Oklahoma City residents can harness solar energy for their home or business via a simple permitting process the City requires. Permitting, review, and inspection are conducted by the City’s Development Center. You can reach Development Center staff from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays by walk-in at 420 W Main Street, 8th floor, by phone at 405-297-2948, or by fax at 405-552-6024.

Additionally, residents are encouraged to contact their utility provider for any additional specifications regarding rate tariffs, interconnection, or net metering if a system is connected to the grid.

Oklahoma State Extension has a helpful fact sheet to learn about the basics of Solar Energy Systems for Homeowners via this Oklahoma State Extension webpage. 

 

Solarize OKC Campaign (2022-2023)

Solarize OKC was a community-based group-buying program for solar energy, battery storage and other renewable energy technologies. The City of Oklahoma City received technical assistance from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a non-profit environmental research and education organization, to help organize the campaign. 

The initiative helped homeowners, businesses and non-profits access information, resources, and a discount on the cost of solar energy systems through a competitively selected solar installer that provided volume discounts. The more people that signed up to participate increased the discount, and with more than 150 contracts, participants achieved the highest savings available: 40 percent off the regular retail prices.

Solarize OKC was the third largest campaign in the U.S. for installed watts, with nearly 1.5 megawatts of capacity, three times the coalition's initial goal. The solar energy systems installed produce about 2,280 megawatt hours each year, avoiding about 2.75 million pounds of carbon dioxide annually and saving customers $250,800 on their utility bills per year

The campaign was a public-private coalition including Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council (OREC), Association of Central Oklahoma Governments, City of Oklahoma City's Office of Sustainability, Oklahoma Solar Association, Oklahoma Sustainability Network, Oklahoma Compost and Sustainability Association, Fertile Ground Cooperative, OKC Beautiful, RestoreOKC, Solar Crowdsource, among other community leaders. The coalition selected the firm Eight Twenty as the lowest-cost bidder of the companies that submitted proposals.

As part of the Solarize OKC campaign, EightTwenty donated three solar energy systems for the community benefit portion of the program. The Solarize OKC coalition chose RestoreOKC as the recipient of this benefit and three homes used by their workforce development program, Restore Jobs, received a solar installation. Residents' rents are capped to ensure affordability and solar panels will further reduce their monthly electricity bills.

Learn more here about the community benefit program (PDF).

Brightfields: putting solar on Brownfields

Solar panels can be installed in non-traditional places like capped landfills. 

This webinar examines the benefits and potential challenges that come with putting renewable energy on a Brownfield, polluted land that otherwise can't be reused for housing or retail businesses.

Brightfields, a decades-old Department of Energy initiative, is getting renewed interest thanks to stackable tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Our office held a virtual workshop to understand the basics of siting renewable energy on brownfields and closed landfills. In partnership with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Kansas State University’s Technical Assistance to Brownfields (KSU TAB) program, the City aims to increase cross-organizational awareness of best practices and examples for landfill solar projects and other Brightfields projects.  

Watch the webinar on YouTube