ECONOMIC CENTS: Residential Solar
Solarizing your home is both economical and beneficial to the community as a whole.
By Bruce Saller
COLUMNIST
According to its most recent Integrated Resource Plan, Dominion Virginia estimates its electricity demand will grow 5.5% per year, doubling by 2039. The growth is mainly driven by the increase in data centers, and to a lesser extent by increases in population and electric vehicles.
Because some of Dominion’s existing generation facilities will be retiring before 2039, Dominion must add more generation capacity than it currently has to meet the future demand.
This is going to be extremely difficult for Dominion to achieve. One thing you can do to help is to install solar panels.
Under the current Net Metering Law, you can install solar panels that provide up to 150% of your previous 12 months’ usage. (You may want to install panels over 100% if you plan to buy an electric vehicle, or replace a gas furnace or appliance with an electric model.)
Generally, you use more electricity than your solar system produces in the coldest and hottest months (requiring you to import electricity), and you use less electricity in the other months (allowing you to export electricity). Each month you only pay for the net electricity used (electricity imported – electricity exported) plus the monthly service charge.
Any surplus export rolls into the next month’s calculation. Your electricity usage and solar production are reconciled at the end of every 12-month period following your installation. If you finish the period with export credits, they are rolled to the next period up to the amount of electricity you purchased in that period. Otherwise, they are forfeited.
For example, if you finish the period with 1000 credits and had paid for 600 kilo-watt hours (KWH) during the period, 600 credits will be rolled to the next period, and you forfeit the remaining 400 credits.
Another option is to enter into a Power Purchase Agreement with Dominion, and have the excess credits refunded at a rate equal to the regional average annual generation cost (3.374 cents/KWH in 2024). This needs to be done prior to the solar panel activation.
The Virginia Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) has collaborated with many municipalities (including Fredericksburg) to sponsor an annual Solarize Virginia campaign from April 15th – July 15th. They have negotiated discounted prices with vetted installers and will assist you throughout the process. Any Virginia resident is eligible to participate. Their website says:
If you have a south-facing roof that gets plenty of sunlight, then your home is likely solar viable. East/west can work as well, but not all orientations will be viable. If you sign up for Solarize, LEAP will perform a free satellite assessment on your property. LEAP takes other factors into account including the age and size of your roof and your home’s overall energy efficiency. Solar installers will conduct further tests for structural soundness and other details.
According to LEAP, the cost to install solar panels ranges from $10,000 to $25,000 and it normally takes from 9 to 12 years to recover the cost. A Federal Tax Credit of 30% of the cost is still available. The credit is not refundable, so any excess credit is rolled to the following year.
So, please consider installing solar panels to help our community, and to save some money.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”