RICHMOND, Va.—It’s all eyes on Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin now to take action on a number of bills aimed at increasing renewable energy development in the state and utility customer savings. 

Among the bills Youngkin must act on by midnight Monday is a measure sponsored by Del. Katrina Callsen (D-Charlottesville) and Sen. Schuyler T. VanValkenburg (D-Henrico) aimed at increasing small-scale solar projects. 

The bill updates the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which Democrats passed in 2020 to require the state’s two largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Company, to comply with a Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS.

To comply with the VCEA, the utilities currently must acquire renewable energy credits, or RECs, which are created when electricity from solar and wind sources is generated. Those renewable credits must be acquired in increasing amounts that equal 100 percent of Dominion and Appalachian Power’s electricity sales by 2050.

As part of that requirement, there’s an incentive for a diverse mix of generation sources around the state, instead of relying on large, or utility-scale, solar projects that take swaths of Virginia’s coveted rural farmland. Currently, one percent of the Renewable Portfolio Standard  requirements in a given year have to come from small-scale solar, wind or renewable gas projects that produce up to one megawatt of electricity, known as distributed generation. 

Under the Callsen and VanValkenburg bill, those requirements would get bumped up to three percent in 2026 and five percent in 2028. Then, in 2029 through 2031 and every three years after, the Renewable Portfolio Standard’s  percentage would be set by the State Corporation Commission, which regulates Virginia’s utilities, while considering “the availability of RECs from such resources in the market and the future market expansion of such resources.”

Also, the size of the distributed generation sources that are eligible would be increased to 3 megawatts, and include behind-the-meter projects that can be installed on the roof of a residential home or business to produce their own electricity and offset their bills.

Jim Purekal, a director with Advanced Energy United, said in an interview while pushing back against concerns over increasing electricity costs that, “added expenses are not a result of the VCEA. It’s a result of escalating fuel prices (and) storm recovery costs from Hurricane Helene.” 

Generation Buildouts

The bill makes other changes to the VCEA. As currently written, the landmark law on renewable power requires the utilities to build 16,100 megawatts of solar or onshore wind, the latter of which largely has yet to be explored outside of one project in Southwest.

Of that, 200 megawatts currently needs to come from “previously developed sites.” The bill on Youngkin’s desk would increase that requirement to 600 megawatts. Along with the behind-the-meter projects that could go on resident rooftops, the change would avoid building on “several thousands” of farmland acres, explained Josephus Allmond, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Currently, the VCEA’s 16,100 megawatt requirement stipulates that 65 percent must come from utility-owned sources, with the rest coming from third-party developers through power purchase agreements, which advocates say are cheaper ways to deliver electricity since utility-owned projects are recovered from ratepayers with a 9.7 percent profit margin, thereby increasing the cost. 

The Callsen and VanValkenburg bill would flip that percentage to 65 percent needing to come from PPAs.

“That’s big,” said Purekal.

Parking Lot Solar 

Adding to the mix on solar development is legislation sponsored by Del. David Bulova (D-Alexandria) that would give localities the option of requiring developers to build solar arrays above nonresidential surface parking areas with 100 spaces or more, covering up to 50 percent of the parking area. Exceptions could be made if the canopy would inhibit uses and densities otherwise allowed by local ordinances.

Bulova pointed to the Washington Commanders, whose stadium is outside Washington D.C. in Maryland, already having solar canopies, which can also keep cars underneath them cool.

“Those canopies are actually enough to power the entire complex on a non-game day, and 20 percent of the complex on a game day,” said Bulova. “By no means a silver bullet, but it does provide our urban localities with a very meaningful way in order to be able to meet our energy challenges.”

The project would follow the state’s interconnection or net-metering rules. 

While environmental groups and the Virginia Farm Bureau sided in support of the bill as a way to avoid taking up farm space, Sarah Thomas, on behalf of the Virginia Association for Commercial Real Estate, voiced opposition to the bill because of the cost, despite researchers saying contracts can overcome upfront costs.

Still, Republican lawmakers in the Senate pushed back. 

“Do you think that is going to power a data center, anywhere in the Commonwealth of Virginia? We’ve got to stop piecing over this problem with tiny, tiny little Band-Aids,” said Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, while falsely stating that nuclear doesn’t count toward zero-carbon goals of the VCEA.