Are Fire Rebuilds Going Solar? Altadena and Palisades Permit Records After California Waived the Mandate

Before the fires, a home rebuilt from the ground up counted as new construction under the California Energy Code, and new homes must have rooftop solar. Executive Order N-29-25, signed July 7, 2025, suspended that requirement for homes substantially damaged or destroyed in the January 2025 fires, leaving only a solar-ready roof. Executive Order N-37-25, signed November 24, 2025, kept the suspension and let homeowners use insurance code-upgrade coverage toward optional solar. Whether owners still choose solar can be read from the county’s permit records: every rebuild in unincorporated Altadena and every solar permit there is a public case in EPIC-LA.

Solar permits cluster at the end of the line. Almost none of the lots still in plan review or zoning have one; 119 of 1,622 lots under construction do, and 51 of 136 finished homes. A solar permit is usually filed once the roof and electrical work are close, so the share among homes now being built is not the final number; the finished homes are the best early read of what owners choose.

The timing appears to follow construction more than the executive orders. Rebuild cases peaked in the summer of 2025 and solar permits followed about a year later, as those houses neared completion. The orders change what is required, not when a roof is ready for panels.

At least 521 of the destroyed Altadena homes had a county solar permit filed since 2020. Among those now being rebuilt, 13% have filed for solar again so far, against 9% of other rebuilds — a small difference at this stage. Many owners are paying for a whole house at once, and an array that insurance does not fully cover may wait. For what insurance can pay toward solar after N-37-25, see insurance paying for a new roof: adding solar.

Pacific Palisades is in the City of Los Angeles, and its permits are issued by LADBS rather than the county. Of 3,926 destroyed residential lots there, 915 had a new-home building permit issued by May 10, 2026, and only 12 of those were finaled. Solar permits appeared on 6 lots. With so few new homes finished, Palisades owners’ solar choices will show up in the records later.