Solar Permits in Colorado: Who Approves What

Inside most cities and towns, the municipal building department issues the permit: Fort Collins Building Services, Boulder Planning & Development Services, Golden’s Building Division, Lakewood Public Works and Denver’s Community Planning & Development, for example. Outside city limits, it’s usually the county.

Some areas use a regional office. In Colorado Springs and much of El Paso County, the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department handles both building and electrical permits. In many smaller jurisdictions, the state electrical board issues and inspects the electrical permit.

Unincorporated communities follow the county. Evergreen, for instance, isn’t a city — it’s permitted through Jefferson County, where rooftop solar needs an electrical permit from Building Safety but no zoning permit or plan review.

SolarAPP+ is an automated plan-review tool that approves code-compliant residential solar instantly. In Colorado, full SolarAPP+ permitting is used by the City and County of Denver, Wheat Ridge, Bennett, Alamosa County and Gilpin County.

Since October 28, 2025, the state electrical board has also used SolarAPP+ for electrical plan review of residential solar and storage in the more than 200 jurisdictions where the state issues electrical permits. That speeds the electrical side there, though a local building permit may still be separate.

A proposed statewide mandate was stripped from HB25-1096 before it was signed in May 2025, so adoption remains voluntary. The state has offered grant funding to jurisdictions that adopt automated permitting.

Reviewers check that the roof structure can carry the array (with Colorado snow and wind loads in mind), that the electrical design meets code — including rapid shutdown, labeling and the connection to your panel — and that fire-access pathways on the roof are respected. Ground mounts add footing design and sometimes setbacks.

Batteries add their own review of mounting location, clearances and the backup wiring. Historic districts and some mountain jurisdictions add zoning or design review on top.

Instant approval under SolarAPP+ is the fastest case. Elsewhere, review can take anywhere from a same-day counter review to several weeks, depending on the jurisdiction and its backlog. Inspection scheduling adds more.

Colorado has had a law limiting what jurisdictions charge for residential and commercial solar permits, but we haven’t confirmed how its caps apply today, so we don’t quote a fee here. We include permit fees in our quote and tell you the jurisdiction’s actual fee.

A building permit says your system is safely built; interconnection approval says your utility accepts it on its grid. Xcel, co-ops and municipal utilities each run their own application, may require an engineering review for larger systems, and must set up metering for net metering. Some also require their own inspection or a participating-contractor designation for rebates.

The system can’t be turned on until both are complete. It’s common for the permit to be finaled before the utility gives permission to operate, and that gap is normal.

HOA approval is a private process, separate from government permits. Under C.R.S. 38-30-168, an HOA can’t prohibit solar, and restrictions can’t add more than 10% to cost or reduce performance by more than 10%. An application not acted on within 60 days is deemed approved. We help prepare the HOA submittal alongside the permit application.