Virginia Mercury published AEE Member Sigora Solar's piece supporting the Virginia Clean Economy Act, referencing an AEE report that shows ambitious clean energy goals can be met while delivering positive economic impact. Read excerpts below and the entire Virginia Mercury piece here. 

Last month, a broad coalition of clean energy companies including energy efficiency providers, rooftop solar installers and utility scale renewable energy developers joined with leading environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers to unveil the key pillars that will make up the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a bill that thoughtfully and simply puts Virginia on a path towards 100% carbon free by 2050...

Here’s what this means for Virginia’s future: A recent study from Advanced Energy Economy showed that getting to a zero-carbon electricity system by 2050 could create more than 13,000 jobs annually in the energy sector over business as usual. These jobs will be created in every Virginia community through energy efficiency contractors, rooftop solar installers, offshore wind construction and maintenance workers and many more. Another study performed by The Solar Foundation found that as many as 20,000 additional jobs could be created in the solar industry in Virginia if we add 7,500 megawatts of solar in the next decade.

Next, moving to 100% carbon-free energy will save consumers money. The same Advanced Energy Economy study showed going carbon free can reduce costs for the average Virginia family by at least $3,500 over the life of the program. The legislation will use a suite of tools to ensure costs remain low for consumers, including utilizing funds from Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative for clean energy programming, robust deployment of energy efficiency, a requirement that utility scale investments in renewable energy are competitively procured and not simply built by Dominion Energy and new solar financing structures...

Read the entire Virginia Mercury piece here.