{"id":1115,"date":"2026-02-06T00:47:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T00:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2026-02-07T15:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:59:17","slug":"simplify-solar-a-call-to-local-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/2026\/02\/06\/simplify-solar-a-call-to-local-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Simplify Solar: A Call to Local Action!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many Americans are concerned about ever-rising residential electricity rates. For those able to make a sizable personal investment, installing solar at their homes offers stable effective electricity costs. Sustainability goals can also help drive the purchase. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other developed nations have shown that fair policies can make residential solar financially attractive across a much broader economic spread than we have here in the US.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>In Australia, Germany, and Japan the final installed costs for residential solar are only about a third of what US homeowners pay! <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Costs of photovoltaic panels and related equipment are similar across the world. Yet huge differences arise in \u201csoft costs\u201d covering labor, permit fees, and administrative costs. For example, in Australia \u201csoft costs\u201d are a reasonable 25%.\u00a0 Excess administrative burdens in the US inflate typical \u201dsoft costs\u201d to about 67%,<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> twice the equipment costs<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">!\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 <\/span><b>US installers must deal with many more local jurisdictions applying varied, inconsistent, and poorly documented requirements.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Please join us on Thursday February 12 at 7:30 PM in an open (Zoom) discussion reviewing plans to help reduce those barriers.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Share personal anecdotes about dealing with your town\u2019s solar policies\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Be part of a call to action, hearing from Third Act founder Bill McKibben\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Learn how to inform your town about streamlining permitting and inspection\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u00a0PLEASE <a href=\"https:\/\/actionnetwork.org\/events\/simplify-solar-a-call-to-local-action?source=direct_link&amp;\">REGISTER\u00a0 <\/a><\/b><b>HERE<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Tailwinds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By acting locally we needn\u2019t be blocked by polarized US and NH energy policies<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>You don\u2019t have to be an energy expert nor an experienced activist to help! <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over 500 New Hampshire residents across 150 towns signed a Sun-Day-themed petition supporting solar power last fall.\u00a0 Participation by these signers would have a truly meaningful impact! Please join this effort on February 12.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Please share this invitation with others willing to help inform one\u2019s community and its leaders about the benefits of \u201csimplifying solar\u201d permitting and inspection.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/our-work\/simplify-solar\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Simplify Solar<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> campaign is being organized locally by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New Hampshire Working Group<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of Third Act, a grassroots movement of older Americans working together in the spirit of justice and love to protect our climate and revive our democracy.\u00a0 We are grateful for support from several other non-profit allies.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many Americans are concerned about ever-rising residential electricity rates. For those able to make a sizable personal investment, installing solar at their homes offers stable effective electricity costs. Sustainability goals&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1121,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}