Burbank, CA · September 2024 – May 2025 · Burbank Water and Power / City of Burbank

The permit was instant. The approval in front of it was not.

A six-module array on the flat roof of a new accessory dwelling in Burbank. The permit itself could be pulled online in minutes. Getting to the point where that was allowed took three months, and the whole project took eight.

Written by the Cali Energy project team · California contractor license 1032379 · Updated September 2026

An express or instant solar permit removes the plan check from the building department, not the approval from the utility. In Burbank the utility must review and approve the solar plans, and release a solar meter spot, before the express permit can be pulled at all. So the fast step sits at the end of a slow queue, and a project timed around the permit alone will be wrong by months. The order is: plans to the utility, size review, field visit, meter spot, then the permit.

At a glance

Modules

6 x Canadian Solar CS3W-445MB-AG, 445 W each

System size

2.67 kW DC

Microinverters

Enphase IQ8A, one per module

Building

Newly built accessory dwelling

Roof

Flat, modules mounted flush without tilt frames

Service

400 A dual-gang meter panel with 125 A breakers

Permission to operate

9 May 2025

Utility / AHJ

Burbank Water and Power / City of Burbank

The story

This is a small system. Six modules, two and two-thirds kilowatts, flush on a flat roof, no tilt frames, no battery, no service upgrade. It is the kind of project people assume will be quick, and Cali Energy carried it for eight months from the first request to the permission to operate letter.

The reason is worth understanding, because it is structural rather than unlucky. Burbank, like a number of California cities, offers residential solar permits through an automated online platform: answer the questions correctly and the permit issues without a human plan check. What that platform does not do is speak for the utility. Asked directly whether plans were still needed if the permit was going to be pulled online, the utility's answer was unambiguous: it must review and approve the solar plans before releasing the solar meter spot and before the express permit is obtained.

So the sequence runs opposite to what the word express implies. Plans go to the utility first. The utility reviews the drawing and separately reviews the size of the system. A field visit is booked so that a technician can stand on the property with the plans and decide where the utility's meter will live. Only then does the meter spot issue, and only then is the online permit available.

Three rounds of corrections came back before the meter spot did. The last of them is the one worth repeating, because it is specific to a lot like this. The service here is a dual-gang meter panel: two meter positions, two addresses, one enclosure. The utility asked that the drawing label the meters so it was unmistakable which address and which meter the solar circuit was tying into. On a single-meter house nobody would ask that question. On a lot with a house and an accessory dwelling it is the whole question, because a solar circuit landed on the wrong meter is a wiring error nobody notices until the bills arrive.

The meter spot issued in December 2024. The array itself went up, the city's final inspection passed in March 2025, and then the project hit the last dependency: the building had no permanent power yet. The utility cannot commission a solar system into a dead building, so the file sat until the service was released. The field acceptance completed in May, and the permission to operate letter followed the next day.

Two hundred and forty-five days for six modules. None of it was the roof.

How it ran

Two hundred and forty-five days from request to letter on a six-module system. This timeline reflects this project and this period.

What we did

• Requested the solar confirmation number and established what the express permit route actually required (C-10).
• Carried three rounds of drawing corrections through to an approved plan set.
• Revised the single-line diagram to label the dual-gang meters and identify the circuit's address.
• Took the utility field visit and the meter spot conditions into the installed layout.
• Installed and flashed the roof attachments before the modules were set.
• Passed the city's final inspection and filed the pre-commissioning checklist.
• Followed the file through the service release to field acceptance and the permission to operate letter.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• You have been told your city issues solar permits instantly and are planning around that.
• Your project is a small array on a new accessory dwelling.
• Your lot has a dual-gang meter and two addresses.
• Your system is installed and waiting for the building to get permanent power.
• You want the Burbank sequence explained in the order it really runs.

Cali Energy in Burbank

Frequently asked questions

Does an instant solar permit make the project faster?

It removes the building department's plan check, which on a simple residential array is rarely the slow part. The utility review in front of it is. On this project the permit itself was minutes and the approval sequence that allowed it took three months, so the realistic expectation is a shorter tail than a shorter project.

Does Cali Energy pull express solar permits in Burbank?

Yes, where the project qualifies. In Burbank the online permit is available only after Burbank Water and Power has reviewed and approved the solar plans and released a meter spot, so Cali Energy runs the utility review first and pulls the permit at the point it becomes available. Eleven Burbank projects are written up on our projects page. Our license is CSLB #1032379.

Why does the utility care which meter the solar ties into?

Because on a lot with two meters it determines whose account the generation is credited to. A dual-gang panel carries two services in one enclosure, and a drawing that does not label them leaves that open. The correction asked for here was simply to mark which address and which meter the solar circuit lands on, so the crew setting the meter is not guessing.

Why can a finished system sit unconnected?

Because the utility will not commission solar into a building with no permanent power. On new construction the service release is a separate milestone with its own queue, and until it happens the array is complete, inspected and idle. It is worth knowing before the schedule is promised to anyone.

What this would look like on your roof

Related

• Same lot, same owner, same crew. Two separate processes Burbank, CA · 4.005 kW on a new house · the second interconnection on one lot Solar
• The setback decided the layout, not the roof area Burbank, CA · 3.70 kW on a new ADU · ten modules across three planes Solar
• Nine days from install to a passed final Sun Valley, CA · 5.44 kW · express permit Solar
• Permitted in a day. Serviced three years later Winnetka, CA · 5.7 kW AC-CEC · SolarEdge Solar

This timeline reflects this property and this permitting path. Updated September 2026.