In recent years, progress on the clean energy transition has seesawed. Incredible progress was made in 2020 with passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), a number of solar freedom bills, and joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). In 2021 the Virginia Clean Cars Act was signed. The Youngkin administration attempted to roll back much of that progress – taking Virginia out of RGGI, but ultimately failed to weaken or repeal the VCEA and Clean Car standards.

At a federal level, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 was a landmark bill for clean energy. Many of its tax incentives for clean energy were repealed or reduced as part of 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), making the clean energy transition slower and more costly.

Governor Spanberger begins her administration with an opportunity to build on the progress the Commonwealth of Virginia has made, while mitigating the loss of federal incentives. It also must contend with an exponential growth in demand for electricity for power data centers.

Meeting the electricity needs of the Commonwealth while maintaining its commitment to the VCEA will no doubt be a challenge. The JLARC study from 2024 says that just meeting half of the projected demand for data centers would be “difficult to achieve”.

Even without incentives, renewables like solar, wind, and storage are inexpensive and quick to deploy. Natural gas plants have become increasingly costly to build, risk becoming stranded assets, and rely on a fuel source that is subject to price volatility. Building conventional nuclear power plants is costly and typically takes longer than a decade. Promising clean energy technologies like nuclear small modular reactors (SMRs) and nuclear fusion are still about a decade off from viability at scale. For the next decade renewables are the clear first choice for meeting the Commonwealth’s rising electricity needs.

With all this in mind, the Virginia General Assembly should focus on legislation that:

• Enables the rapid deployment of renewables such as solar, wind, and energy storage.
• Thoughtfully manages the growth of electric demand from data centers.
• Keeps Virginia on track to meet the goals of the VCEA. 
• Rejoins Virginia to the RGGI.
• Reduces costs to ratepayers.
• Prepares Virginians to meet the challenges and reap the benefits of a clean energy transition.

For those reasons, Zero Carbon Virginia endorses the following bills, all of which are still alive at crossover:

Electric Demand

HB284 directs the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to establish electric demand flexibility programs for high demand customers, such as data centers, while SB43 calls for the Virginia Department of Energy to generate a report on demand response programs in the Commonwealth. These programs reduce peak power demand increases and reduce the need for additional capacity, distribution, and transmission infrastructure.

Data Centers

HB591 codifies the need for a data center strategy in the Energy Policy of the Commonwealth to  to support grid reliability, affordability, and the deployment of renewables.

HB897 ties clean energy standards to Virginia’s data center retail sales and use tax exemption. It would incentivize data centers to use clean energy for on-site generation and backup, purchase renewable energy credits, and invest in energy efficiency measures.

Rejoining RGGI

HB397 / SB802 affirms and strengthens the existing language directing DEQ to create and maintain an auction program consistent with the RGGI and the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act. Participation in RGGI accelerates the transition toward renewable energy while generating funds for energy efficiency and flood preparedness.

Utility Regulation

HB429 / SB249 reforms the process of creating Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs), adding oversight from the SCC. IRP reform ensures that utilities are adequately planning to meet anticipated demand with clean, low-cost energy in compliance with the VCEA.

HB1065 directs utilities to identify grid interconnection points with unused capacity and use solar and storage to take advantage of that capacity. This efficiently uses existing infrastructure, reducing the need for new transmission and distribution. 

Solar Energy

Several bills this session enable creative solutions for deploying solar energy:

• HB395 / SB250 permits utility customers to own and operate small portable solar generation devices (“balcony solar”).
• HB1234 / SB26 enables localities to require solar canopies for non-residential parking areas with 100 spaces or more.
• HB508 / SB340 adds the definition of agrivoltaics to the Virginia Code’s small renewable energy projects. Agrivoltatics are a way to synergistically integrate solar into certain farms.
• HB590 / SB382 establishes the Smart Solar Permitting Platform to streamline the permitting process for residential solar and battery projects.

We hope that you’ll join us in supporting all of these bills in the hopes of re-establishing Virginia as a leader in the clean energy transition.