancies. After the
BSC adopts building standards, cities and counties implement and
enforce building standards through the issuance of building
permits and inspection of construction work.
This bill requires the BSC and HCD, in cooperation with the
State Fire Marshal, to develop a guidebook to assist cities and
counties in implementing building standards and permitting
processes for solar distributed generation technology on
residential and commercial property and to post the guidebook on
their respective websites. The bill further provides that the
Air Resources Board (ARB) and the California Energy Commission
(CEC), when making grants related to energy or climate project
planning or implementation, may grant a preference or priority
AB 2135 (BLUMENFIELD) Page 2
to cities and counties that adopt the policies from the
guidebook.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose of the bill . According to the author's office, the
process of obtaining local government permits to install
rooftop solar panels varies widely across cities and counties
and is often inefficient and expensive. The author cites a
January 2011 national report entitled "The Impact of Local
Permitting on the Cost of Solar Power" issued by the solar
power service provider SunRun that states in part:
The bulk of the problem is local process and variation?.
Inefficient local process waste times and money, and local
variation forces installers to spend time and money
customizing plans for each jurisdiction. Standardizing
this process makes sense because most installations are
relatively similar and share many similarities of design?.
Since each jurisdiction has different requirements,
installers may have to research code, customize drawings,
and apply for zoning approval every time they do an
install. Many jurisdictions require review by an
expensive professional engineer even if similar plans have
been approved before?. Jurisdictions often have
requirements beyond what state or national code requires,
such as larger fire barriers, extra disconnects to turn
off the system, expensive labeling, and excessive roof
penetrations. These add significant cost to a system.
The author believes that these barriers are an impediment to
thousands of Californians who may otherwise install solar
panels on their homes and reduce potential jobs in the clean
energy sector. This bill seeks to bring more certainty and
uniformity to property owners hoping to install solar systems
by creating a guidebook to help local governments streamline
their permit processes.
2.Building on national efforts . The federally-funded Solar
America Board for Codes and Standards has already developed a
model permitting process for solar systems of less than 15kW
maximum power output for cities and counties to follow. This
bill seeks to build on these efforts in three ways: 1) by
providing additional guidance to cities and counties on how to
interpret California-specific building standards that relate
AB 2135 (BLUMENFIELD) Page 3
to solar systems; 2) by employing the communications abilities
and the credibility of the BSC to get permit streamlining
information into the hands of local building inspectors; and
3) by creating incentives for cities and counties to adopt
more streamlined permitting procedures.
3.Vague incentives . In order to incentivize local adoption of
streamlined permitting processes for solar systems, this bill
permits the Air Resources Board and the California Energy
Commission, when making grants related to energy or climate
project planning or implementation, to grant a preference or
priority to cities and counties that adopt the policies from
the guidebook. In order for incentives to be most effective,
both the substance of the incentive and the standards for
qualifying must be clear.
The language relating to incentives in this bill is somewhat
vague. First, the bill permits, rather than requires, ARB and
CEC to offer bonus points in grant programs. This means that
local governments may not know for some time whether any
incentive will be available. Second, the bill does not
quantify what the incentive will be. Third, it is not clear
what it means for a city or county to "adopt" the policies in
the guidebook. The guidebook in part is likely to include
clarifications of existing building standards, which cities
and counties will hopefully follow but may not formally
"adopt." Cities and counties are more likely to adopt changes
to building permitting practices, but will they qualify for
incentives if they make any alterations to the recommendations
in the guidebook? And will they have to adopt every single
recommendation? A majority of the recommendations? Until the
BSC issues the guidebook, it may be difficult to answer these
questions and craft more specific incentives. The committee
may wish to consider whether the incentives in this bill
should be mandatory and, if so, to quantify some minimum bonus
percentage.
4.Back to Rules . The Rules Committee originally referred this
bill to both this committee and the Committee on Governmental
Organization. The Rules Committee has since requested that
the committee, if it approves the bill, send it back to Rules
for reevaluation of the second referral.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 75-0
Appr: 17-0
AB 2135 (BLUMENFIELD) Page 4
B&P: 9-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 13,
2012)
SUPPORT: California Public Utilities Commission Division
of Ratepayer Advocates
Environmental Defense Fund
Sierra Club
SunRun
Sungevity
Suntech
Vote Solar Initiative
OPPOSED: None received.