My comments are based on owning a residential roff-top solar array installed in late 2009 and in operation since Mar 2010 and research I continue to follow on the topic of solar power.

In going forward, Virginia should be emphasizing Distributed Rooftop Solar (DRS) over large industrial arrays, although emphasizing even that over fossil fuels. The advantages for the citizens of Virginia are many.

First, By distributing the energy production the grid is far less subject to man-made or natural disruptions.

Second, The energy is produced closer to the use reducing the cost of grid transmission.

Third, by distributing the generation in the case of solar, the issue of clouds is lessened and the predictability of the production versus weather is increased significantly.

Fourth, the costs of producing the generation are moved away from the utility and onto the individual homes and businesses saving money for the non-solar user. Only the grid itself and some reserve generation/storage needs a utlitity to maintain it.

When combined with energy storage, significant benefits to the grid occur in terms of lowering the peak load costs, for residents and small businesses potentially to zero. In a future with as much solar backed by energy storage as possible, only some rare backup power needs to be maintained. With DRS the power which will be produced becomes predictable days in advance allowing shuttered power stations to be brought on line on the rare occasions needed.

A future where homes and small businesses produce the power, large businesses & Industries consume it, and the utilities merely distribute it is where we in Virginia need to go. This would bring in other businesses as it lowers the over cost of energy in Virginia. We can be a forward looking state.

The ONLY agency that could object to this future is the electric utilities. Virginia should be working towards supporting the needs of the most citizens it can, not the desires of a few.

In implementing this future, I would recommend that Virginia move towards a requirement on all new construction for residential building and possibly some commercial buildings to become net zero energy use. Need not specifically mandate solar, solar with energy storage is only one of the best solutions to acheive that. 

We should also encourage, not hinder deployment of Distributed Rooftop Solar as we have been doing in the past few years. I am fortunate to be grandfathered out of a few limitations anyone trying to install solar would have today.

Thanks for listening to my research and opinions.