Rhode Island Has No Solar-Access Override: A Recorded Solar Easement Is the Only Protection (§ 34-40-2)

Two facts define solar rights inside a Rhode Island association, and they pull in opposite directions.

First, the absence. The Rhode Island Condominium Law, ch. 34-36.1, is the state's only association statute; Rhode Island never adopted a planned community act or a general homeowners association act. Its Article III list of association powers in § 34-36.1-3.02 gives the executive board authority to regulate the use, maintenance, repair, replacement and modification of common elements, and no section of the chapter carves solar collectors out of that power or declares a solar ban void. The word solar does not appear in the chapter. Title 45's zoning enabling act, ch. 45-24, likewise contains no solar section, so Rhode Island does not have the pattern found in states like Florida or Colorado where one statute limits both municipalities and associations. A Rhode Island declaration that bans roof-mounted equipment, or an architectural rule that requires board approval for anything visible from a common element, is enforceable against a solar array on its own terms.

Second, the tool that does exist. Chapter 34-40, enacted by P.L. 1981, ch. 292, § 1, creates the solar easement. Section 34-40-1(1) defines it as a right, whether or not stated in the form of restriction, easement, covenant, or conditions in any deed, will, or other instrument, for the purpose of ensuring adequate exposure of a solar energy system as defined in § 44-39-1(b)(1). Section 34-40-1(2) supplies the measurable standard that makes the easement enforceable: solar skyspace is the space between a solar energy system and the sun which must remain unobstructed such that on any given clear day of the year, not more than ten percent of the collectible insolation shall be blocked. That ten percent figure is the operative number in Rhode Island solar-access disputes.

Section 34-40-2 sets the mechanics. The easement is created in writing, is subject to the same conveyancing and recording requirements as any other instrument affecting title, runs with the land benefited and burdened, and is perpetual absent terms under which it may be terminated. The instrument must describe both the burdened and the benefited parcel; describe the vertical and horizontal angles in degrees measured from the site of the solar energy system, or otherwise define the three-dimensional space or the times of day during which obstruction is prohibited; state any conditions of grant or termination; and address compensation, either to the benefited owner for interference or to the burdened owner for maintaining the easement.

For a condominium owner this matters in a specific way. Roof surfaces in a Rhode Island condominium are usually common elements or limited common elements, so the panels sit on association property, not on the unit. The practical route is a written agreement with the association covering the roof license, the skyspace, and responsibility for leaks and roof replacement, recorded under § 34-40-2 so it survives a change of board or a sale of neighboring units. An unrecorded board approval letter binds nobody after the members who wrote it leave.

Separately, Rhode Island does regulate the solar industry, just not associations. Chapter 39-26.8, the Residential Solar Energy Disclosure and Homeowners Bill of Rights Act, was repealed and the subject now sits at ch. 5-93 under the same name, with sections on solar retailer registration (§ 5-93-4), a required standard disclosure form (§ 5-93-6), a customer right to cancel or rescind a solar agreement (§ 5-93-11), department enforcement and administrative fines (§ 5-93-14), and a private right of action (§ 5-93-16). Those provisions govern the company selling you the system. None of them reaches a declaration, a bylaw, or an architectural committee.

Bills to create an association solar-access right have been introduced in the Rhode Island General Assembly, including 2024 S 2801 and 2026 H 8273, but a bill is not law and none of that language appears in the General Laws. Read the version of the chapter on the General Assembly's own site before relying on any secondary summary that says otherwise.

There is no agency to complain to about an association solar denial in Rhode Island. The Public Utilities Commission and the Office of Energy Resources handle interconnection, net metering under ch. 4 and incentive programs, not covenants; the Department of Business Regulation enforces ch. 5-93 against solar retailers, not against boards. A refused owner has three practical paths. Negotiate and record a solar easement under § 34-40-2, which is the only route the statute actually creates and which becomes perpetual and binding on successors once recorded.

17(a), which takes a vote or agreement of unit owners holding at least 67 percent of the votes in the association, or any larger majority the declaration specifies, with the amendment effective only on recordation in every municipality where the condominium sits and immune from challenge one year after recording. 17(d): an amendment that changes the uses to which any unit is restricted needs unanimous consent, so draft a solar amendment as a common-element and architectural-review change rather than as a change to permitted unit uses. 12. 20 still apply: $100 per day and $500 for a single fine in a residential condominium.