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U.S. seeks to speed rooftop solar growth with instant permits:
The Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP+) platform, developed by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will be an optional portal for local governments to process permit applications automatically.
Approvals typically take a week or more currently, and permit-related costs can account for about a third of installers' overall costs, DOE said. The software speeds the process up by standardizing requirements, streamlining the application and automating some approvals.
Administration officials said the software will help speed adoption of rooftop solar and achieve President Joe Biden's goal of decarbonizing the U.S. electricity grid by 2035, a key pillar of his plan to address climate change. DOE has said that solar energy will need to be installed at a pace as much as five times faster than it is today to realize that goal.
[...] The portal performs an automatic review of permit applications, approving eligible systems instantly. Complex or ineligible systems are re-routed for additional review.
Local governments will not have to pay for the portal, DOE said. DOE is challenging 125 mayors and local officials to sign up for the SolarAPP tool before the end of the summer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday July 21 2021, @05:54PM (9 children)
I gotta say I completely disagree here. You take a guy who is an electrician, you take a building architect, they need to drive out to the site. Then there's paperwork and design documents that need to be reviewed. Local weather needs to be taken into account. This is a big thing.
I was doing some construction in a building I own after the top floor tenants moved out. I ripped out the ceiling and the non load bearing walls, and redid the whole thing - raising the ceiling into part of the attic. Took over a year. It would have taken me several months and about 10k to get permits. I've got a buddy from college who became an electrician, and my ex-roomate is a structural engineer. They came out several times and worked with the crew to make sure everything is up to code. Then I got them a couple of plane tickets and hotel for vacation, using my points. No permits, we kept the windows draped off during construction, and kept it quiet. Then I sold the house, and it passed inspection by the buyer's bank.
So the issue at hand is the "cheaper" thing. In theory, this should be $2k, not 10k. But let's look at normal government markup. My "realID" drivers license cost me $90 - in some states it's $45. How much does that really cost? Probably five bucks. Passport renewal? It's $110. Why is all this shit so expensive? Same reason a $50 bottle of wine is $200 at a restaurant. You're not paying for the wine, you're paying for the building and the business. That extra $8k is what's needed to run the department, their HR, their office lease, their maternity leave. If we get rid of these fees for "common construction" those costs do not go away, and will just have to be paid by the general taxpayer. Do you want people unable to afford housing to take that money out of their rent, to pay for your house construction? Do you want people on the bus or walking to pay for the gas tax? Does someone who pays for their kids to attend a private school want to pay for public schools via their property taxes? Does a hippie want to pay for us to start wars in iraq after dumbya goes on national tv in a cowboy costume and lies about weapons of ass destruction?
(Score: 3, Informative) by bussdriver on Wednesday July 21 2021, @09:37PM (2 children)
There are a couple TV series with this guy...Mike Holmes where the whole thing is about people getting screwed from contractors and inspectors NOT doing their jobs correctly OR HONESTLY.
People are supposed to TRUST that you didn't sell them a moldy death trap??
Sure their payed inspector might spot things but unless they rip some shit open they need to be around during the process to see something is not being easily hidden. We need permits, regulations, and inspectors for a good reason and yes like EVERYTHING they have greedy corrupt and dishonest people. The problem is that many humans just suck. You have some bad humans that make it a problem for all of us so we hire and require other humans to mitigate the bad humans and naturally, those humans have a % that suck and the oversight of those humans 3rd level removed have some humans that suck... the whole system is designed by politicians and that power attract even more people who suck and half the electorate love to vote for people who really suck... because they suck at voting to the point they'll destroy democracy...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 22 2021, @02:56AM
There's something particularly revolting about the off-spring of senior politicians.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 22 2021, @04:29AM
When we did construction, we had a number of contractors that offered to do the construction without pulling permits. Those we declined. A different contractor built in time to their estimated schedule specifically to redo work for failing the inspections at various steps. When I asked him about it, he replied "everybody fails and has to fix it." After that I got curious and put in a FOIA request to our city department that does permits. Turns out that most companies and licensees don't have to redo work ever, but that there are serial offenders that routinely fail the first pass. Interestingly enough, it also turned out that people who had unpermitted work done tend also have the work redone as part of closing or in less than 5 years anyway. Which means that they don't really end up saving money in the long run.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Thursday July 22 2021, @12:43AM (5 children)
Maybe that $90 for a $5 job is a sign they need a hell of a lot less department, HR, office, maternity leave, etc.
