The Chesapeake Solar & Storage Association, generally known as CHESSA, represents every facet of the solar industry in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Founded in 1984 as the Maryland-DC-Virginia Solar Energy Industries Association, CHESSA was formed to support the policy and regulatory needs of its members who design, sell, integrate, install, maintain, and finance solar energy and energy storage equipment. CHESSA’s represents one hundred fifty members serving residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional customers throughout the region. Below, CHESSA provides comments to support the development of the Virginia Energy Plan.
Renewable energy and energy storage has been growing in the Commonwealth over the past five years. These new energy sources provide an enormous economic opportunity for Virginia by creating direct and indirect jobs, and creating savings opportunities for ratepayers by reducing electricity costs. Renewable energy allows the Commonwealth to increase its energy security by creating a greater diversity of energy sources that serves to enhance energy supply reliability. Greater deployment of renewable generation and energy storage across the grid serves to increase energy resiliency and grid reliability in Virginia in the face of natural disasters and other security threats. Deployment of renewable energy enables the residents of Virginia to have greater choice over their energy consumption by deploying clean energy, and landowners to diversify their income – and local economy – by leasing their land for renewable energy and storage projects. Finally, renewable energy and energy storage supports the Commonwealth’s goals of enhancing environmental protection through reduction in emissions.
The sector is expected to grow over the next decade, driven primarily by its increasing ability to compete head to head with traditional sources of energy. Levelized Cost of Electricity of solar and energy storage continues to decline, with Lazard’s 2021 report[1] showing that the LCOE of utility scale solar ranges between $0.028 and $0.041 per kilowatt-hour.
The renewable energy sector has also benefited from key efforts by regulation and legislation on the state and federal level that is intended to level the playing field across all technologies. Virginia can leverage the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 and other federal programs to accelerate economic development and growth of the new energy economy in the Commonwealth.
In the section below, we outline the key policies needed to ensure the Commonwealth continues to benefit from the deployment of renewable energy and drives further technological innovation. The policies are divided into the four key goals of competitive rates to all energy consumers, reliability, responsible development and rural economic development.
Renewable energy and energy storage technologies are one of the most important drivers of competitive rates in the Commonwealth because of their ability to reduce overall costs to consumers. The recent passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act (2022) will further drive down costs and rates for all types of renewable energy and energy storage. In particular, the investment tax credit is now extended to standalone energy storage, and provides additional benefits to energy storage in cooperatives. But there are measures that Virginia needs to take to maximize the use of federal funds to bring benefits to the Commonwealth.
Behind the meter, customers are able to deploy clean energy to better control their consumption, reduce their electricity bills, and help contribute to a more efficient electric grid. A full range of investment supports in the Inflation Reduction Act will enable Virginia homeowners to improve their homes with more energy efficient appliances and increase resilience and energy independence with onsite solar and storage. Community solar helps ensure those rights are expanded to customers who have historically been unable to take advantage of the energy savings provided to customers who install solar on their rooftops. Finally, large scale renewable energy and energy storage projects are able to outcompete large traditional energy sources and provide the added benefit of clean air.
In order to expand competitive rates, we recommend the following policy actions by the key agencies and government bodies.
Renewable energy and energy storage provide an immense opportunity for the Commonwealth to enhance the grid’s reliability. The 2018 Grid Transformation Act recognized the need for the Commonwealth to reform its outdated infrastructure and ensure that energy is delivered reliably to Virginia residents. Distributed energy storage and solar generation are particularly equipped to help build redundancies across the grid that can support the Commonwealth during inclement weather or other shocks to the infrastructure that would otherwise affect the reliable delivery of electricity to customers. Additionally, renewable energy enhances energy security for the Commonwealth by supporting home grown energy and diversifying the resources Virginia depends on to supply its electricity needs.
Despite the many benefits of the Grid Transformation Act, the Commonwealth could enhance reliability by accelerating the deployment of customer sited distributed energy resources (DERs). CHESSA provides the following recommendations for additional steps needed in order to drive the deployment of DERs in a way that enhances system reliability.
The renewable energy industry has been an active partner in Virginia in the effort to ensure responsible development of energy across the Commonwealth. At the local level, our organization and member companies have supported the development of sound ordinance and siting requirements that protect the environment and land while ensuring that renewable energy is treated the same as any other industry and energy technologies. CHESSA has been engaged in proceedings to review land use, permitting and siting requirements at the local and state level.
In order to ensure responsible development in Virginia, we recommend the following policy actions by the key agencies.
The renewable energy industry provides immense benefits to rural communities. The deployment of renewable energy and energy storage projects provides additional revenue to landowners looking to diversify their income base. Renewable energy projects are very much compatible with supporting the preservation of land, including agricultural and conservation land. Renewable energy projects have limited impact on the land it is sited on, and the use of pollinators and other native grasses enhances the benefit to the land. A growing number of projects across the United States are incorporating agrovoltaics in order to facilitate dual use of the land.
Renewable energy and energy storage projects provide localities with additional sources of revenues through Machinery & Tools taxes, revenue share or siting agreements. Moreover, these projects enable localities to diversify their local industry by bringing income from a sector that has very limited impact on local resources such as trash collection and sewage. The construction phase of the project invites significant direct and indirect jobs, as several studies have demonstrated.
In order to ensure responsible development in Virginia, we recommend the following policy actions by the key agencies.
CHESSA appreciates the opportunity to provide these comments to Virginia Energy for its consideration in the development of the Virginia Energy Plan. We look forward to working with Governor Youngkin’s administration in executing his vision for delivering lower costs and creating jobs in the Commonwealth.