The Freeing Energy Podcast · Bill Nussey - Author, TED Speaker, and Climate Investor

Andrew Birch: Can Cutting Red Tape Lower the Cost of Residential Solar in the United States?

·40 min·3 clips

Solar panels make up just 10% of U.S. residential solar costs—where does the other 90% go?

This episode features Bill Nussey interviewing Andrew Birch, co-founder and CEO of Open Solar and a key figure behind the SolarAPP+ initiative. Birch, who previously co-founded the major solar company Sungevity, discusses the systemic barriers to affordable residential solar in the United States. He argues that "soft costs" like permitting, design, and sales now dominate system pricing, making U.S. solar far more expensive than in other countries. Birch notes that solar panels themselves constitute only about 10% of the total cost for a U.S. residential system. He contrasts the U.S., where systems average $3 to $4 per watt and take two to three months to install, with Australia, where systems cost $1.10-$1.20 per watt and are installed within one to three weeks. He identifies the core problem as a fragmented permitting system with 16,000 different local jurisdictions, each with its own interpretation of electrical and building codes. This bureaucracy leads to multiple site visits, redesigns, and lengthy delays that inflate costs. Birch's company, Open Solar, provides free, white-label software to help solar contractors design systems and manage customer proposals efficiently. A major insight is that digitizing and standardizing the permitting process could dramatically reduce costs without requiring new technology. Birch highlights SolarAPP+, a digital platform developed with code officials and agencies to create a national permitting standard. He claims that if widely adopted, this could help bring U.S. solar prices down to around $1.20-$1.30 per watt. Another surprising point is his business model for Open Solar, which is free for installers and funded by partnerships with panel and battery manufacturers who pay to include their branded content. Birch also calculates that scaling the solar industry at 30% per year could create about 10 million jobs in the next decade. The conversation reveals that inefficient processes, not hardware, are the primary barrier to affordable solar. Birch emphasizes that these "last mile" challenges are solvable operational issues, not insurmountable technical ones. He shares an anecdote about a senior installer having to wait six hours for a county inspector, calling such inefficiencies "completely unnecessary" for a standardized, low-risk technology. The potential for massive job creation in local contracting is presented as a major economic opportunity tied to lowering energy costs. The tone is conversational, optimistic, and focused on practical solutions, blending personal anecdote with industry analysis. The style is educational, aimed at explaining complex market dynamics to a broad audience interested in clean energy and policy. Listeners interested in solar entrepreneurship, regulatory reform, and clean energy economics would find this episode highly engaging. Those seeking deep technical details on solar panel technology or who are skeptical of government-led solutions might find it less relevant.

As heard by us

A clear look at how soft costs and red tape slow residential solar long before the panels go up.

Andrew Birch makes a plain case that U.S. residential solar is held back less by the panels than by the work around them: design, permitting, and sales. That framing gives the conversation its strength.

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Why you'd press play

If you want solar to get cheaper, start with the paperwork, not the panels.

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