[Baltimore Sun] How Maryland is becoming a leader in clean energy | GUEST COMMENTARY
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Thanks to Gov. Wes Moore and state lawmakers, Maryland is emerging as a national leader for clean energy. In April, Moore signed a landmark executive order that sets a standard to get Maryland to 100% clean energy by 2035, a goal we need to hit in order to clean up our air and protect our planet.
Maryland has made progress toward this target, but we have a ways to go. Right now, just 12% of our state’s electricity comes from renewable sources like solar. This is why the Brighter Tomorrow Act, which also passed earlier this year, is a major step forward for Maryland. This legislation will boost our clean energy transition by requiring cities and counties across the state to adopt instant permitting for rooftop solar, as well as adding new incentives and grants for these systems.
Rooftop solar is critical to moving the needle on clean energy in a state like Maryland. Rooftop solar can be built out more easily and reliably than large-scale renewables, delivering meaningful climate benefits on a shorter timeline. Families can achieve energy cost savings by putting solar on their roofs. And, thanks to new state and federal incentives, including tens of billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act, it’s more affordable than ever for households to make the switch to solar.
Up to now, rooftop solar growth has been hampered by time-consuming approval processes. For every application, local authorities might have to manually work through 100 compliance checks and get approval from the building, electrical, fire, planning and zoning departments. These complications and resulting wait times have led people to think twice about installing solar. We can’t afford unnecessary delays and red tape if Maryland is to reach its 2035 clean energy goal.
The Brighter Tomorrow Act fixes this problem by prompting local governments to adopt Solar APP+, an automatic permitting platform developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. SolarApp+ can approve rooftop solar permits same-day, with no compromises on the necessary safety checks. Montgomery County is already using SolarAPP+, and a state grant program to help other jurisdictions come aboard by covering the costs of the transition will roll out this month.
Once local governments make the change to instant permitting, they see pay-off in the form of more manageable workloads and reduced permitting backlogs. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that across the hundreds of jurisdictions around the country where SolarAPP+ is already being used, local governments have saved around 15,400 staff hours and eliminated over 150,000 business days of permitting-related delays in 2023.
With the Brighter Tomorrow Act, Maryland joins four other states, including California, Minnesota and Colorado, that have established similar programs to encourage or require localities to fastrack rooftop solar applications. Now it’s up to our counties, cities and towns to lean in and help make going solar in Maryland hassle-free for everyone — customers, installers and permitting officials alike.
There’s never been a better time to switch to solar in Maryland. Let’s turn those golden rays into clean energy that will make our air cleaner, lower our bills and help fight climate change.
Johanna Neumann is the senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy at Environment America. Kimberly Armstrong is the Maryland program director of Solar United Neighbors.
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