Virginia Power Payback Program

Available for most Virginia zip codes. Just answer the questions in the form to see if your home is eligible.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most common questions asked by customers

Solar Panels in 2024

Solar energy is an enticing concept for anyone wanting to save on their utility bills and do their part for the environment. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners across the US have switched to solar, and you can join them.

Perhaps the biggest reason you haven’t gone solar yet is because the upfront cost is too restrictive. But have you heard about the chance to get free solar panels in your state?

While truly free panels aren’t necessarily attainable, you can qualify for rebates, tax credits, and incentives to slash upfront costs to almost nothing. Then you can look into opportunities to keep operating costs down and shorten the payback period. Financing is even available to let you get started with $0 down!

What Solar Incentives Are Available?

The residential renewable energy tax credit is a federal allowance that is available to all us homeowners. You can claim this tax credit when you buy a solar energy system. The allowance lets you credit up to 30% of your spending on the purchase and related installation costs of your solar system (systems placed in service by 12/31/2032).

The residential renewable energy tax credit is a great way to offset some of your solar panel system costs against your earnings. If you don’t have enough earnings to offset the credit in a given year, you can also carry it forward. Another good thing about this renewable energy tax credit is that you can apply the 30% discount to the cost of your solar system after taking any state-level rebates or incentives. What this means is that you have the opportunity to benefit from both federal and state incentives to help you with the cost of your solar system.

Solar And Free Electricity

A solar system will produce free electricity for your home, business, or farm for decades. In just a few years, your solar system can pay for itself. From then on, it’s decades of free electricity. The good news is that there's help available. Federal and state governments have made it easier to install solar through a series of incentives. Whether they’re tax credits, grants, or something else entirely, they’ll put money back in your pocket (free) as early as the first year you install your system.

So How Does Solar Power Work?

When sunlight hits the panel, known as a solar photovoltaic (PV) module, it is converted into an electrical current by silicon cells. This current is originally DC power, so an inverter then converts it to AC power, and then it’s ready to use in your home, office, or factory.

A PV system creates energy during the day and feeds any electricity that you don’t use onto the grid. Many homeowners can actually watch their meters running backwards! It’s called net metering (NEM).

When the sun is set, you pull power off of the grid instead, and the meter runs forward again. It is not uncommon to have a surplus of electricity produced by the end of the month. Your utility will often pay you for this surplus in credits, which you can then exchange for electricity from the grid in the future, instead of buying it at the retail price.

Solar Environmental Impact

In addition to helping you save money, using solar power helps you mitigate climate change. The electricity that you buy from your utility usually comes from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. These energy sources emit harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide that trap heat inside our atmosphere, causing our planet to become warmer.

With solar panels, you can instead harness clean, renewable energy directly from the sun and convert it to electricity. Switching to renewable energy sources like solar is the one of the best ways we’ll be able to get all the power we need while keeping the planet safe for future generations.

Should You Lease or Own A Solar System?

We recommended solar system ownership because ownership saves 3 times as much as leasing and increases a home’s value by up to $30,000. Leasing is simply replacing one utility with another and is subject to inevitable rate increases.

Here Are Some Questions to Consider?

  • Does your roof get exposure to the sun?
  • Is there an area nearby that gets exposure to the sun?
  • How much shade do you get on your roof?
  • Can trees be pruned to allow more sunlight to the solar site?

A system’s size can vary based on the needs of the customer. You can choose to displace all of your electricity needs with solar power, or only a part. To gauge how large of a solar power system may be appropriate for your home.