danny kennedy, founder of sungevity, a solar-leasing company (and also planet forward’s innovator of the year), explains how local governments can help facility residential rooftop solar.  local governments can help fast-track solar permits, so that companies can work faster to get more solar panels on rooftops.

with cities and counties struggling to emerge from the down economy, clean energy development has been an economic and environmental bright spot. as berkeley law and ucla law discuss in the 2009 report “in our backyard,” california possesses numerous opportunities to deploy solar and wind energy facilities in existing urbanized areas, such as along highways and on large commercial rooftops. governor jerry brown is working with berkeley law to develop policies to achieve 12,000 megawatts of such deployment, underscoring the state’s commitment to this issue.