Arizona solar / Goodyear

Goodyear approves rooftop solar in software, if you fit the box

SLWritten by the Solar Learning Lab research desk·Updated August 26, 2026·11 min read

Most Arizona cities still route a residential solar plan set past a human examiner. Goodyear does not, for the jobs that qualify. The contractor submits the design at gosolarapp.org, pays a $25 SolarAPP+ processing fee, and the code review happens in the platform. The approval number then goes into the city's Accela portal under "Solar Permit with SolarAPP+", fees get paid, and the permit downloads. Plan review already happened before the city ever saw the file.

The catch is the eligibility fence. Single family or duplex rooftops only. No ground mounts, no ballasted arrays, no properties with existing PV or storage, 400 amp service max, single phase only, and one module per microinverter. Fall outside any of that and the job goes to conventional review.

Check the fence before the quote

Whether a Goodyear project rides the SolarAPP+ lane is knowable on day one. Ask every bidder which path your roof takes and why.

Read the eligibility rules

Photo: intersolarsystems, via Pixabay

The fence around the fast lane is where deals die

The web aide draws hard lines. Residential single family or duplex rooftop installations only, on a structure that is legal, permitted and code compliant. No ballasted or ground mounted systems. No existing PV or energy storage on the property, which specifically pushes anyone expanding an older system into conventional review. Roof dead load cannot exceed 5 psf. Service is capped at 400 amps, single phase only. Microinverter designs are limited to one module per microinverter, string designs to two inverter types, microinverter designs to one. The full list is in the aide.

Anything the aide excludes, including three phase service, goes through conventional plan review, and commercial PV has its own submittal guide entirely. The practical move: get the bidder to state in writing which review path the project takes. A wrong assumption here does not kill the project, but it changes the timeline story the sales rep told you. See Goodyear's development resources.

Is review 1 to 2 days or 5? The city's pages disagree

Goodyear's review times page, last updated 6/30/2023, lists photovoltaic under 15 kW as an Express Lane Building Permit at 1 to 2 business days, with PV over 15 kW at 5 business days. The current development resources page tells a different story: EZ Permits are reviewed and approved within 5 business days, and that 5 day window covers all former Express Lane permits. Both pages are live, both are official, and they do not match. Compare the review times page against the development resources page.

Our reading: treat 1 to 2 days as the legacy Express Lane figure and 5 business days as the current EZ Permit service level, and remember that a SolarAPP+ job largely sidesteps the question because its plan review happens in the platform before the city application starts. The city also notes it is transitioning to a new permitting system with associated delays, which is one more reason to hold bidders to written dates rather than remembered ones. See the transition notice.

The regulatory risk is at the export meter, not the permit counter

Arizona compensates exports through net billing under the Resource Comparison Proxy rider, and the RCP has fallen from $0.129 per kWh in 2017 to $0.06171 for the tranche running September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026. The tariff caps any annual cut at 10 percent, and every step since 2020 has landed exactly on that floor. The September 1, 2026 value is not yet published, so nobody can honestly quote it; the only defensible statement is that it cannot fall more than 10 percent. Read the RCP rider.

The lock is the part that rewards decisiveness. A customer's RCP holds for 10 years from interconnection, and it locks at the application date if the system is installed and city approved within 180 days, extended to 270 when the delay comes from a third party or APS. Goodyear's software permit path makes the 180 day window easy to hit. Credits beyond the bill carry forward, and after the December bill any balance above $25 comes back as a check. Meanwhile a rate case that will reshape all of this is pending: hearings ran May 18 to July 7, 2026, a recommended order is expected by late November 2026, and new rates are expected in early 2027. Rate case status.

The incentives that still exist, and the one that ended

The federal 25D homeowner credit is gone for new projects. It was repealed for expenditures made after December 31, 2025, and because the expenditure counts when installation is completed, a system started in 2025 but finished in 2026 does not qualify. The CRS summary covers the timing rule.

Arizona's own stack survives. The state income tax credit is 25 percent of the device cost, capped at $1,000 per year and $1,000 cumulative per residence, claimed on Form 310, with a five year carryforward. Leased and PPA systems do not qualify because the homeowner never owns the equipment, and neither do repairs or add-ons to an existing system. Retail sales of solar devices come out of the sales tax base under A.R.S. 42-5061(M) when the retailer registers with the state, and A.R.S. 42-11054 treats grid-tied PV as adding no value to the property, so the county assessor does not punish the install. Credit statute, ADOR Publication 543, sales tax and property tax.

Goodyear installer snapshot

Treat the directory as a research starting point, never a shortlist of endorsements. Useful Goodyear-specific screens: is the contractor registered with SolarAPP+, will they confirm your project's review path in writing, does the bid itemize the $240 city stack and $25 platform fee, and which APS plan does their savings model assume.

Ratings snapshot: Google Maps, August 2026, via the DataForSEO SERP feed. Zero companies paid us and none are endorsed by us.

Goodyear answers

Get a Goodyear proposal that names its permit path

We are a solar installer and we also partner with other solar companies. Bring an APS bill and your service panel size. The first thing worth settling is whether your roof rides the SolarAPP+ lane or conventional review.