Virginia solar just survived its biggest test: state regulators rejected Dominion's proposal to gut net metering this spring, preserving the 1-to-1 credit and your ownership of the SRECs your roof earns. The rules are now settled and the math is knowable. EcoGen America lays out both, and the installers who deserve your roof.
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In 2025, Dominion Energy asked Virginia’s State Corporation Commission to overhaul residential net metering: slash the export credit, claim customers’ renewable energy certificates, and add application fees. On April 30, 2026, the Commission’s final ruling rejected the structural changes.
What stands: every kilowatt-hour you export still offsets your bill at the full 1-to-1 retail rate, and your SRECs remain your property, sellable into Virginia’s renewable-standard market for typically $180 to $500 a year on a residential system.
What changed is small: new Dominion solar customers pay a $1 monthly administrative fee, and extreme year-end over-production cashes out at about 5.8¢ instead of retail, a rule that only punishes oversizing.
EcoGen America tracks the rules as they are, not as the utility proposed them, checks your quote against real Virginia pricing, and connects you with installers who register your SRECs rather than quietly keeping them.
Every installer we list works under the 2026 rules as decided, and puts SREC ownership and registration in the contract.
Built-in checks for quotes that oversize past your usage, skip SREC registration, or hide dealer fees in the financed price.
Dominion and Appalachian Power run different rates and riders. We model the one on your bill, not a statewide blur.
Your information goes only to the installers you choose to hear from. Nothing is resold.
EcoGen is 100% free for homeowners. We earn a small referral fee from installers only when you choose to proceed with a project through our platform.
This fee comes from the installer’s marketing budget and does not increase your system price. In fact, our pre-negotiated rates often save you money compared to going direct.
Most of what you will read online about Virginia net metering was written while the outcome was uncertain. It is not uncertain anymore. Here is the scoreboard.
Dominion Asked For | The Commission Said | What It Means for You |
|---|---|---|
Cut the value of exported solar below retail | Rejected | Your exports still offset your bill 1-to-1 |
Take ownership of customers’ renewable energy certificates | Rejected | Your SRECs stay yours to register and sell, typically $180 to $500 a year |
New application fees for interconnection | Rejected | No fee wall between you and connecting |
Administrative cost recovery | Granted, narrowly | New Dominion solar customers pay $1 a month |
Year-end surplus treatment | Adjusted | Extreme over-production cashes out near 5.8¢, so size to your usage, not your roof |
The practical upshot: Virginia’s rules are now more settled than they have been in years, and quotes written during the uncertainty deserve a re-run under the final terms.
Dominion or Appalachian Power? Rates, riders and the new $1 fee differ by territory, and every honest projection starts from the right one.
SRECs only pay if they are registered and sold. Who does that filing, and who keeps the certificates, belongs in the contract in plain words.
The 1-to-1 credit rewards matching your annual usage; the 5.8¢ year-end cashout punishes vanity oversizing. Size to the bill, not the roof.
Free 15-minute call. We model your utility, your certificates and your honest payback.
Virginia’s renewable portfolio standard obligates utilities to buy solar certificates, and your roof mints them: one SREC per 1,000 kWh generated. The April ruling confirmed they belong to you, not the utility. Turning them into money takes three facts.
Stacked on the 1-to-1 bill credit, certificates take a typical Virginia payback from the low teens toward 10 to 12 years, faster in high-usage homes. The rest of the stack is in our Virginia incentives guide.
Virginia Contract Checks
The rules are settled; the contracts are where Virginia buyers now win or lose. Four clauses carry the weight.
Your certificates are yours by right, worth $180 to $500 a year. Contracts that assign them away without compensation are taking, not disclosing.
Dominion and Appalachian Power rates differ, and only new Dominion customers pay the $1 monthly fee. A model built on the wrong territory is fiction.
Oversized systems bank year-end surplus at roughly 5.8¢, a tenth of what right-sized production is worth on the bill.
With no federal credit and no state credit, dealer fees are the last big place a Virginia quote hides money.
Four clauses, every Virginia quote. Installers who resist them are answering a different question than yours.
Vetted for Class A licensing, SREC handling, warranties and complaint history.
Settled rules do not make every roof a good candidate. The honest exceptions:
Worth knowing: the ruling only covered Dominion; Appalachian Power customers keep their existing terms, and both territories keep full 1-to-1 crediting today. Weigh your scenario in our worth-it breakdown.
Grade it against real Virginia pricing under the rules as they stand after April 30.
15 minutes with an independent advisor. We check the SREC clause, the sizing and the price.
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Yes. The State Corporation Commission’s final ruling of April 30, 2026 rejected the proposals to cut the export credit, claim customer SRECs and add application fees.
What was granted is minor: a $1 monthly administrative fee for new Dominion solar customers, and year-end surplus cashed out near 5.8¢, which only affects oversized systems.
One certificate per 1,000 kWh generated, typically $180 to $500 a year for a residential system depending on size and market prices, which follow the state’s renewable-standard compliance schedule.
The income only exists if the system is registered and the certificates are sold. Confirm in the contract that they are yours and who files the registration.
No. The case covered Dominion; Appalachian Power territory keeps its existing net metering terms, and both territories credit exports 1-to-1 today.
Rates and riders still differ between the two, so make sure any savings model names your actual utility.
No state income tax credit and no statewide rebate. Virginia’s value is structural: the 1-to-1 net metering credit, SREC income, and for most localities an exemption on the added property value, which varies by county and is worth confirming with your assessor.
The federal residential credit ended December 31, 2025; only lease and PPA providers can still capture federal value and pass some through.
Sized to your last 12 months of usage, and rarely more than about 110% of it. Every right-sized kilowatt-hour is worth the full retail rate on your bill.
Production beyond your annual usage cashes out at roughly 5.8¢ at year-end, a tenth of its on-bill value, which makes oversizing the classic Virginia quote inflation trick.