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Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just buy a pair of solar panels at Walmart in the morning and plug them in on your deck in the afternoon — in the span of a few hours, setting yourself up to produce clean energy that will lower your electricity bill?
But that’s not an option for most Americans right now. For one thing, the devices aren’t widely available in U.S. stores. And if they were, you’d likely have to jump through a series of hoops with your utility to get them up and running.
Virginia lawmakers are about to change all that for residents of the state.
On Wednesday, the Democratic-controlled Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill legalizing “balcony solar” by a unanimous, bipartisan vote. The Senate, where Democrats also have a majority, had already approved the measure with only a handful of dissents. It will soon reach the desk of Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, who is expected to sign it.
Set to take effect next January, the law will make Virginia just the second state in the country, after Utah, to treat solar panels like an appliance you can buy at your local big-box store and set up yourself — on your balcony, in your yard, or anywhere the sun shines on your property.
“That removes all kinds of barriers — not just cost barriers, but time and bureaucracy barriers,” said Victoria Higgins, Virginia director for the lobbying arm of Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund, an advocacy nonprofit. “It makes clean energy more accessible to so many more Virginians, whether they live in apartments, or condos, or just don’t have the funding to put up a whole rooftop system.”
Homeowners and renters alike will be able to buy and install the plug-in solar panels, which come with a microinverter that enables the devices to offset some household electricity use.
“This legislation is about putting practical energy solutions in the hands of Virginians,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Democrat from Fairfax who sponsored the proposal, said in a news release.
The kits will be subject to safety standards and limited to a total of 1,200 watts, or about four panels, which is enough to supply between 5% and 15% of the average customer’s demand.
“On an extremely mild day in June, it might be pretty close to all of your energy needs, but that would be rare,” Higgins said. “Most of the time, you’re knocking off a chunk of energy that you would otherwise be buying from the utility.”
Like many Virginia Democrats who prevailed in the November elections, Spanberger campaigned on a promise to rein in costs. In December, she put balcony solar on her list of energy-affordability priorities, and her staff has advocated for the bill throughout Virginia’s 60-day legislative session, which ends at midnight on Saturday.
Balcony solar is already widespread in Europe, where over 1 million devices are in use in Germany alone. Proponents say the same could happen in the United States, with dozens of states, from Alaska to Illinois to South Carolina, considering legislation to allow the kits.
While a few states have deferred balcony solar bills because of safety concerns voiced by utilities, Higgins notes that Virginia’s bipartisan support helps show that red and blue states alike are eager to address energy affordability.
“Right now, the estimated payback period is somewhere between two and five years,” she said. “You might see 20 states pass legislation to enable balcony solar this year. Once you get to economies of scale, the price is going to come down quickly.”
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