What is a solar access law?

What a solar access law is

A solar access law is a state statute that protects the ability to generate solar energy on your property. The phrase covers two related but different families of law: statutes that void restrictions on installing solar systems (deed covenants, homeowners' association rules, or local ordinances that effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict solar equipment), and statutes that protect access to sunlight once a system exists (recorded solar easements and shade-control rules for trees and structures). Neither family is uniform — every state enacts its own version, and a few states have statutes from both families. None of them, in the official sources reviewed for this guide, waives local zoning, permitting, electrical, or utility requirements.

Family one: laws that void restrictions on solar installation

The first family targets the most common barrier to rooftop solar: a recorded covenant or association rule that bans or burdens solar equipment. The statutes typically declare such provisions void and unenforceable, then define how much regulation is still allowed.

California Civil Code section 714 is the clearest example. It voids any covenant, restriction, condition, or governing-document provision that effectively prohibits or restricts the installation or use of a solar energy system, while allowing "reasonable restrictions" — those that do not significantly increase the cost of the system or significantly decrease its efficiency or specified performance, or that allow an alternative system of comparable cost, efficiency, and energy-conservation benefits. For photovoltaic systems, "significantly" is defined as added cost over $1,000 or an efficiency decrease over 10 percent; for solar water-heating and pool-heating systems, it is an amount exceeding 10 percent of system cost but no more than $1,000, or an efficiency decrease exceeding 10 percent. The section also requires a written approval or denial within 45 days when an association reviews an application (otherwise the application is deemed approved), and makes a willful violator liable for actual damages plus a civil penalty of up to $1,000, with attorney's fees to the prevailing party in an enforcement action.

Oregon takes a narrower approach in Oregon Revised Statutes 105.880: no person conveying or contracting to convey fee title to real property may include a provision prohibiting the use of solar energy systems, and any such provision executed after October 3, 1979, is void and unenforceable. The statute reaches deed-level prohibitions rather than the full web of association rules that California addresses.

Family two: laws that protect access to sunlight

The second family protects the sunlight itself. Because a neighbor's new tree, addition, or fence can shade a collector installed years earlier, states use two tools: solar easements — recorded, written rights to sunlight across another's land — and shade-control rules that limit what property owners may grow or build once a collector exists.

Solar easement statutes are common. Florida Statutes section 704.07 requires easements for maintaining exposure of a solar energy device to be created in writing and recorded like any other instrument affecting title, and specifies what the instrument must contain: descriptions of the servient and dominant properties, the vertical and horizontal angles in degrees at which the easement extends over the servient property, how the easement falls relative to boundaries and local zoning setbacks, the point on the dominant property from which the angles are measured, the terms of grant or termination, and any compensation provisions. Easements may be preserved from extinguishment by filing a notice under the state's marketable-title statutes.

Washington RCW 64.04.150 defines a solar easement as a right, expressed as an easement, restriction, covenant, or condition in any written instrument, for assuring adequate access to direct sunlight for solar energy systems. It is an interest in real property that must be created in writing, recorded under the same rules as other easements, and it runs with the benefited and burdened land unless the instrument says otherwise. Oregon's statutes define a solar energy easement as any easement, covenant, or conditions designed to insure the passage of incident solar radiation, light, air, or heat across another's real property, make such easements appurtenant to and running with the property (ORS 105.890), and set out requirements for creating them by instrument and recordation (ORS 105.895).

Shade-control rules are rarer and more specific. California's Solar Shade Control Act, at Public Resources Code section 25982, provides that after a solar collector is installed, a person owning or controlling another property may not allow a tree or shrub to be placed or to grow so as to cast a shadow greater than 10 percent of the collector absorption area at any one time between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., local standard time.

How the two families interact with local zoning and tree-and-shade disputes

State solar access law generally sits on top of, not in place of, local regulation. California Civil Code section 714 expressly requires solar systems to meet applicable health and safety standards and requirements imposed by state and local permitting authorities, the California Electrical Code, and, where applicable, Public Utilities Commission rules on safety and reliability. A local permit process, setback, or electrical rule that does not effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict the system usually survives; a local rule that amounts to a de facto ban does not.

