Over the past week, CALSSA and our allies have developed resources to help building departments adopt virtual permitting and inspection. As building department staff develop new procedures to provide services and keep residents safe during COVID-19, please share these resources with them as appropriate: 

• CALSSA’s letter to building departments laying out the best practices for no-touch permitting and inspection, and offering to work collaboratively on implementation.

• CALSSA’s letter to AHJs explaining that workers installing and maintaining solar installations, as well as those involved in the supply chain and manufacturing, are part of the critical energy infrastructure sector and permitted to carry out their work. The audience for this letter is building department staff and local elected officials in jurisdictions following the statewide shelter in place order, rather than jurisdictions – such as those in the Bay Area, San Benito County, and Sonoma County – that have adopted stricter shelter in place orders.

• ICC’s Coronavirus resource page with information for jurisdictions on inspections, plan review, permitting, certifications and testing during COVID-19. The ICC, which writes the building code, is a well-respected and trusted source for building departments.

• NFPA’s guidance on virtual inspections, which lays out how the inspections work and provides tips. For more detail, building departments can review NFPA’s white paper on virtual inspections. NFPA’s 915 standard on remote inspections is in the early stages of development. Similar to the ICC, NFPA, which writes the NEC, is well-respected by building departments.

• SEAC’s webinar from April 6, which provided an overview of virtual permitting and a deep dive on virtual inspection practices, tips, and considerations from building officials. SEAC, the Sustainable Energy Action Committee, developed the webinar in partnership with the International Association of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI), the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), and CALSSA. You will need to create a free account with IREC to access the webinar recording.

• ICC’s webinar on April 13 on how to perform safe virtual inspections. Registering for the webinar is free. Yesterday (April 9), ICC held a webinar on virtual permitting. We will link to the recording when it becomes available.

• NREL’s SolarAPP webinar on April 14. The SolarAPP, which is free solar permitting software for AHJs, is currently under development, and the final product will be released at the end of summer. Building departments interested in learning more or adopting alpha or beta versions should join the webinar.