Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has signed a bill into law that will create a tax exemption for residential and mixed-use solar energy systems of up to 25kW.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) said the law will expand consumers’ energy freedom and create additional incentives to do business in the Commonwealth.
This new law comes two years after the state passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act that set the state to become zero carbon by 2050 with a strong support to rooftop solar installations and has seen
Since the Act passed, the state’s yearly solar PV installations numbers have climbed for the past two years, with Virginia now among the top five states in the country, passing from 132MWdc in 2019, and ranking 19, to more than 1GW in 2020 and 2021, only behind Texas, California and Florida, according to data from the SEIA.
Will Giese, southeast regional director for the SEIA, said: “Virginia now has a home-generation tax policy that is competitive with other southern states, and companies are ready to continue growing the local economy and lowering energy costs for people across the Commonwealth.”
Data from SEIA show that residential solar installs increased 30% year-on-year with more than 4.2GW of installations across the United States, in Virginia more than 4,000 people work in the solar industry said Giese.
Consultancy Rystad Energy expects rooftop solar global capacity to increase by 61% between 2021 and 2025 thanks to policy support encouraging its deployment and soaring electricity prices.
