{"id":2142,"date":"2026-10-19T13:51:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:51:26","slug":"virginia-made-plug-in-solar-bipartisan-new-york-can-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/2026\/10\/19\/virginia-made-plug-in-solar-bipartisan-new-york-can-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia made plug-in solar bipartisan. New York can too."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Paul Krizek and Delores Oates<\/strong>, For the Times Union <\/em>Oct 18, 2026<\/p>\n

Most Americans think going solar means owning a suitable roof, hiring installers and making a major investment. But the\u00a0next expansion of home solar<\/a> may look less like a construction project and more like a household appliance.<\/p>\n

Plug-in solar is a small system placed on a balcony, patio or deck or in a yard and connected through an ordinary electrical outlet. This innovation takes out the complicated install and puts more people in charge of their own energy.<\/p>\n

Virginia has just created a clear path for this technology. Beginning on Jan.<\/a> 1, customers will be able to use qualifying plug-in solar devices of up to 1,200 watts without a utility interconnection agreement, special fee or prior utility approval. Customers must send their utility a simple notification before installation; the utility then has 15 days to identify missing or inaccurate information.<\/p>\n

One of us (Delegate Krizek) is a Democrat representing part of Fairfax County; the other (Delegate Oates) is a Republican representing Clarke County and portions of Frederick and Warren counties. We approached this issue from different political perspectives, but we both co-sponsored the successful legislation behind it \u2014 Virginia HB 395<\/a> \u2014 because it gives Virginians a practical way to lower their bills.<\/p>\n

The Democratic argument for plug-in solar starts with consumer access and affordability. A resident may want solar but rent an apartment, live in a townhouse or simply lack control of a suitable roof. That divide exists nationwide: The United States has 42.5 million renter households, and nearly half spend more than 30% of their income on housing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Plug-in solar won\u2019t erase an electric bill, but a small system can offset some of the electricity a household uses during the day, and typically saves several hundred dollars annually<\/a> (depending on size, location, sunlight and household use). This new law also prevents many larger landlords from imposing a blanket prohibition while allowing reasonable rules about size and placement.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Republican argument for plug-in solar starts with consumer freedom. Families should be allowed to spend their own money on a product that reduces what they buy from monopoly utilities. A device designed to offset part of one household\u2019s consumption shouldn\u2019t have to overcome a complex interconnection process designed for much larger systems.<\/p>\n

Both of us agree that plug-in solar should meet strong consumer-safety standards, but shouldn\u2019t face all the same red tape as much larger installations. Our law still requires qualifying equipment to certifiably meet national electrical codes and automatically shut down during outages, but it allows these small systems to bypass burdensome rules designed for much bigger ones.<\/p>\n

That balance helped this state bill win overwhelming support<\/a>. The House passed it 97\u20131, the Senate approved a slightly altered version 30\u20138, and the House later voted 99\u20130 to accept the governor\u2019s recommendations. Lawmakers didn\u2019t have to agree on every energy question to agree on this one.<\/p>\n

Virginia isn\u2019t acting alone. Utah, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont and Virginia have enacted plug-in solar laws<\/a>. New York<\/a>\u2019s Legislature passed a bill that\u2019s now awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n

Our country is now deciding, state by state, whether plug-in solar will become an ordinary consumer option or remain tangled in restrictive and inconvenient rules that only make sense for much larger projects.<\/p>\n

Germany shows the potential.<\/a> In 2024 and 2025, it registered nearly 900,000 new plug-in solar systems, which is more than 1,100 every day. What begins as a modest household investment can become a substantial national energy resource when consumers are allowed to adopt it at scale.<\/p>\n

That lesson matters in Virginia. The US Energy Information Administration reports that<\/a> Virginia may experience the largest absolute increase in energy demand of any state over the next five years, largely because of data-center growth.<\/p>\n

Even though plug-in solar alone can\u2019t meet this growth, it\u2019s a convenient, popular and cost-effective additional source that interested households can add quickly and independently. And when every watt counts, there\u2019s no reason to keep anachronistically banning households (especially those for whom solar has traditionally been less accessible) from freely choosing to do their part.<\/p>\n

Gov. Hochul should sign the bill. There\u2019s no need to gatekeep sunshine. Americans should not have to own a roof \u2014 or navigate a utility process designed for a much larger system \u2014 to access a small share of the power of our sun.<\/p>\n

When a Democrat from northern Virginia and a Republican from the Shenandoah Valley can agree on that, we expect that New Yorkers will, too.<\/p>\n

Paul Krizek and Delores Oates are members of the Virginia House of Delegates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paul Krizek and Delores Oates, For the Times Union Oct 18, 2026 Most Americans think going solar means owning a suitable roof, hiring installers and making a major investment….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2145,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions\/2145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirdact.org\/nyc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}