Wyoming HOA Solar Rights

Key Findings

• Title 34 of the Wyoming Statutes contains no solar-access provision that limits an association's covenant-based authority over solar energy systems, and no comparable provision appears elsewhere in the Wyoming Statutes.
• The Solar Rights Act's operative constraints run against local governments — cities, towns, counties — not homeowners associations: "No local government shall prohibit the construction or use of solar collectors except for reasons of public health and safety" (§ 34-22-105(c)). The Act never mentions associations, declarations, or covenants.
• Condominiums answer to the short Wyoming Condominium Ownership Act (§§ 34-20-101 to 34-20-104). Planned communities answer to recorded covenants, the Wyoming Nonprofit Corporation Act (§§ 17-19-101 et seq.), and common law. Wyoming is not a UCIOA state and has no comprehensive planned-community statute.
• Wyoming has no dedicated HOA regulator and doesn't require community association managers to hold a separate license; the Wyoming Real Estate Commission regulates brokerage, not association management.
• No bill in the past 24 months, and no Wyoming Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months, addresses HOA solar authority. Recent solar legislation runs utility-side or facility-side.
• Wyoming has no intermediate appellate court; disputes are tried in the Wyoming District Courts and appealed directly to the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Details

The statutory framework

Solar-access provision and the Solar Rights Act. Wyoming has no solar-access statute that limits declaration-based prohibitions on solar. A review of Title 34, Property, Conveyances and Security Transactions, confirms no provision voids or restricts an association's covenant-based authority over solar energy systems.¹ The statute most likely to be mistaken for such protection is the Wyoming Solar Rights Act, Wyo. Stat. §§ 34-22-101 through 34-22-106. Its name suggests homeowner protection, but its text does something different. It declares that "the beneficial use of solar energy is a property right" (§ 34-22-103(a)), adds that "[s]olar rights are property rights and as such shall be freely transferable within the bounds of law" (§ 34-22-103(c)), and creates a voluntary framework under which a solar user obtains a solar permit from a local government, establishes a "solar right," an unobstructed line-of-sight path from a collector to the sun, and records and transfers that right as a property interest (§§ 34-22-102, 34-22-105, 34-22-106).² The Act's constraints run against local governments, not associations: "No local government shall prohibit the construction or use of solar collectors except for reasons of public health and safety" (§ 34-22-105(c)).³ The Act doesn't mention homeowners associations, declarations, or covenants, and it doesn't give a unit owner a right to install solar over an association's objection. The consequence runs direct: an association's authority over solar is governed by its recorded documents and the applicable statute, not by any solar-specific override. Net metering, discussed below, is a separate utility-side matter.

The framework. Condominiums answer to the Wyoming Condominium Ownership Act, Wyo. Stat. §§ 34-20-101 through 34-20-104. It is a short chapter that recognizes condominium ownership, defines the declaration as the instrument fixing "the character, duration, rights, obligations and limitations of condominium ownership," and provides for recording declarations and maps and for apportioning taxes.⁴ It contains no solar provision and no general regulatory code for association governance. Wyoming has no comprehensive planned-community statute and is not a Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act state, so planned-community associations answer primarily to their recorded covenants, the Wyoming Nonprofit Corporation Act, Wyo. Stat. §§ 17-19-101 et seq., for associations incorporated as nonprofits, and common law.⁵ The Nonprofit Corporation Act supplies corporate governance rules, including meetings, notices, director duties, and member records inspection at §§ 17-19-1601 through 17-19-1603, but says nothing about solar.⁶ Wyoming has no dedicated HOA regulator and doesn't require community association managers to hold a separate license; the Wyoming Real Estate Commission regulates real estate brokerage, not association management.⁷ The practical result is a thin statutory framework in which the recorded governing documents carry most of the weight, and boards rely on clear bylaws, proper amendment procedures, and consistent enforcement rather than a detailed state code.

The Act's character, governing documents, and order of precedence. The Solar Rights Act works as a voluntary rights and easement framework, not a solar-access statute that overrides association restrictions. The distinction matters. A recorded solar right obtained through the permit process in § 34-22-105 protects a collector's access to sunlight against neighboring obstructions; by statute, "[t]he solar right to radiation of the sun before 9:00 a.m. or after 3:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time is de minimus and may be infringed without compensation" (§ 34-22-104(a)), and no solar right attaches to a collector "which would be shaded by a ten (10) foot wall located on the property line on a winter solstice day" (§ 34-22-104(c)).⁸ That framework governs the relationship between neighboring landowners; it doesn't compel an association to permit an installation its declaration prohibits. On order of precedence, a restriction-override statute, where a state has enacted one, would control over conflicting governing-document provisions. Wyoming has no such statute, so the recorded governing documents control, subject to general contract and property doctrines and the applicable statute. Wyoming courts treat covenants, bylaws, and articles as contractual and enforce clear, properly adopted restrictions according to their plain meaning, while construing ambiguities in favor of the free use of land.⁹ Architectural and design review plays the residual role. In a condominium, the declaration and any board or committee it creates control alterations to units and common elements. In a planned community, the covenants and any architectural committee they establish govern; absent an express covenant addressing solar, review authority turns on the general architectural-control language in the recorded documents.

