How long does a solar permit take in New York?

In New York, the typical solar permit took 7 days from application to issue, across 11,268 permits issued from September 2024 to September 2026. After the permit, the typical finished solar installation took about 4 months (122 days) from permit to final inspection (4,228 finished of 4,853 permits issued from October 2022 to September 2024; 13% had no final inspection on record by September 2026).

7 daysfrom application to permitMiddle half: 4 days to 15 days
4 monthsfrom permit to final inspectionMiddle half: 68 days to 7 months

The two steps

How long solar installations take in New York, in daysApplication to permit issued: median 7 days, middle half 4 to 15 days, 11,268 permits; Permit issued to final inspection: median 122 days, middle half 68 to 223 days, 4,228 permits.Application to permit issued: 7 daysPermit issued to final inspection: about 4 months02 mo4 mo6 mo
Bars show the median; the line through each bar spans the middle half of jobs. The second step starts where the typical permit wait ends. The two steps come from different groups of permits, so they are not added up.
The numbers behind the chart
StepMedianMiddle halfPermitsPermits issued
Application to permit issued7 days4 days to 15 days11,268September 2024 to September 2026
Permit to final inspectionabout 4 months68 days to about 7 months4,228October 2022 to September 2024

Solar installers with the most jobs in New York

RankContractorJobsContact
1Sunrun Installation Svc
San Luis Obispo, license 613329
3,818
Call (805) 540-7643
2Nyss LLC
Hicksville, license 622219
1,718
Call (516) 418-2131
3Kamtech Restoration Corp
Inwood, license 616224
1,627
Call (718) 915-8360

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Permit wait by year issued

Year issuedJobsMedianMiddle half
20232357 days5 days to 12 days
20246,6578 days5 days to 19 days
20256,7607 days4 days to 15 days
20262,4677 days4 days to 14 days

Why it takes this long

  • 1% of permits were issued the day they were applied for, and 88% within 30 days (11,268 permits).
  • The longer step is building and inspection: 7 days for the permit against about 4 months from permit to final, at the median.
  • 38% of finished jobs passed final inspection within 90 days of the permit.
  • Of the 4,853 permits issued from October 2022 to September 2024, 625 (13%) had no final inspection on record by September 2026. They may still be under way, dropped or never inspected; the records do not say which. They are left out of the build time; any of them that finishes will have taken more than two years, so counting them would make the typical time longer.

Days are counted between the dates on each city permit: filing_date, issued_date, signoff_date. Median and middle half: half of the jobs took longer than the median; the middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile. A figure is shown only when it rests on 30 or more permits. Kinds of work are sorted by the same rules as our contractor lists. Source: NYC DOB NOW: Build, Approved Permits (rbx6-tga4) joined to Job Application Filings (w9ak-ipjd), read 2026-09-24. The same figures as data: solar.json.