Local DVM joined us at a new installation in Ashburn to hear about Ipsun’s hope that change will come for solar freedom during the 2020 legislative session. We love helping our customers save money and fight climate change by installing solar. We could make even more progress on our goal of installing as much solar in Northern VA as possible if the barriers to solar in Virginia were lifted. Especially in the wake of the Governor’s call for 100% renewable energy by 2050, our state should be a leader in encouraging the transition to distributed small scale solar- for the health of our wallets and our planet, and most important, for our kids’ future.
Here’s what they wrote:
LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (WDVM) — The Commonwealth of Virginia is taking steps to expand access to clean energy.
Governor Ralph Northam issued an executive order that sets a goal of generating 30 percent of Virginia’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. Some say in order for it to happen, there needs to be swift action from legislators to remove barriers that have kept Virginians from making the transition toward clean energy.
“What we don’t have are any kind of rebates from the state. We don’t have any kind of renewable energy credits and those really help people when they are doing a project like this. It can make the difference between in other states you can pay off with your savings on your utility bills you can pay it off in a few years, in Virginia it takes on average like 10-12 years,” said Bobby Monacella with Ipsun Solar.
According to Monacella, 10-12 years is good considering the 25-year life span of most solar projects, but believes the process can be a lot faster if policies in the Commonwealth are changed.
Here’s what we’ve asked the legislature to do in the 2020 legislative session, from our statement on Executive Order #43:
- Lift the 1% cap on the total amount of solar that can be net metered in a utility territory.
- Increase the Solar Power Purchase Agreement cap in the Dominion Energy service area from 50 MW to 500 MW.
- Raise the limit on a customer’s permissible net-metered solar installation size from 100% of their previous 12 months’ demand to 125% of their previous 12 months’ demand.
Please join the effort by making sure to vote for solar in the November 5th election. You can also call your legislators and let them know you care about this issue. Find their information at Who’s My Legislator?
