I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 5997
To require the Secretary of Energy to further develop and support the
adoption of a voluntary streamlined permitting and inspection process
for authorities having jurisdiction over the permitting of qualifying dis-
tributed energy systems, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER19, 2023
Ms. L
EEof Nevada (for herself, Mr. CISCOMANI, and Mr. TONKO) introduced
the following bill
O
CTOBER25, 2023
Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Energy to further develop and
support the adoption of a voluntary streamlined permit-
ting and inspection process for authorities having juris-
diction over the permitting of qualifying distributed en-
ergy systems, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Streamlining Home 4
Installation of New Energies Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘SHINE 5
Act of 2023’’. 6
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SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM TO FACILITATE 1
VOLUNTARY STREAMLINED PROCESS FOR 2
LOCAL PERMITTING OF QUALIFYING DIS-3
TRIBUTED ENERGY SYSTEMS. 4
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 5
(1) A
UTHORITY HAVING JURISDICTION .—The 6
term ‘‘authority having jurisdiction’’ means any 7
State, county, local, or Tribal office or official with 8
jurisdiction— 9
(A) to issue permits relating to qualifying 10
distributed energy systems; 11
(B) to conduct inspections to enforce the 12
requirements of a relevant code or standard re-13
lating to qualifying distributed energy systems; 14
or 15
(C) to approve the installation of, or the 16
equipment and materials used in the installa-17
tion of, qualifying distributed energy systems. 18
(2) Q
UALIFYING DISTRIBUTED ENERGY SYS -19
TEM.—The term ‘‘qualifying distributed energy sys-20
tem’’ means any equipment or materials installed in, 21
on, or near a residential building to support onsite 22
or local energy use, including— 23
(A) to generate electricity from distributed 24
renewable energy sources, including from— 25
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(i) solar photovoltaic systems or simi-1
lar solar energy technologies; and 2
(ii) wind power systems; 3
(B) to store and discharge electricity from 4
batteries with a capacity of at least 2 kilowatt 5
hours; 6
(C) to charge a plug-in electric drive vehi-7
cle at a power rate of at least 2 kilowatts; or 8
(D) to refuel a hydrogen fuel cell electric 9
vehicle. 10
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 11
the Secretary of Energy. 12
(b) P
ROGRAM.—Not later than 180 days after the 13
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consulta-14
tion with trade associations and other entities representing 15
distributed energy system installers and organizations rep-16
resenting State, local, and Tribal governments engaged in 17
permitting, shall carry out a program to further develop, 18
expand, and support the adoption of a voluntary stream-19
lined permitting and inspection process for authorities 20
having jurisdiction to use for the permitting of qualifying 21
distributed energy systems. 22
(c) A
CTIVITIES OF THEPROGRAM.—In carrying out 23
the program established under subsection (b), the Sec-24
retary shall— 25
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(1) further develop and expand an exemplary 1
streamlined permitting process that includes an on-2
line permitting platform— 3
(A) for expediting, standardizing, and 4
streamlining permitting; and 5
(B) that authorities having jurisdiction 6
may voluntarily use to receive, review, and ap-7
prove permit applications relating to qualifying 8
distributed energy systems; 9
(2) establish targets for the adoption of a 10
streamlined, expedited permitting process by au-11
thorities having jurisdiction; 12
(3) provide technical assistance and training di-13
rectly or indirectly to authorities having jurisdiction 14
on using and adopting the exemplary streamlined 15
permitting process described in paragraph (1), in-16
cluding the adoption of any necessary building codes; 17
(4) develop a voluntary inspection protocol and 18
related tools to expedite, standardize, and streamline 19
the inspection of qualifying distributed energy sys-20
tems, including— 21
(A) by investigating the potential for using 22
remote inspections; 23
(B) by investigating the potential for sam-24
ple-based inspection for distributed energy sys-25
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tem installers with a demonstrated track record 1
of high-quality work; and 2
(C) by investigating opportunities to inte-3
grate the voluntary inspection protocol into the 4
online permitting platform described in para-5
graph (1) and the platforms of government 6
software providers; and 7
(5) take any other action to expedite, stand-8
ardize, streamline, or improve the process for per-9
mitting, inspecting, or interconnecting qualifying 10
distributed energy systems. 11
(d) S
UPPORTSERVICES.—The Secretary shall— 12
(1) support the provision of technical assistance 13
to authorities having jurisdiction, any administrator 14
of the online permitting platform described in sub-15
section (c)(1), government software providers, and 16
any other entity determined appropriate by the Sec-17
retary in carrying out the activities described in sub-18
section (c); and 19
(2) provide such financial assistance as the Sec-20
retary determines appropriate from any funds appro-21
priated to carry out this section. 22
(e) A
UTHORITYHAVINGJURISDICTIONCERTIFI-23
CATIONPROGRAM.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may certify 1
authorities having jurisdiction that implement the 2
exemplary streamlined permitting process described 3
in subsection (c)(1). 4
(2) P
ROCESS.—The Secretary may confer a cer-5
tification under paragraph (1) through existing pro-6
grams within the Department of Energy. 7
(3) P
RIZES.—The Secretary may award prizes 8
to authorities having jurisdiction, using funds appro-9
priated to the Secretary to carry out this section, to 10
encourage authorities having jurisdiction to adopt 11
the exemplary streamlined permitting process or the 12
voluntary inspection protocol established under para-13
graphs (1) and (4) of subsection (c), respectively. 14
(f) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 15
authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 16
out this section $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 17
through 2027. 18
Æ
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