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GO‑Biz survey finds common local permitting bottlenecks for large renewable projects
Summary
Survey respondents and follow-up interviews found frequent rejections for incomplete permits, timeline delays due to community concerns and unclear agency processes, and developer hesitancy tied to inconsistent local ordinances; presenters cited specific percentages from the outreach.
A GO‑Biz project team and consultants presented survey and interview results showing recurring local permitting barriers for utility‑scale clean energy projects.
Suna Taymaz of GHD summarized planner responses, saying 63.6% of planners reported occasionally rejecting permits for rework due to incomplete submissions or noncompliance and 58.7% said permits were occasionally delayed, commonly because of community concerns, appeals or missing information from applicants.
Developers told the team that permitting in some localities had discouraged project pursuit: Suna reported 79.3% of developers said they had not pursued projects in a specific locality because of permitting processes. The developer sample also indicated 54.2% plan to increase activity in California while 8.3% plan to decrease.
Presenters identified several high‑value interventions: pre‑application checklists to reduce incomplete filings; e‑permitting and automated completeness checks; a central contact list for cross‑agency coordination; planner guidebooks to build technical knowledge; and model ordinances to reduce divergent local code barriers.
Suna flagged that battery energy storage systems (BESS) were cited by 37% of planners as the most time‑consuming to permit, with safety requirements and community perceptions about fire risk driving added review time.
The webinar presenters said these findings informed the playbook and toolkit now under development and will be summarized in the draft playbook released for comment later this summer.
