Solar made easier

To the Editor:

Most of the time getting a permit to do anything at your house is a lengthy and costly process. Not so now if your City or County has adopted the free software program called Solar Automated Permit Processing Plus (Solar APP+). This is the result of a law that requires cities and counties to streamline the permitting process for installing solar and/or battery storage.

Now with this software program solar can be installed immediately after submitting an application for a permit. This is particularly important if a customer, outside the City of Ukiah, which has its own electric utility, wants to take advantage of the time period when PG&E will credit a solar user for their entire excess energy credit. Regrettably, as of April 14 any new solar installations for PG&E customers will only get 25% of their energy credit.

Bravo to the County of Mendocino and the City of Ukiah for making application for the funding for training and installation of the Solar APP+ software. The County is farther along in its adoption of the software. The City of Ukiah is in the process of doing so.

Any streamlining of the permit process is a good thing and saves money, but doing this now for solar installations is a must. If the City of Willits and the City of Fort Bragg could apply for the software all the better. Their population is small enough to allow them to delay or not be required to adopt the software at all, but why wouldn't those cities want to make it easier to install solar? If you live in either of those cities now is the time to contact your City Council members and advocate for the adoption of this easy software process. — Eileen Mitro, Ukiah, CA