New laws take effect in Virginia next month with the intent to develop more clean energy across the commonwealth, particularly solar and battery storage.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act mandates a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy by 2050. And the General Assembly passed several new laws this year to accelerate progress toward that goal.
"There's a lot of work," says Josephus Allmond, Virginia's chief energy officer, a newly created position in Governor Abigail Spanberger's cabinet.. "Our governor signed over dozen great clean energy bills that are going to help."
One new law establishes new siting guidelines for utility-scale solar farms.
Solar's been booming across Virginia since lawmakers eased the process for state permits. But that's led to a backlash, especially in rural communities, where residents are worried about the loss of views and farmland.
This new law prohibits blanket bans on solar development. But it still allows local government to reject projects on a case-by-case basis.
"Nothing forces any locality to accept a project," Allmond says. "What it does do is require for denials a written explanation of why the county denied the project. The hope is with ordinances, with a predictable range of standards, that a lot of these projects will start to get fair hearings in counties throughout the commonwealth."
Virginia will also become just the second state in the U.S. to allow so-called balcony solar panels, which can be self-installed and come with a microinverter that allows people to offset some household electricity use.
Another bill increases targets for Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power to develop battery storage.
"Those are the resources that are over the next decade really going to provide stability, reliability, resilience to our grid, all while driving down prices," Allmond says.
Those new laws take effect July 1.