Wisconsin Statutes section 66.0401 shows how state law disciplines local governments. No city, village, town, or county may place any restriction, "either directly or in effect," on the installation or use of a solar energy system unless the restriction preserves or protects public health or safety, does not significantly increase the cost of the system or significantly decrease its efficiency, or allows an alternative system of comparable cost and efficiency. The same statute addresses shade: a political subdivision may enact an ordinance requiring trimming of vegetation that blocks solar energy from a collector surface and may assign the costs of trimming — but may not require trimming of vegetation planted before the system was installed. Wisconsin also provides for solar and wind access permits, under which "impermissible interference" with a permitted collector surface (9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily) by structures or vegetation is defined by statute.

Tree-and-shade disputes therefore resolve differently by state and by timing. Where a solar easement or shade-control statute exists, the dispute is about whether the shade violates the recorded right or the statutory shadow limit. Where none exists, general property law and local ordinances govern, and a neighbor's tree may simply be lawful even if it shades your array — which is why the practical tools are recorded easements before installation and state rules like California's 10 percent standard after it.

State variation in practice

The five statutes reviewed illustrate the range:

• California combines both families: restriction-voiding rules with numeric benchmarks and a 45-day decision rule (Civil Code section 714), association-specific limits (section 714.1), and the Solar Shade Control Act's 10 percent shadow limit (Public Resources Code section 25982). California Civil Code section 714.1 allows associations to impose reasonable provisions — approving systems in common areas, requiring approval where installation affects a separate interest owned by another, providing for roof maintenance and replacement, and requiring installer indemnity — but bars a general policy prohibiting rooftop household solar on the building where the owner resides, and bars requiring a member vote for such installations.
• Wisconsin disciplines local governments rather than associations, using a three-part test (health and safety, cost and efficiency, or an alternative system of comparable cost and efficiency), and separately authorizes vegetation-trimming ordinances.
• Oregon voids deed prohibitions on solar use and provides statutory solar energy easements with definitions of solar envelope and sun chart.
• Florida and Washington focus on recorded solar easements, with detailed content requirements for the easement instrument.

What may still be required or restricted

Even under the statutes reviewed, approval, permitting, and safety requirements remain. Associations may still require reasonable provisions of the kinds California Civil Code section 714.1 lists, and any approval process must be followed — though in California a failure to decide in writing within 45 days results in deemed approval. Solar systems must meet applicable health and safety standards and permitting, electrical, structural, and utility requirements. Solar easements are only enforceable if created in writing, recorded where the statute requires, and described with the required detail — an oral agreement or an informal "you can rely on my trees staying short" arrangement generally will not create the rights these statutes protect.

Facts that could change the answer

The outcome depends on which state's law applies, whether the property is governed by an HOA or condominium documents, whether a solar easement or shade-control statute exists in that state, when vegetation was planted relative to collector installation, and whether the system meets health and safety requirements. Statutes are amended — the California sections reviewed carry amendments from 2014, 2015, and 2017 — so the current text of the applicable statute should be checked directly.

Practical decision path

1. Identify the state and the property type (detached lot, HOA-controlled home, condominium, or shared roof).
2. Read the recorded deed restrictions, covenants, and governing documents for solar provisions.
3. Check the state's statute for the restriction-voiding standard or easement rules, and any shade-control provision.
4. For sunlight protection, record a solar easement before installing if the neighbors' land could shade the array, and check local zoning for setback and height rules.
5. Complete the approval, permit, electrical, and utility steps separately and in writing.

Records to keep

Keep the recorded documents (deed, covenants, governing documents, any solar easement), the full application and written approval or denial with dates, cost and expected-performance figures for the proposed and any alternative design, the installation date (which matters for shade rules), and records of vegetation planting dates in any shade dispute.

When professional advice may help

A real estate attorney can draft and record a solar easement, interpret covenants, and evaluate whether a restriction meets a state's statutory standard. A title professional can confirm whether an easement is properly recorded and indexed. For permit, electrical, structural, or utility questions, consult the local permitting authority, a licensed contractor, and the utility directly.

Before work begins, obtain the written requirement from the authority named in the guide and keep the record.