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To better serve our customers and to ensure a livable future the next generation, Ipsun is committed to joining the policy debate in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. as well as on a federal level. Ipsun Solar’s mission is to fight climate change. To that end, we have been working to help shape solar policy since the company’s beginning. Policy advances help mitigate the climate crisis by allowing individuals to more easily install solar on their homes and businesses.

Virginia’s Official Sustainability Goals

On Sept. 17, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced Executive Order 43, which calls for a new plan for the Commonwealth to achieve 30% renewable energy by 2040 and to reach 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050.

30% renewable energy by 2040 and to reach 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050

Virginia Policy Priorities for Ipsun

There are three specific goals Ipsun would like to see realized:

  1. Lift the 1% cap on the total amount of solar that can be net metered in a utility territory.
  2. Increase the Solar Power Purchase Agreement cap in the Dominion Energy service area from 50 MW to 500 MW.
  3. 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.

Virginia General Assembly

2020 was a wild ride for solar in Virginia. After a decisive blue wave took over both the VA House of Delegates and Senate, many renewable energy fans saw a huge opportunity to move our state into a more progressive clean energy future. Consequently, our 60-day legislative season saw a record number of bills, many of which directly affected our business as a solar installer. The Ipsun solar community got busy lobbying, calling, writing our legislators and we saw huge success. You can read all about the details of the new policies that we’ll see in Virginia and about the exciting new solar incentives coming our way on our blog.

We worked especially hard with our industry partners on the landmark Virginia Clean Economy Act. The VCEA is a huge bill that deals with much more than just solar. Overall, it lays the groundwork to get the state to the Governor’s goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050. It takes many steps forward for energy efficiency and wind generation and enters Virginia into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. We were thrilled to see that the VCEA creates a mandatory Renewable Energy Portfolio (RPS) for the state.  The RPS requires the state to add a certain amount of renewable energy to the current mix of mostly coal, natural gas and nuclear that is powering our electric grid. The VCEA lays out a scheduled timeline, adding more renewable energy each year and ultimately brings us to 100% renewable by 2045. Not only is this a huge win for the climate, but it also creates a new solar incentive for VA consumers with the creation of a Solar Renewable Energy Credit market. You can read all about it on our blog.

We owe a huge thanks to everyone in the Ipsun family who let their legislators know that solar energy is important to them. Here’s an overview of the bills we worked hard to get passed:

The VA Clean Economy Act’s key solar components include: 

  • Mandates the use of rooftop solar as part of the Renewable Portfolio Standard, creating a competitive market and incentivizing the use of rooftop solar.
  • Raises the net metering cap from 1% to 6%, which includes 1% specifically for low-income customers.
  • Increases the Solar Power Purchase Agreement cap in the Dominion Energy service area from 50 MW to 500 MW. This allows the Fairfax County Solar PPA program to go forward!
  • Raises the limit on a residential customer’s allowed project size from 100% of their annual energy demand to 150% of their annual energy demand.
  • Raises the project size limit from 20 kW to 25 kW for residential customers.
  • Removes standby charges for residential customers with solar facilities of less than 15 kW in Dominion territory, and removes them entirely for customers of Appalachian Power and Old Dominion Power.
  • Includes specific provisions to expand solar access to low- and moderate-income (LMI) customers. The bill requires 25% of rooftop solar to be deployed to low-income communities, sets aside 1% of net metering service to LMI customers, and allows LMI customers to earn full retail credit.

Many other great solar bills passed in the VA General Assembly this session. Here are a few more that we are thrilled made it through to the Governor’s desk:

HOA Solar bill, HB 414This bill clarifies restrictions an HOA can put on a homeowner’s solar project. Specifically, it says HOAs cannot instruct the homeowner to make changes to a project that would increase the cost by more than 5%, or decrease the expected output by more than 10%.

Community Solar:

    • Solar Freedom’s Multi-Family Solar, HB 572Allows residents of multifamily buildings to share onsite solar arrays.
      • Starts January 1, 2021
      • Currently, we are waiting on State Corporation Commission to set the bill credit rate, which if too high may make the program unaffordable. Submit your comments now!
      • Qualifies sites cannot exceed 3 MW at any single location or 5 MW at contiguous locations owned by the same entity or affiliated entities. Capped at 150 MW.
      • Must have at least three subscribers per project
      • Is located on a parcel of land on the premises of the multi-family utility customer or adjacent thereto.
      • Net metering applies to the subscriber: any amount of the bill credit that exceeds the subscriber’s monthly bill shall be carried over and applied to the next month’s bill in perpetuity;
      • SRECs, if available, may be distributed to subscribers, sold to investor-owned utilities or other buyers, accumulated, or retired.
      • Transferability: Would reasonably allow for the transferability and portability of subscriptions, including allowing a subscriber to retain a subscription in a shared solar facility if the subscriber moves within the same utility territory;
  • Shared Solar Bill: HB 1634
    • Starts January 1, 2021.
    • This bill allows shared solar projects no larger than 5 MW, which can be owned by any for-profit or nonprofit entity, and require at least three subscribers. The program is capped at a total of 150 MW.
    • Has a requirement for 30% low-income subscribers, in total, by the time the 150 MW cap is reached.
    • At least 40 percent of its capacity must be subscribed by customers with subscriptions of 25 kilowatts or less;
    • Is located on a single parcel of land.
    • SCC bill credit rate ruling is in process. Also includes a minimum bill, which the SCC is also currently decidingThe Commission shall establish a minimum bill, which shall include the costs of all utility infrastructure and services used to provide electric service and administrative costs of the shared solar program. The Commission may modify the minimum bill over time. In establishing the minimum bill, the Commission shall (i) consider further costs the Commission deems relevant to ensure subscribing customers pay a fair share of the costs of providing electric services and (ii) minimize the costs shifted to customers not in a shared solar program. Low-income customers shall be exempt from the minimum bill.
    • Has important social justice features: 
      • Create a stakeholder working group including low-income community representatives and community solar providers to facilitate low-income customer and low-income service organization participation in the program;
      • Encourage public-private partnerships to further the Commonwealth’s clean energy and equity goals, such as state agency and affordable housing provider participation in the program as subscribers of shared solar projects;
      • Prohibit credit checks as a means of establishing eligibility for residential customers to become subscribers;

If you’d like to thank your legislators for enacting a historic amount of renewable energy policy this session, and for working extremely hard to pass the record number of bills they had this session, you can find their contact info here. Send them a note and let them know we appreciate that they are working for a better future for our kids and grandkids.