What a Wyoming association can and cannot do regarding solar

Approval and architectural review. A solar installation stays subject to whatever architectural or design-review process the governing documents establish, because no statute exempts solar from that review. Wyoming courts have consistently enforced properly adopted architectural-control covenants as written.⁹ This authority, drawn from recorded governing documents and, for condominiums, the declaration under the Condominium Ownership Act, reaches both condominiums and planned communities and stays mandatory where the documents require pre-approval.

Permissible and impermissible restrictions. Wyoming imposes no statutory cap on the substance of solar restrictions, and no statute lists prohibited conduct or mandates "reasonable restrictions," because there is no restriction-override statute.¹ An association may restrict or prohibit solar to the extent its clear, properly adopted covenants allow; the limits come from general doctrines — enforceability, proper adoption, plain-meaning interpretation, and the rule construing ambiguities in favor of free use — not from a solar-specific statute.⁹ This basis, grounded in governing documents and common law, reaches both forms with no statutory floor or ceiling.

Governing-document and disclosure considerations. Solar rules, where they exist, typically appear in the declaration or CC&Rs or in architectural guidelines adopted under them. Amendments follow the procedures in the governing documents and, for incorporated associations, the Nonprofit Corporation Act.⁶ Wyoming has no statute requiring solar-specific resale disclosure by associations; condominium declarations get recorded under the Condominium Ownership Act and stay discoverable through the county records.⁴ This basis, drawn from governing documents, the Nonprofit Corporation Act, and the Condominium Ownership Act, applies only as the documents and corporate law require.

Dispute resolution and remedies. Solar disputes run as contract and property disputes resolved in the Wyoming District Courts, the trial courts of general jurisdiction. Wyoming has no intermediate appellate court, so appeals go directly to the Wyoming Supreme Court.¹⁰ No solar-specific statutory remedy or fee-shifting provision exists; any attorney-fee entitlement derives from the governing documents or general Wyoming law.

Recent legislative and judicial activity

Recent bills. No bill in the past 24 months creates or amends a provision affecting Wyoming HOA solar authority. Wyoming's recent solar legislation has run utility-side or facility-side. For example, Senate File SF0183 (2025 General Session), "Moratorium-solar and wind projects," sponsored by Sen. Larry Hicks with Sens. Cale Case and Cheri Steinmetz, would have created Wyo. Stat. § 35-11-2201 barring new commercial solar and wind facilities until 2030; it failed in the Senate Corporations Committee, reported 2-3, and died in committee in the 2025 session.¹¹ There is no Wyoming equivalent of California Civil Code § 714 or Texas Property Code § 202.010.

Recent appellate rulings. No Wyoming Supreme Court decision in the past 36 months addresses association authority as applied to solar specifically. The Court has addressed HOA covenant authority generally in the case below.

Active legislative debates. No active proposal would enact solar protection for Wyoming homeowners associations. The pending solar debate in Wyoming concerns commercial facility siting, taxation, and utility interconnection rather than covenant authority.¹¹

National positioning and related coverage

Solar-rights law nationally falls into three categories. Strong-protection states void or limit association solar restrictions by statute, including California, Civ. Code § 714; Florida, Fla. Stat. § 163.04; Arizona, A.R.S. § 33-1816; Colorado, C.R.S. § 38-30-168; Nevada; and Texas, Prop. Code § 202.010. Solar-easement-only states enable voluntary easements but don't override associations. No-protection states leave the declaration in full control. Wyoming belongs in the easement-only category: the Solar Rights Act, despite its title, creates a voluntary rights-and-easement framework and doesn't override associations, which keeps Wyoming out of the strong-protection group. For multi-state operators, a Wyoming association retains authority a California or Texas association wouldn't, so portfolio-wide solar policies drafted to strong-protection standards will run more permissive than Wyoming law requires. Legislative momentum toward HOA solar protection in Wyoming stays absent; recent activity has been confined to utility and facility matters. Wyoming's utility-side net metering rules, administered by the Wyoming Public Service Commission, cap a net metering system at 25 kilowatts fueled by solar, wind, biomass, or hydropower on the customer-generator's premises, Wyo. Stat. § 37-16-101(a)(viii); that is a customer-utility billing matter, separate from association authority.¹²

HOA Weekly's Wyoming Solar Rights coverage updates quarterly as the Wyoming Legislature and the Wyoming Supreme Court act. No federal rule comparable to the FCC's OTARD rule, 47 C.F.R. § 1.4000, extends to rooftop solar, so Wyoming state law and the governing documents control here.

