Excessive government red tape, highly different regulations among towns and cities, and other illogical restrictions are adding up to a billion dollars in the U.S. residential solar power market, according to a new study.

In a new analysis, SunRun, a solar company, said local governments can cut a billion dollars over the next five years in solar installation costs and make solar far more affordable to 50 percent of American homeowners.

The company blames “inconsistent local solar permitting and inspection processes” for upping the price of installation by an average of $2,500.

“Every city and town has its own set of regulations and requirements for solar installations,” SunRun CEO and co-founder Edward Fenster, said in a company press release.

“Our research identifies inconsistencies in local permitting as one of the most critical roadblocks to a sustainable, subsidy-free solar industry,” Fenster added.

The company suggests that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) employ current guidelines “it has already funded to standardize local permitting and deliver the equivalent of a new $1 billion solar subsidy over five years,” he said.

U.S. solar installation companies complain that “local permitting” is keeping them from reducing the costs of solar installations for millions of American homeowners.

In contrast, Germany uses more efficient regulations that lower installation costs by 40 percent when compared to the United States. In addition, Germany installed a million solar power installations at houses in the past two years, the company said. The number of U.S. houses going solar recently reached 120,000, according to the SunRun report.

The industry report wants to see “common codes, fee structures and filing procedures” in the United States, according to the New York Times.

Federal officials – who have been encouraged by President Barack Obama to encourage greener options – have seen the analysis used in the report, and expect to come up with a strategy and funds to help implement recommendations, according to The Times.

On his part, Obama plans to install solar panels on top of the living quarters of the White House, according to a report from TMCnet.

The study recommends the DOE sponsor a contest, giving out federal grants for the U.S. cities that improve the most.

“Local permitting red tape keeps solar off of millions of American homes and businesses and seriously jeopardizes our ability to be competitive with entrenched fossil fuels,” Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said in a statement. “Policymakers need to recognize that these additional costs put an undue burden on new, clean technologies like solar that are trying to create jobs in the U.S.”

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