The Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority (CEFIA) was recently awarded a $481,473 DOE SunShot Initiative grant to speed and simplify permitting and interconnection processes for smaller PV systems.

The money will help reduce the so-called soft costs of solar, which have remained stagnant in recent years while the costs of modules have dropped dramatically.

The grant will help CEFIA and its 12 partnered cities and towns design a more simplified permitting process, said David Goldberg, a CEFIA spokesperson. Participants include the University of Connecticut; Yale University, and the towns of Cornwall, Coventry, Danbury, Fairfield, Greenwich, Hampton, Manchester, Middletown, Milford, New Haven, Stamford and West Hartford, among others.

“This effort will attempt to address the permitting processes through municipal infrastructure,” he said.

The small state has 169 different municipalities, each with their own permitting process, which makes it more confusing for installers and, well, the municipalities themselves.

At this point the group is still collecting information about each of the participating towns’ solar permitting processes and is establishing a timeline, according to Goldberg.

“Then we’ll really evaluate them and look at the best of best to develop a standardized and streamlined [process], which would be adopted by the municipalities,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll create an online, streamlined permitting process in Connecticut.”

As part of the effort, the CEFIA also is working with utilities in an attempt to bring all the disparate parts of an installation like interconnection standards and agreements together. It’s also taking on the issue of gated communities and condominiums and other places where homeowners’ associations could prohibit solar installations.

“You could be barred from performing certain energy upgrades. We’re going to try to address some of those,” he said.

CEFIA is working with universities and IT companies to support the effort as well. The universities will help out with research and analysis of the permitting process while the IT companies will work to develop a portal for the streamlined permitting system.

If successful, Connecticut and CCEFIA could qualify for a second round grant to expand the effort.

“We would receive a second grant to really move this throughout the state in Connecticut and into parts of New England,” Goldberg said.