Virginia bills for expanded Shared Solar Program clear committees

Senate and House versions of bills that would increase capacity of Virginia’s Shared Solar program passed their respective committees this week and are set to head to their chamber floor for vote next week.

“We’re over a big hurdle but we’re not done yet,” said Charlie Coggeshall, Mid-Atlantic Regional Director of the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), in an interview with NPM.

The Senate versions of the bills, SB-252 and SB-255, introduced by Senator Ryan McDougle, R-26, proposed a 450 MW cap for Dominion Energy and 75 MW for Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power (AEP), which formerly did not have a shared solar program.

The House versions, HB-106 and HB-108, aimed to increase the capacity of the program from its current 200 MW cap to 10 Percent of each utility’s peak load. According to Coggeshall, 10 percent of Dominion’s peak load would have been roughly 1.5 GW and 300 MW for AEP.

Following significant negotiations, the amendments to the bills would add 150 MW of aggregated capacity to the Dominion Shared Solar program and open up APCO territory with 50 MW of capacity.

“It’s a big deal. It was developed through a negotiating consensus with the utilities—which is an amazing feat in itself,” said Tony Smith, President and Co-founder of Secure Solar Futures, and Chair and Co-founder of the Virginia Distributed Solar Alliance (VADSA).

Smith said the bills cleared with enough votes and support from the two utility companies which makes him confident that they will pass because the Senate is unlikely to vote against a bill that has already passed the House especially with Democratic leadership behind it.

The current 5 MW nameplate capacity will remain under the bills, as well as the minimum requirement of having 30 percent capacity of projects reserved for low-income customers.

In a statement to NPM, Mike Borkowski, Community Power Group Founder, said that Virginia’s Shared Solar program has been a huge success with low-income customers but both small business and households that are above the low-income threshold have been left out.

“These new bills will allow more Virginia residents to participate by expanding the size of the program and by allowing others besides the low-income community to participate,” Borkowski said. “We have invested significant human and financial resources in the state of Virginia to develop these community solar farms on, among other things, brownfields and landfills, and are hopeful that these bills pass so that small businesses and regular consumers can receive the benefits of solar energy.”

Other changes proposed in the bills include the removal of co-location restrictions allowing for two or more shared solar facilities to be permitted if the facilities are located on a single parcel of land or on adjacent parcels. Also removed will be requirements for projects to be located in the same service territory of an investor-owned utility within the Commonwealth.

Projects will be entitled to receive incentives when they are located on rooftops, brownfields, or landfills, are dual-use agricultural facilities or meet the definition of another category established by the Virginia Department of Energy (DOE).

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) will be tasked with implementing the expanded program by January 1, 2025.

Virginia's Shared Solar Program opened in 2020 with 150 MW of capacity in Dominion territory. An additional 50 MW was tacked onto the program in subsequent years. The program's 200 MW capacity is nearly full with what's on the books or in the queue, NPM previously reported.

Developers such as Catalyze, Clean Footprint, New Energy Equity, and Summit Ridge Energy, have proposed sub -10 MW projects in Virginia, according to NPM data.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.

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