Casper, WY Solar Energy: Panel Permits (2026)

Casper's Chapter 15.32 solar-rights ordinance, enacted under W.S. § 34-22-105(b), lets a solar collector owner lock in an unobstructed sightline to the sun rather than merely hoping a neighbor never builds a shading wall. Under § 15.32.070, the applicant files an original plus two copies with the Engineering Director stating the applicant's name and address, the collector site's legal description, the adjacent parcels and their owners' names and addresses, the zoning of both properties, the collector type, and its dimensions, orientation and height, backed by scaled plans and Btu calculations required under § 15.32.080.

The Engineering Director dates and logs the filing, returns any defective application for correction within up to ninety days (§ 15.32.110), and must mail registered notice to every named adjacent owner, who then has thirty days to file a written protest before the City Manager decides the permit and, if protested, before the Board of Adjustment holds a hearing (§ 15.32.120). New applicants pay a fifty-dollar fee; owners confirming a solar right that already existed pay ten dollars, as does anyone voiding or correcting a permit (§ 15.32.130).

A granted permit is void unless the collector is built and put to beneficial use, and that use certified to the City Manager, within two years (§§ 15.32.140, 15.32.210). No solar right attaches against a ten-foot wall on the neighbor's own property line (§ 15.32.180), and a right left unused for five years is deemed abandoned (§ 15.32.190). Applicants denied a permit, or refused certification of beneficial use, may appeal to the Board of Adjustment (§§ 15.32.230 through 15.32.270); missing the appeal window waives further review and the decision becomes final.