The nationwide SolSmart program, a free technical help and photo voltaic readiness initiative, has acknowledged the Northern Virginia Regional Fee (NVRC) with a prestigious Platinum designation. A SolSmart Platinum designation acknowledges NVRC as having gone above and past to enhance entry to inexpensive photo voltaic vitality for residents and companies. NVRC is the primary neighborhood within the South and the primary regional group within the nation to earn this award.
The SolSmart program, led by the Interstate Renewable Vitality Council (IREC) and the Worldwide Metropolis/County Administration Affiliation (ICMA), acknowledges native governments that enhance entry, cut back prices and streamline allowing for residential and business photo voltaic installations. Thus far, over 550 communities in 44 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have earned SolSmart designation. SolSmart is funded by the U.S. Dept. of Vitality (DOE) Photo voltaic Vitality Applied sciences Workplace (SETO).
“NVRC is honored to obtain this prestigious designation from the SolSmart program. We’re proud to work with our native authorities companions and others to help our communities attain their local weather and sustainability objectives. Having that work acknowledged is drastically appreciated,” mentioned Northern Virginia Regional Fee Chair John T. Chapman of the Metropolis of Alexandria.
NVRC has lengthy been a pacesetter in efforts to take away obstacles to photo voltaic installations and enhance vitality selection for residents. Beginning in 2014, the Fee launched the area’s first Solarize NoVA program, leading to greater than 1,000 contracts, greater than $27 million in non-public sector funding, and greater than 9.4 MW of photo voltaic put in over ten years. Working with the SolSmart program, NVRC has hosted a number of informational webinars on matters associated to photo voltaic allowing, zoning, inspection and extra. These webinars, together with different trusted sources, have been made freely accessible on NVRC’s web site. Moreover, NVRC created the first-in-the-Commonwealth regional solar map that gives a birds-eye view on how massive a photo voltaic array could match on the roof of a enterprise or dwelling, its potential vitality technology, and the environmental and cost-saving advantages.
These efforts led NVRC to earn its first SolSmart designation in 2019, attaining Gold and turning into the 250th designee in the U.S. Since then, NVRC has continued to enhance entry and take away obstacles, leading to its milestone Platinum designation this yr. These efforts have made an impression: Photo voltaic in Northern Virginia has grown from 51 arrays with a capability of 208 kW in 2009 to 12,274 arrays with a capability of greater than 115,000 kW in 2023. (2024 knowledge are nonetheless being compiled.)
“The Northern Virginia Regional Fee’s achievement of the Platinum SolSmart designation is a strong testomony to the area’s management in photo voltaic readiness. This recognition displays the exhausting work of NVRC and its member localities in eradicating obstacles to photo voltaic vitality adoption and accelerating Virginia’s all-of-the-above plan for a dependable, inexpensive, and more and more clear vitality future,” mentioned Vince Maiden, director of the State Vitality Workplace on the Virginia Division of Vitality.
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