US solar firms tell Congress 'now is the time for policy action' on permitting and siting reform

Two hundred US solar and energy storage companies on Wednesday sent a letter to congressional leaders calling for passage of legislation before 5 November national elections to improve permitting, siting, public lands access, and transmission for projects.

Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), a national trade group based in Washington, DC, claimed there are “hundreds of billions of investment dollars” that are dependent on the country’s ability to efficiently site, permit, and connect projects to a modern transmission system.

“Now is the time for policy action to strengthen America’s energy industry and support local economies with jobs and private investments,” she said, asserting that lawmakers in both parties “understand the importance of getting new energy infrastructure built quickly and efficiently.”

Market forecasts show that a range of policy and economic outcomes will determine the volume of solar deployment over the next decade, including regulatory factors and the pace of transmission capacity buildout.

Energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, for example, estimates US solar industry installations as high as 673GW by 2034 versus 177GW on 1 January this year. Its low-case deployment forecast is 200GW less. The US installed a record 19.6GW of utility-scale solar capacity in 2023.

President Joe Biden’s administration views solar as a lynchpin for the US to meet his ambitious 2035 goal for a carbon-free electric grid. Solar has led all technologies in grid-scale capacity additions in the past several years, and is expected to become dominant next decade, according to administration and private forecasts.

The letter, dated 11 April, was sent to House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican.

The companies put forward multiple reform proposals they contend can sustain solar and storage industries’ growth trajectory.

These included measures to streamline and standardise the permitting process at the federal level, while supporting environmental safeguards, and investing in transmission planning, build out, and grid modernisation efforts to maximise transmission capacity.

On the often-thorny issue of siting, the letter recommends creation of partnerships at all levels of government – federal, state, local – “to work together to identify and designate appropriate sites for clean energy development, including on underutilised and disturbed lands.”

For public lands under federal control, “simplify the process” for clean energy generation and transmission projects to access leases, while maintaining environmental conservation standards, signatories to the letter urged.

“Permitting reform at the federal level and significant transmission system investment are essential to our national energy security,” said Amanda Smith, vice president for external affairs for AES’ US renewables business.