Massachusetts Solar Easements & Rights Laws
Massachusetts law lets you voluntarily create a solar easement with a neighbor to protect your system's sunlight, and it voids deed or covenant provisions that forbid or unreasonably restrict installing a solar energy system. Easements are written contracts rather than automatic rights, so they must spell out measurable dimensions, limits on vegetation and structures, and terms for trimming and compensation. Local zoning also cannot prohibit or unreasonably regulate solar, and your town may allow a permit that creates solar rights.
Customers can be told that restrictive covenants or other property instruments that forbid or unreasonably restrict solar installations are void, and that local zoning cannot prohibit or unreasonably regulate solar systems. Solar access is not automatic, so recommend a written voluntary easement that states measurable dimensions, permitted obstruction, vegetation and structure restrictions, trimming and compensation terms, and conditions for revision or termination. Solar systems may be exempt from setback, height, and roof or lot coverage limits in some towns, so check the local zoning by-law before design.
This is a statutory and zoning framework, not a funded incentive, and it applies to solar PV, solar thermal, passive solar, and water and space heating across residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, and government sectors. Voluntary solar easements are created by contract, and municipalities may authorize zoning boards to issue permits creating solar rights, plus regulate street, lot and building orientation, height, setbacks, buffer zones, overlay districts, and vegetation on public property. State law voids instrument provisions that unreasonably restrict solar use and bars local rules that prohibit or unreasonably regulate solar systems.
Program details
- Program ID
- 301
- Last updated
- 1/3/2025
Eligibility
- Sectors
- commercial industrial local government nonprofit residential schools state government federal government
- Technologies
- solar - passive solar water heat solar space heat solar thermal electric solar thermal process heat solar photovoltaics
Program summary
Zoning ordinances or by-laws may encourage the use of solar energy systems and protect solar access by regulation of the orientation of streets, lots and buildings, maximum building height limits, minimum building set back requirements, limitations on the type, height and placement of vegetation and other provisions. Zoning ordinances or by-laws may also establish buffer zones and additional districts that protect solar access which overlap existing zoning districts. Zoning ordinances or by-laws may further regulate the planting and trimming of vegetation on public property to protect the solar access of private and public solar energy systems and buildings. Solar energy systems may be exempted from set back, building height, and roof and lot coverage restrictions.
Solar access provisions in Massachusetts allow for the creation of voluntary solar easements to protect solar exposure and authorizes zoning rules that prohibit unreasonable restrictions on solar access. Similar to solar easement provisions in many other states, solar easements in Massachusetts allow for the voluntary creation of solar access contracts, but do not make solar access an automatic right. In addition, the statutes allow for communities to authorize zoning boards to issue permits creating solar rights.
Solar Easement creation documents must include but are not limited to:
- A description of the dimensions of the easement expressed in measurable terms.
- The restrictions placed upon vegetation, structures, and other objects which would impair or obstruct the passage of sunlight through the easement.
- The amount, if any, of permissible obstruction of the passage of sunlight through the easement, expressed in measurable terms, such as a specific percentage of sunlight that may be obstructed.
- The provisions for trimming vegetation that would impermissibly obstruct the passage of sunlight through the easement including any compensation for trimming expenses.
- Any provisions for compensation of the owner of property benefiting from the easement in the event of impermissible obstruction of the easement.
- The terms or conditions, if any, under which the easement may be revised or terminated.
Massachusetts also prohibits restrictions on solar devices, voiding "any provision in an instrument relative to the ownership or use of real property which purports to forbid or unreasonably restrict the installation or use of a solar energy system ... or the building of structures that facilitate the collection of solar energy."
Furthermore, Massachusetts zoning laws prohibit local governments from enacting rules that prohibit or "unreasonably regulate" solar energy systems.
Contact & resources
- Contact email
- doer.energy@mass.gov
Please verify current program details with the administering agency before making any financial decisions.
