Why this matters more than the panels
Full retail net metering, and it has survived two attempts to cut it
Export credit is the mechanism that decides what your roof is worth. Two identical systems on identical roofs can differ by years of payback purely because of which export structure they landed on. In Virginia that is the variable to understand before you look at a single panel spec.
The structure
Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power credit exported solar at the full retail rate, one for one. Dominion’s residential retail rate has been reported around 12.8¢/kWh.
System size limit — sources disagree
Reported residential caps differ: some sources say up to 20 kW, others up to 25 kW. Confirm the current limit with your utility before designing a system near either number.
The statewide participation cap
Net metering in Virginia is available first-come, first-served up to an aggregate cap reported at 6% of the previous year’s peak load forecast, with 1% reserved for low-income customers. Once the cap is reached, new participants may face lower credit rates or no enrollment at all.
Annual true-up
Credits roll forward month to month and are trued up annually, reported in April, with any remaining balance paid at the avoided cost rate of roughly 4–5¢. That is a large haircut, so oversizing is expensive. Sizing to 90–100% of your annual usage is the sensible target.
Co-ops and municipals
Smaller municipal utilities and electric cooperatives are not required to offer net metering in Virginia. If one serves you, call them rather than assuming the statewide rule applies.
Verify before you rely on any of this.
State and utility programs change on their own schedules, blocks fill, and capacity caps close things early. Everything here was checked in August 2026 and is dated for that reason. Confirm the current terms with your utility or your state commission before you make a financial decision, and treat any company quoting you a hard expiry date as a closing device until they show you the filing.
What it means for your roof
The arithmetic in Virginia
Virginia averages about 4.4 peak sun hours a day, so a kilowatt of panels produces roughly 1,285 kilowatt-hours a year here. Every one of those kilowatt-hours is worth one of two very different things: the retail rate, if you use it in the house at the moment it is produced, or whatever your export structure pays, if you send it to the grid.
That gap is the reason system sizing and, in some structures, storage matter so much. Sizing a system to maximize exports under a structure that pays little for exports is a design error, and it is a common one.
Who you would be working with
SolarAmerica
We design your system and manage the project; installation is performed by vetted licensed partners in your area. SolarAmerica is not itself the installing contractor.
Questions
The things people actually ask
Does Virginia have net metering?
Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power credit exported solar at the full retail rate, one for one. Dominion’s residential retail rate has been reported around 12.8¢/kWh.
What are solar exports worth in Virginia?
Reported residential caps differ: some sources say up to 20 kW, others up to 25 kW. Confirm the current limit with your utility before designing a system near either number.
Am I grandfathered if I already have solar?
Grandfathering depends on your interconnection date, and in some states on whether you accepted a rebate. Check your own interconnection date rather than assuming a change applies to you.
Does a battery help?
It depends on the gap between your retail rate and your export credit. Where exports are worth far less than retail, storing production for later use captures the difference. Where exports are credited at or near retail, that gap does not exist and storage is a resilience purchase.
See what your Virginia roof produces against your rate
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