FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 5, 2026

City of Kingston Partners with SolarAPP+ for Automated Solar Permitting

KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble is pleased to announce that the City of Kingston will become the first jurisdiction in New York State to adopt automated permitting for residential rooftop solar and residential battery storage systems.

Mayor Noble said, “As rising utilities cost continue to burden household budgets, we are looking for ways to help our residents. By utilizing this free app, Kingston homeowners will be able to cut red tape and install rooftop solar more quickly and easily. We are pleased to partner with SolarAPP+, which will not only benefit our residents but will also help alleviate some of the Building & Safety Department’s workload.”

Starting in July, Kingston residents will be able to use SolarAPP+, a free platform developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratory of the Rockies in collaboration with building safety experts, to select from pre-qualified local companies to install solar on their homes.

Automated permitting offers residents a safe, expedited alternative to manual plan review for simple home solar installs. Applications are automatically screened for local codes and standards, and permits are issued for compliant projects in minutes rather than weeks.

“Scenic Hudson applauds Mayor Noble and his colleagues in the City of Kingston for their leadership in adopting SolarAPP+,” said Pete Lopez, Executive Director for Policy Advocacy and Science at Scenic Hudson. “Generating solar electricity from our homes, farms, and businesses has been a bright spot in New York’s transition to renewable energy and is the state’s fastest growing form of energy generation. Online solar permitting will build on that momentum—making it quicker, easier, and cheaper for folks to switch to solar. We hope to see more municipalities in the Hudson Valley, and across New York State, join the City of Kingston in adopting streamlined solar permitting software.” 

Jonathan Cohen, Policy Director for the New York Solar Energy Industries Association (NYSEIA) said, “Kingston is setting the pace for New York by embracing automated permitting for residential solar and showing that cutting red tape is one of the most powerful ways to deliver affordable, reliable energy to homeowners. By eliminating delays and reducing unnecessary costs, automated approvals make it easier for families to access the long-term savings that solar provides, while also streamlining workloads for local governments and improving efficiency for municipal staff. NYSEIA applauds Kingston’s leadership and looks forward to more municipalities following suit to expand access to affordable energy across the state.”

Local solar installers will be able to submit applications and receive approved permits the same day for projects that meet the City’s code requirements.

“We are proud to partner with Mayor Noble and the City of Kingston to make clean energy more accessible for their residents," said Matthew McAllister, CEO at the SolarAPP Foundation. “SolarAPP+ helps streamline the permitting process for the building department, contractors, and homeowners alike, and we hope Kingston’s leadership inspires other New York cities to follow.”

Slow and complicated permitting is one of the biggest barriers to going solar. Permitting hurdles can add $6,000 to $7,000 to the sticker price of a typical rooftop solar system, and roughly one in five residential solar projects that begin the permitting process are abandoned before installation.

Kingston joins a growing coalition of more than 350 local governments across the country using SolarAPP+ to improve efficiency, enforce high-quality workmanship and safety compliance, and provide fast and reliable turnarounds for local businesses and residents. The SolarAPP+ platform is available at no cost to local governments and integrates with existing permitting workflows.

Local installers interested in utilizing the SolarAPP+ platform for their business can register today at gosolarapp.org/sign-up.

Starting in July, the SolarAPP+ can be accessed from the Kingston Building Department’s website at https://kingston-ny.gov/building