CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – As concerns over energy continue to mount in Virginia, state officials joined local advocates for a panel to discuss the recent expansion of shared solar power in Virginia at Apex Clean Energy’s headquarters in Charlottesville on Thursday.

The panel discussed a number of developments on both the state and local level to support solar energy, in particular the bill recently signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger earlier this year, which helps facilitate and expand the Commonwealth’s shared solar programs.

“Bills are going up in part because of things that Virginia cannot control — our regional grid and its inability to build enough power plants to meet the growing load,” panel moderator and Dimension Energy VP of Policy Brandon Smithwood told Cville Right Now after the event.  “But the state’s doing a number of things to create new options … and one of them is shared solar.”

Shared solar projects allow for energy customers who are unable to host rooftop solar systems to join community solar facilities. Smithwood described these as “local projects,” 30 acres of smaller in size that local residents can sign up for and use immediately, allowing them to save on their electric utility bills.

“All these little projects add up to big savings,” Smithwood said. “Billions of dollars of savings from all Virginia, whether you sign up for a project or not.”

The panel features a myriad of perspectives on share solar, including Chief Energy Officer Josephus Allmond as well as local advocates like Community Climate Collaborative Director of Climate Policy Carolyn Pugh.

The event ended with the presentation of a new report titled “The Value of Shared Solar in Virginia,” conducted by Aurora Energy Research.

The report projects, among other things, that two gigawatts of shared solar could save Virginia ratepayers $2.5 billion over 20 years, despite needing $700 million in out-of-market revenues.

Aside from the statewide actions being taken, Pugh also mentioned local action that has been taken to help support solar projects, particularly highlighting the solar ordinance that the collaborative helped pass in July of last year.

That ordinance removes barriers of permitting and costs for small-to-medium sized solar projects, provided they can meet a certain number of criteria.

“One of the things we were really keeping in mind while advocating around and working on that project is trying to make it more possible for shared solar to be built locally and benefit local residents to see the bill reduction,” Pugh told Cville Right Now.

The collaborative currently does advocacy in Albemarle, Charlottesville and Richmond. In Charlottesville, Pugh said the collaborative is currently working on a study with the city, exploring long-term energy-planning, keeping in mind the city’s “ambitious” climate goals, affordability issues and current municipal cast system for infrastructure

“How we can chart a future that is moving off of fossil fuel, creating a cleaner, less polluted building system for everyone that is also keeping bills low?” Pugh said of the study’s focus. “And one of the things that we’re recognizing with that study is that there is a lot of action that needs to happen on a local level and there’s a lot of action that needs to happen on the state level.”

Pugh said they expect to release the full study, titled “Clearing the Air,” likely in December, and are continuing its community outreach efforts right now to receive input on potential options the city could take, both short-term and long-term.

“We’re already coming up with some ideas that we hope we can feed into planning for the next year,” Pugh said. “And Albemarle County is part of that as well.”