Is solar worth it in Virginia in 2026?

How Virginia pays for your solar power

Net metering at the retail rate. Dominion and Appalachian Power credit exports against use over a 12-month period at retail; only annual net excess pays a lower rate, and a new Dominion tariff applies only to later interconnections.

In the calculator, 40% of your solar output is used at home at the retail price and the rest is exported at about 100% of retail (our default for this kind of rule), so each solar kWh is worth 100% of the retail price on average. Change it if your utility pays more or less. Method

State or utility incentive	What it is worth
Local property tax exemption for solar equipment (Va. Code § 58.1-3661)	Set by each county, city or town by ordinance; may exempt the equipment value in whole or in part

How exports are credited

Virginia net metering is set by Va. Code § 56-594, and the State Corporation Commission (SCC) decides the terms for each utility. Over each 12-month net metering period, the electricity a customer exports offsets the electricity they import, kWh for kWh. Residential systems may be up to 25 kW. The program stays open until installed capacity reaches 6% of the utility’s peak load, 5% for all customers and 1% reserved for low-income customers.

Dominion Energy Virginia. The SCC’s Final Order of April 30, 2026 in Case PUR-2025-00079 approved a successor tariff, “NEM 2.0”. It keeps energy-based netting over the year. Its main change is the rate paid for excess energy over the annual period: $0.05829 per kWh. It also adds a $1.00 per month administrative charge. The Commission approved a 30-minute measurement interval for data collection, but said that choice should have no financial effect on a customer, and it rejected Dominion’s proposed application fees (as reported by pv magazine USA). The May 20, 2026 Order on Clarification denied the rehearing petitions and deemed Dominion’s proposed start date reasonable: the new terms apply to new or modified interconnections from the first of the month at least 12 months after the Final Order. By that reading the earliest start is May 1, 2027, and Dominion must file revised tariffs. Until then, new customers interconnect under the existing program. Customers who interconnect before the effective date are not affected by the new order under § 56-594 and may stay on the existing tariff, as pv magazine USA also reports.

Appalachian Power (APCo). On August 29, 2025 the SCC approved APCo’s proposal to pay 5.66 cents per kWh for net excess generation over the 12-month period, about 70% below the previous rate, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center. The Commission kept annual netting and rejected hourly netting. Existing customers can choose between the old and new compensation. The effective date for new APCo customers was not confirmed in the sources opened.

State incentives in 2026

Virginia has no statewide income tax credit or rebate for home solar that could be confirmed. Va. Code § 58.1-3661 lets a county, city or town exempt solar equipment from local property tax, wholly or partly, by ordinance. Whether and how much depends on where you live, so ask your locality. A statewide SREC market was not confirmed.

The federal 30% credit is not available for systems installed after December 31, 2025.

What it means for payback

Using solar power or exporting it against later imports keeps full value, because credits net out over the year. The change that matters is for oversized systems: any production beyond annual use is paid at the lower excess rate, so sizing close to annual consumption protects the return. The extra $1.00 monthly charge under the new Dominion tariff is small. Because the Dominion terms for new customers have a later start date, the timing of your interconnection decides which tariff you get.

Other rules worth knowing

Customers on the existing program who interconnect before the new tariff takes effect are protected from the new order under § 56-594. Dominion’s revised tariff filing and the start date should be checked on the SCC docket for PUR-2025-00079 before signing a contract.

Berkeley Lab does not publish a Virginia median from enough systems, so the calculator starts from the U.S. median of $3.60/W. Put your own quote in.