Recommendations

• Treat the governing documents as the controlling authority. For any Wyoming community, start solar-request handling from the declaration/CC&Rs and any architectural guidelines, not from a state statute. There is no Wyoming override that supplies homeowner rights the documents omit. This holds unless and until the Legislature enacts a restriction-override; monitor each session's bill list for a bill amending Title 34 to reach HOA covenants.
• Don't rely on the Solar Rights Act name. Boards, managers, and counsel shouldn't represent the Solar Rights Act, §§ 34-22-101 to 34-22-106, as either a homeowner protection or a constraint on association authority. It regulates local governments and enables recordable solar easements between owners. Misdescribing it in a denial letter or approval policy creates avoidable legal exposure.
• For associations wanting a clear solar policy, amend the documents. Because Wyoming supplies no statutory default, associations that want predictable solar treatment, whether permissive or restrictive, should adopt explicit covenant language or architectural guidelines through the amendment procedures in the documents and, for nonprofits, the Nonprofit Corporation Act. Courts will enforce clear, properly adopted terms; vague terms get construed in favor of the owner's free use of land.
• For multi-state operators, localize the Wyoming policy. A single portfolio-wide solar SOP built to California or Texas standards over-restricts nothing but over-promises homeowners in Wyoming. Flag Wyoming as easement-only so field staff don't assume a statutory approval mandate.
• Benchmark that would change this guidance: enactment of a Wyoming statute voiding or limiting declaration-based solar restrictions, or a Wyoming Supreme Court decision applying covenant-authority principles to a solar installation. Either would move Wyoming out of the no-protection posture for covenant purposes and warrant a same-quarter update.

Caveats

• The primary statutory text is cited to the Wyoming Legislature's official Title 34, Title 17, and Title 37 compilations on wyoleg.gov; Justia mirrors were used only to cross-verify wording and weren't relied on as the primary source.
• The Solar Rights Act hasn't been amended in substance to reach associations; the conclusion that it doesn't cover HOA covenants rests on the absence of any such language in the current text, corroborated by independent state-by-state surveys, Kansas Legislative Research Department, Palmetto, that classify Wyoming as lacking an HOA-directed solar-access law.
• The "no bill" and "no case" findings reflect the 2025 General Session, the 2026 Budget Session, and Wyoming Supreme Court opinions through mid-2025. Bill and docket databases can lag; the quarterly update cycle is the intended safeguard.
• The Conger citation, 2025 WY 91, 574 P.3d 623, Docket S-24-0174, decided August 13, 2025, is provided so editors can verify the published opinion directly through the Wyoming Judicial Branch; the reporter pin cite should be confirmed against the official slip opinion before republication.
• This page states the law of association authority over solar; it doesn't address utility interconnection, permitting, or tax incentives, which are governed by separate regimes — the Public Service Commission for net metering; the federal Investment Tax Credit for tax, which has no bearing on association authority.

Footnotes

1. Wyoming Solar Rights Act, Wyo. Stat. §§ 34-22-101 to 34-22-106 (Title 34, Property, Conveyances and Security Transactions) ↩
2. Wyo. Stat. §§ 34-22-102, 34-22-103(a), 34-22-103(c), 34-22-105, 34-22-106 ↩
3. Wyo. Stat. § 34-22-105(c) ↩
4. Wyoming Condominium Ownership Act, Wyo. Stat. §§ 34-20-101 to 34-20-104 ↩
5. Wyoming Nonprofit Corporation Act, Wyo. Stat. §§ 17-19-101 et seq. (Title 17) ↩
6. Wyo. Stat. §§ 17-19-1601 to 17-19-1603 (records and inspection) ↩
7. Wyoming Real Estate Commission (real estate brokerage licensing scope; no separate CAM license) ↩
8. Wyo. Stat. § 34-22-104(a), (c) (restrictions on solar rights; 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time; winter solstice) ↩
9. Conger v. AVR Homeowner's Ass'n, Inc., 2025 WY 91, 574 P.3d 623 (Wyo. Aug. 13, 2025) (Docket S-24-0174); citing Prancing Antelope I, LLC v. Saratoga Inn Overlook Homeowners Ass'n, Inc., 2021 WY 3, 478 P.3d 1171; Hutchison v. Hill, 3 P.3d 242 (Wyo. 2000); Anderson v. Bommer, 926 P.2d 959 (Wyo. 1996) ↩
10. Wyoming Judicial Branch, Supreme Court (court structure; Wyoming has no intermediate appellate court) ↩
11. Wyoming Legislature, SF0183 (2025) "Moratorium-solar and wind projects"; 2025 General Session and 2026 Budget Session legislation lists ↩
12. Wyo. Stat. §§ 37-16-101 et seq., including § 37-16-101(a)(viii) (Net Metering, Title 37) ↩