The push to accelerate residential solar deployment across the United States has increasingly relied on automating the local permitting process. However, a growing policy debate is emerging over whether state legislatures are standardizing public outcomes or merely codifying market advantages for a single platform.
According to Leila Banijamali, founder of regulatory technology platform Symbium, laws in states like California and Maryland are effectively establishing a regulatory monopoly for SolarAPP+, an automated permitting software developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Under California’s SB 379, local governments must implement an online permitting system capable of processing what SolarAPP+ is capable of processing, anchoring compliance directly to a single product’s technical boundaries.
“Naming a particular solution as a standard does not advance that goal,” said Banijamali. “Standardization comes from consistent rules, not from tying compliance to the current capabilities of one platform.”
This statutory favoritism becomes particularly problematic given the makeup of the platform’s leadership. SolarAPP+ is heavily influenced by a board that includes executives from high-volume installers and manufacturers, prompting concerns about industry bias over public safety.
“The legislation inherently promotes industry bias over public interest, making SB 379 far less about streamlining permitting and far more about entrenching a preferred market player,” said Banijamali.
By pre-selecting a specific platform, policymakers are also restricting how local jurisdictions handle unique regional safety requirements. SolarAPP+ was originally unable to process an estimated 60% of residential solar permits when SB 379 was under consideration. Because the platform’s internal compliance logic is not transparently auditable, many local building departments chose to adopt it simply to avoid the risk of state noncompliance, even when better options existed.
Furthermore, out-of-the-box software often shifts administrative burdens downstream rather than eliminating them. In Tracy, California, inspectors have reported that navigating the extensive, rigid checklists generated by the platform is impractical during busy field schedules.
A technology-neutral alternative would instead focus on setting clear public goals and objective criteria, allowing any qualified platform to compete. Rather than funding singular, narrow tools, state policy could incentivize flexible systems that adapt to local building codes, environmental overlays, and diverse project types.
The benefits of a more open approach are already visible in municipal operations. In Bakersfield, California, where Symbium is utilized to automate more than 15 different residential retrofit project types, local building departments have seen a 40% increase in staff efficiency and a 75% reduction in permit processing times.
“The strongest results come from systems that scale across project types while accurately reflecting local rules, rather than from narrowly scoped, one-size-fits-all solutions,” said Banijamali.
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