States eager to promote renewable energy are increasingly passing laws that allow homeowners to overcome local opposition to home solar panels and wind turbines.

Since 2005, eight states - including four last year - have enacted laws to abolish stringent rules imposed by some homeowners associations and local agencies on residents who want to power their homes with the sun or wind. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed such a bill two weeks ago. Final action is near in Virginia and Florida.

Some new laws say homeowners groups can't ban such technology. Others say local governments can't enforce rules that significantly raise the cost of installing eco-friendly energy systems.

"If you're going to have local governments and condo associations saying, 'Solar panels are ugly,' that's a real stumbling block," says state Democratic Rep. Karen May, a sponsor of a "solar rights bill" pending in Illinois.

In Arizona, homeowner Matt Burdick and others successfully lobbied lawmakers to prevent homeowners associations from interfering with solar-panel installation. The day the law took effect, Burdick's association gave him the approval he had long sought for panels to heat his swimming pool.

Arizona gets more than 300 days of sun a year, "so it makes good sense to try to make use of that," Burdick says. "Yet we were running into difficulties." Property manager Joseph Latkowski says Burdick could've gotten approval without the new law if he had followed the association's rules.

James Draheim and his family have installed energy-efficient windows, lights and appliances in their Burke, Va., home and wanted to outfit their roof with solar panels.

The local homeowners association, the Burke Centre Conservancy, was "flat-out against it" because of worries about how it would look, Draheim says. His reaction: "You've got this energy just falling on your property and you're not allowed to use it because of aesthetics?"

Patrick Gloyd, director of the homeowners association, says that he's not familiar with Draheim's request but that the association bans only solar panels visible from the street. Draheim has shelved his plans - a common response by those who run into opposition, renewable-energy companies say.

There are no hard statistics, but renewable-energy experts say clashes over homegrown renewable energy are on the rise as more Americans seek to cut their utility bills or their carbon footprint.

Sometimes it's local authorities who stand in the way by refusing to issue the necessary permits, or by charging such high permit fees that homeowners can't afford them.

States have responded by enacting laws designed to protect homeowners from restrictive neighborhood associations and local regulators. In California, a "solar rights" law that took effect in 2005 bars cities and counties from restricting on-home solar power.

States are taking action in part because dozens face self-imposed deadlines to increase their use of renewable energy. Legislators are eager to enlist homeowners to help meet those goals, says Rusty Haynes, program coordinator at a solar-power research center at North Carolina State University.

"To get from point A to point B, you have to remove every obstacle," he says, including regulations from homeowners associations.

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-05-12-green_N.htm