In 2018, Laura Morales decided to install solar panels on the roof of her home in Silver Spring, hoping this would save energy and increase the value of her home.
Although it takes three months to fully install the solar panels, Morales, who worked with a company called SunPower, said the process went smoothly. She said that now she can save about US$50 to US$60 in electricity bills and receives about US$200 every three months as solar renewable energy credits.
“This is a win-win situation. In any case, you will have to pay for the electricity bill. The advantage of using solar panels to do this is that you can generate clean energy, and hope you will eventually save some money every month and increase the value of your home,” Mora Les said.
But for Montgomery County homeowners who want to install rooftop solar, the process will soon be faster, because the U.S. Department of Energy has developed a free new tool that will create a standardized licensing process for residential rooftop solar. Shorten the license time.
Montgomery County Assemblyman William O said that the solar automation license processing (SolarAPP+) allows local governments to review the building code compliance of solar projects and immediately approve the project, which will make the Montgomery County license approval process from 8- Nine days shortened to just one day Javando announced on Thursday that Montgomery County will begin using this new tool this summer.
“If we are to green the grid, this is an important part of the solution,” Jawando said at a press conference on Thursday.
Last month, Montgomery County announced a 300-page plan aimed at achieving the ambitious goal of zero carbon emissions by 2035. The plan proposes solar energy incentives and cost-effective financing options to help owners afford solar installation costs.
Jawando said that of the more than 300,000 households in Montgomery County, about 8,400 have installed solar panels on their roofs.
Last week, US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm (Jennifer M. Granholm) launched SolarAPP+. The goal is to have 125 local governments use the tool by the end of the summer. Granholm said at a press conference in Silver Spring that so far, 57 communities have signed up to SolarAPP+.
Granholm said on Thursday: “One of the major costs is bureaucracy and delays, so this is an effort to cut soft costs so that more solar can be deployed.”
She said that in order to achieve President Biden’s goal of achieving 100% clean electricity by 2035, the US Department of Energy’s goal is to connect 1,100 GW of solar energy to the grid by 2035.
Montgomery County is also working to update its building energy performance standards, which set minimum energy efficiency requirements for commercial and multifamily buildings.
County Mayor Marc B. Elrich (D) introduced a measure in April that will amend a law that already requires owners of commercial buildings over 50,000 square feet to report their energy usage to the county every year. For public disclosure. His measures will lower the threshold and require owners of commercial buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to report on the energy use of these properties. It also requires owners of multi-family residential buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to report on the energy use of these buildings annually.
According to analysis by the county administrative office, this change will require energy usage reports for approximately 1,000 buildings in the county.
“If you look at the two biggest sources of emissions, they are construction and transportation,” Jawando said. “Even if every home has solar power installed, we still cannot achieve our climate goals-this is just part of the pie.”
Jawando added that targeting commercial buildings will be the key, which is why it is important to update building energy standards and performance standards.
In February of this year, Montgomery County Public Schools signed a contract to add more than 300 electric school buses to its fleet in the next few years. The goal is to gradually convert its entire fleet to electric buses by 2035.
Montgomery County also opened its agricultural reserve to solar farms, which was used for agriculture decades ago. Now, 2% of the land can be used for solar energy. Jawando said that last week, the county received its first 2 MW solar farm application.
