When Emily Meyers, a grandmother of 11, sought to put solar on the roof of her home at Four Seasons at Mapleton, an active adult community in the Burlington County, N.J., township of Mansfield, her application was turned down by the Architectural Control Committee of her homeowners’ association, despite the fact that solar was not covered by the association’s rules and regulations. The committee considered the solar panels to be unaesthetic.

But Emily and her neighbor, Myra Dickert, a grandmother of four, whose application for a solar system was also turned down, didn’t take the rejection—and the subsequent rejection of several appeals—sitting down. With the help of GeoGenix, their solar integrator, they finally persuaded their homeowners association to allow them to install solar, a battle that took six months and the threat of legal action. They then went on to petition the state legislature to make it illegal for homeowners’ associations to prohibit solar.

It’s the Law

The 2007 law, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, has now been imitated in many other states, and legislation is now under consideration in Congress to make it illegal across the nation for homeowners’ associations for planned communities, in which the land is commonly held, to outlaw solar. New Jersey’s solar access law, along with liberal state solar incentives, has helped to position it as second in the nation (after California) in solar capacity.

GeoGenix supports the enactment of such legislation, be it on the local, state or federal level. Under the legislation proposed in Congress—as well as the legislation already enacted in many states—homeowners' associations can set standards for how solar should be installed, but they cannot ban it outright, on aesthetic or any other grounds.

Indeed, the aesthetics argument is false to begin with. While some solar panels are not aesthetically appealing, most of the panels used for homes are barely noticeable, which is why observers only tend to take notice of those that don’t meet the usual standards. And when it comes to other aesthetic issues—panels that overhang the roofline, gaps between panels, conduits on the exterior of buildings, for example—these are more a matter of poor installation.

Legislation that prohibits homeowners’ associations from banning solar is important not only from the standpoint of the freedom of homeowners to adopt an economic and environmentally beneficial source of power, but also to promote the widespread implementation of solar, for it is precisely in such developments that solar spreads the fastest. As in many industries, there’s nothing like word-of-mouth to persuade a potential customer to make a purchase.

Community Solar

Such legislation also promotes the widespread implementation of solar because the similarity of the homes in planned communities allows solar integrators to offer a discount as a result of the fact that they can operate more efficiently, for instance, by giving one sales presentation instead of many, by using one or two designs instead of reinventing the wheel for every residence or by making one trip to city hall for permits instead of multiple trips.

The ability to offer a discount in a development or a neighborhood—a concept known as “community solar”—has resulted in the installation of more than 20 solar systems at Four Seasons at Mapleton by GeoGenix, with another 20 pending. In total, 40 of the homes in this community of 428 homes—or about 10 percent—have completed or pending solar systems, including, ironically, some homes occupied by the residents who originally rejected Meyers’ and Dickert’s applications.

Both Meyers and Dickert have paid for their systems in electricity savings and incentives in three years, which leaves them more than 25 years of free electricity, since the typical residential solar system has a lifespan of 30 years or more. The solar system was a particular savings for Dickert, who continuously runs the air conditioning, resulting in a pre-solar electric bill of more than $250 a month from mid-April to October. Her electric bill is now virtually eliminated.

While it is a good thing that the residents of Four Seasons at Mapleton and residents of other communities governed by homeowners’ associations are saving money on solar, there’s an even more important reason for enacting such legislation: the environment. The benefits of a 10-kilowatt array such as Meyers’ are the equivalent of planting three acres of trees or of eliminating the emission of 20,630 pounds of CO2 annually.

Given the negative consequences for the environment, national prosperity and national security from continued reliance of fossil fuels for power generation, the potential impact of restrictive community solar laws multiplied by thousands of such developments across the country is enormous. According to the Community Associations Institute, in 2011 62.3 million residents lived in 314,200 association-governed communities.

Despite the growing support for renewable energy, many of these homeowners still face local ordinances or homeowners’ association rules that prohibit, restrict or drastically increase the cost of installing solar energy systems, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). Homeowners often face protracted battles with their associations (as did Meyers and Dickert), costly legal actions, threats from neighbors or demands to remove their solar arrays.

A Shift in Consciousness

While the tide is shifting—SEIA has reported that as of December 2010, 22 states had passed solar access laws—many of those laws are limited, weak or vague. SEIA is pushing for a federal version of local access laws, but enactment is far from a sure thing. That doesn’t mean, however, that residents of communities with homeowners’ associations shouldn’t press on the state or local levels for laws in states where they don’t exist or stronger laws in states where they lack teeth.

The potential rewards are great. While most of the homeowners who installed solar at the Four Seasons at Mapleton were originally motivated by the financial savings, which are even more important to seniors living on fixed incomes than they are to others, it is the benefits to the environment that have given them the most lasting pleasure. Like Meyers, many residents of Four Seasons at Mapleton are grandparents who treasure the idea of leaving their grandchildren a cleaner, safer world.

Residents of all communities with homeowner associations around the country should have the opportunity to make the world a better place.

Gaurav Naik is a principal at Old Bridge, N.J.-based GeoGenix, an installer of solar power for both residential and commercial customers.