Cutting costs has been the key to solar’s rapid expansion this decade. The lion’s share of cost reductions in the solar industry has come from reductions in module prices. The $4 per watt you’d have paid in 2006 just for modules alone will now get the entire residential solar system installed. And then along came third-party financing, which made solar available to all. The $20,000 or $30,000 a homeowner once needed to pay for a solar system can now be afforded through a car-like low monthly payment. So, what’s next for the industry’s next big cost breakthrough? With technology costs down, financing improvements up and a solar system turned on every 2.5 minutes in America, the standardization of solar permitting is poised to be one of the solar industry’s next big breaks, writes Andrew Savage, chief strategy officer of AllEarth Renewables and member of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) Board of Directors.