That's an excellent argument. But here's the catch. You're not paying for the costs of your interest - making sure your building is safe. You're paying so that someone can warm chairs, someone can profit from building and rental contracts, and other bits of corruption. I personally would rather this corruption just be minimized so that pay for use makes sense. But if we're going to pay for corruption, we might as well spread the pain so that everyone pays for it, not just the people who need vital services that just so happen to benefit a lot more people than themselves.
Finally, just because this effort is advertised as being a cost savings doesn't mean it will be or even will be intended as such. It could just be another bit of corruption and just another big cost. I'm a bit hopeful since it's intended to expedite a policy goal - those tend to get treated more seriously, but failures of this sort have happened before.
These costs don't go down unless we make them go down. Merely accepting that a $5 job takes $90, just means that a few decades down the road you're merely accepting that a $5 job takes $180 or $360.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fakefuck39 on Thursday July 22 2021, @01:36AM (4 children)
>I personally would rather this corruption just be minimized
what you're saying is there's too much fat, and too much corruption. newsflash, a percent of the population are corrupt, a percent lazy, and a percent like to fuck little boys. you end up with any organization with fat, and any church with pedo priests. your solution is "don't hire corrupt lazy people." that's like having a dirty pitcher of water and trying to pour yourself a clean glass from it.
we have what we have. unless you have a better plan to have an organization build with this mix of people, you don't have a solution, you have a useless rant. and no, oversight agencies and things like that won't get the water clean. those are already in place. if they weren't, that $10k in fees would be $20k in fees.
>These costs don't go down unless we make them go down.
and we are indeed keeping them down. the cost you're complaining about now, would be much higher if we didn't. your solution of "less overhead and less management" would not result in a leaner organization. it would result in the building in Florida that collapsed killing a bunch of people.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by khallow on Sunday July 25 2021, @04:13AM (3 children)
The thing is, I'm not speaking of shaving slivers of fat, mild inefficiency off of a near perfect process. $90 for a $5 job means you're not even within an order of magnitude of efficient.
Of course, I have a better plan. Fire their asses. Then that organization isn't built with that mix of people.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Sunday July 25 2021, @04:21AM (2 children)
You do seem to consistently miss the point. It's not a $5 job retard - it's a $5 license. I outlined that in detail. You need printers and IT, background check systems to talk, inter-state checks for tickets, criminal records, link to federal and state systems, HR, lawyers, a graphic designer for the forms, maternity leave, website designers, etc.
>Of course, I have a better plan. Fire their asses.
Cool. And the people who decide who gets fired are from that dirty water pool too. Internal Affairs got the cops in check - right?
>Then that organization isn't built with that mix of people.
It is, it's just smaller now so your shit costs even more and takes even longer.
If you think $90 for a $5 card is too much, you'd be surprised how much the ingredients for a coffee at a starbucks cost.
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday July 25 2021, @11:51AM (1 child)
Unless, of course, it's faster because the shit got removed.
Then maybe the problem is just that permitting shouldn't be done by that government. If they're not going to do the job relatively efficiently, then I'm fine with not paying them to not do the job.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Sunday July 25 2021, @12:18PM
>Unless, of course, it's faster because the shit got removed.
yes, less staff means faster work. That's why my checkout at the grocery store is faster when there's a single cashier. you are a retard
>permitting shouldn't be done by that government
The solution to expensive housing permits is to replace the government. A king perhaps, or an EU-style parliament with a premier.
>I'm fine with not paying them to not do the job.
Then you're fine with a guy building a meat smoke factory next to your house. Cool. How about a guy who builds a tall house, that collapses onto yours and kills your kids. Oh who am I kidding, how can an incel have kids.
> "Ingredients" - you're not counting the labor and capital costs? Why the double standard?
I am counting the labor costs, which is why it's $5 for a coffee, and $90 for a license. That $5 coffee includes quality control people, maternity leave, accountants, and building inspectors, for the building you walk into to get your coffee. The markup on the coffee from 20c of ingredients, is higher than the markup on the realID drivers licens, which is higher than the markup on building permits and inspections.
>Why the double standard?
Why indeed. Why do you have this double standard. Oh, because your autistic brain does not live in this real world, and make up one you can feel better about yourself in. Take your pills.