Solar and Storage: The Key for Energy Affordability in Virginia

Electricity demand in Virginia is rising at a historic pace, and families and businesses are feeling the impact in the form of higher utility bills.

Solar and energy storage offer the most immediate and cost-effective solution. These technologies are the fastest and cheapest new sources of electricity to build, allowing power to come online in months rather than years. By expanding access to solar and storage, Virginia can add capacity quickly, reduce pressure on electricity prices, and give consumers more control over their energy costs.

That is why the Solar Energy Industries Association supports a comprehensive legislative agenda for the 2026 General Assembly session that would help Virginia:

1. affordably meet growing energy demand,
2. strengthen grid reliability, and
3. continue progress toward the goals of the Virginia Clean Economy Act

This agenda includes expanding the buildout of distributed solar and storage, advancing policies that enable grid-scale storage deployment, and streamlining smart residential solar and storage permitting so projects can move forward without unnecessary delays.

Distributed Generation Expansion Act

This bill will increase the Renewable Portfolio Standard carveout for distributed generation solar: solar on rooftops, parking lots, landfills, and brownfields. Distributed generation offers myriad affordability and grid reliability benefits. By generating power closer to consumers, distributed generation reduces energy demand and the need for costly transmission upgrades.

Energy Storage

This bill will increase Virginia’s energy storage goals to stabilize the grid and put downward pressure on electricity prices. From Texas to Illinois, states across the country — and across the political spectrum — are investing in dispatchable energy storage, which stores cheaper electricity and then sends it to the grid at times of peak demand, when electricity prices are highest.

Smart Residential Solar Permitting

Virgina can join the growing list of red, blue, and purple states that have streamlined and modernized the process for permitting residential solar energy systems. Smart solar permitting helps businesses and households lower their electricity bills with rooftop solar, cutting costly red tape that can add up to $7,000 to the cost of an average system — while still ensuring the safety and reliability of these systems.

Solar is the Fastest and Cheapest Energy to Build

The 2025 elections underscored an important reality: supporting solar and storage is not only smart energy policy; it is also good politics. Voters across the Commonwealth are demanding practical solutions that lower costs, strengthen reliability, and support local jobs.

With surging energy demand threatening to destabilize the balance of supply and demand — and raise utility bills further — Virginia needs more power quickly, and that means more solar and storage.

Solar and storage help shield Virginia customers from unpredictable swings in natural gas prices, the biggest driver of electricity costs. Unlike fossil fuels, solar power has no fuel costs; the sun is free.

Solar and storage rein in costs further by reducing demand on the grid and pushing down wholesale electricity prices – delivering savings when customers need relief most.