Altus Power has acquired five community solar projects in Virginia, totaling 32 MW, to participate in Appalachian Power Company's shared solar program, aiming to deliver clean power to approximately 5,000 homes and provide direct savings through solar bill credits. Collaborating with New Leaf Energy, Altus Power is expanding access to community solar in emerging markets, currently serving over 40,000 subscribers nationwide with Community Solar, offering clean energy savings without the need for installing solar panels. By building clean power generation assets in high-demand areas, Altus Power supports reliability, lowers energy costs, expands local power generation, and improves grid resilience, advancing a more affordable, reliable, and locally powered energy future through innovative financing.
Tag: Virginia
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Harrisonburg, VA: The Friendly City is also becoming the Sustainable City
Harrisonburg, Virginia is making significant progress towards a cleaner and greener city through a variety of environmental initiatives and programs. The city's Public Works department is focused on stormwater management, urban forestry, and transportation planning to meet environmental goals by 2040, while the Public School system is involved in sustainability efforts like Bike, Walk and Roll to School Day, electric school buses, and solar panels. The Environmental Action Plan includes adding solar power to buildings, participating in Virginia C-PACE, and promoting initiatives like the Friendly City Solar Program and electric vehicles. City staff, residents, and organizations are working together to implement these efforts, emphasizing the importance of community support and persistence in achieving a more sustainable and affordable city for all.
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6 States Leading the USA on Smart Energy Policy Halfway through 2026
In 2026, six states, including Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and Colorado, have passed smart solar and storage policies to address rising electricity demand, lower power bills, and improve grid reliability. These policies, supported by SEIA, aim to deploy solar and storage, expand access to low-cost electricity, and save consumers billions of dollars over the next two decades. By investing in distributed energy resources and virtual power plant programs, these states are leading the way in modernizing their electric grids and demonstrating the effectiveness of clean energy solutions in meeting electricity demand, improving reliability, and reducing costs. Other states are also considering similar legislation to advance their clean energy goals.
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Virginia defines agrivoltaics, expanding opportunities for solar
Virginia recently signed a bill defining agrivoltaics as the co-location of agriculture and solar energy generation on the same land, aiming to expand distributed generation and revitalize fallow farmland. The state's first crop-based agrivoltaics project generated 130% of the farm's energy needs. Projects in Virginia must prioritize agricultural productivity, integrate renewable energy generation, and allow for flexibility to adapt to market conditions. Efforts are being made to revitalize abandoned cropland through grazing projects, with proposed legislation to create a stakeholder advisory panel ensuring meaningful partnerships between the agricultural and solar communities. The goal is to drive economic growth while preserving farmland and incentivizing solar development on brownfields and existing structures.
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Sunrun, Renew Home, & Tesla Team Up to Deliver More Than 16 Gigawatts of Fast, Flexible Power for Data Centers and Large Loads
Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla have partnered to deliver over 16 GW of flexible energy capacity to meet growing electricity demand from data centers and AI growth, creating the largest distributed power plant in the country. This collaboration aims to provide cost-effective solutions for data centers, lower energy bills for American households, and unlock latent capacity in home batteries, HVAC systems, and EVs. The companies have capacity available in Virginia and plan to expand nationwide, urging hyperscalers to engage immediately to secure local energy resources. By utilizing existing resources in American homes, this joint framework can provide national coverage, support economic growth, and offer sustainable energy solutions for residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
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3 home energy providers offer 16.8 GW of distributed capacity to utilities, hyperscalers
Sunrun, Tesla, and Renew Home are partnering to provide nearly 17 GW of distributed energy capacity in the U.S., focusing on alleviating grid congestion and offering grid services to middle-class American families. Power system experts see untapped potential in distributed resources like battery and HVAC capacity in key markets such as Texas, California, and Virginia. In Puerto Rico, LUMA Energy has utilized Sunrun's PowerOn Puerto Rico VPP to address reliability issues on the transmission grid, with onsite solar and batteries playing a critical role in shortening power outages for over 200,000 customers. The need for sustainable solutions is evident as load-shedding events increase due to high demand and aging fossil-fuel generators going offline for maintenance.
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Agrivoltaics Gets A Huge Thumbs-Up With Bipartisan Support
Agrivoltaics, the practice of combining crops with solar panels, is gaining traction in Virginia with the introduction of legislation such as SB 340/HB 508 to support and accelerate this transition. The bill defines agrivoltaics as co-locating agricultural production and solar energy generation, emphasizing the need for projects to complement existing farm businesses. Supported by the PEC and passed with bipartisan support, the legislation also promotes on-farm energy storage and virtual power plants to enable farmers to collaborate with local utilities. The Community Farm at Roundabout Meadows serves as a model for small-scale, distributed generation and storage opportunities, showcasing the benefits of crop-based agrivoltaics systems in achieving energy independence and sustainability.
https://cleantechnica.com/2026/06/18/agrivoltaics-virginia-solar-energy-storage-conserve-farmland/
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A new mega-utility is at ground zero for AI. Here’s what could happen.
NextEra Energy, a Florida-based power giant, is embracing renewables, batteries, and gas facilities as key solutions to meet energy demands and accelerate the transition to a greener power system. Their proposed merger with Dominion Energy in Virginia has the potential to lower utility bills, increase deployment of cheaper resources, and bring new resources online faster and more efficiently. NextEra's focus on battery storage development under Virginia's new legislation could help them gain support in the state and form a coalition of stakeholders critical of Dominion's reliance on fossil fuels. The success of the merger will depend on winning over utility regulators, especially in Virginia where Dominion is influential.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/a-new-mega-utility-is-at-ground-zero-for-ai-heres-what-could-happen/
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Dominion to open nation’s biggest offshore wind farm next year
Dominion Energy's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the largest in the U.S., is moving forward with nine turbines already in the water and plans to have all 176 turbines operational by June 2027. Despite a temporary halt by the Trump administration, construction resumed in January, and the project's estimated cost was reduced to $11.4 billion after the Supreme Court struck down tariffs. Virginia ratepayers are expected to save $5 billion in fuel costs during the first decade of operations, highlighting the significant economic and environmental benefits of this renewable energy initiative.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/dominion-to-open-nations-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-next-year/
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Dominion upbeat on offshore wind as cost estimate eases, sales rise
Dominion Energy is prioritizing the completion of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the largest wind farm in the US, by June 2027. The project is 75% complete with 9 out of 176 turbines installed, with an estimated capital budget of $11.4 billion and expected fuel savings of $5 billion over 10 years. Dominion's focus on transmission and distribution infrastructure, along with the growth in data center capacity, is driving significant regulated investment needs. Additionally, Dominion's Virginia territory will see an increase in gas generation, solar, and energy storage spending, with more opportunities for regulated capital deployment in the early 2030s. A new Virginia law requires Dominion to petition for 20 GW of energy storage projects by 2040, up from 3 GW by 2035, which will be reflected in the company's capital update next year.