Rosa Delgado cuts hair six days a week in Petersburg, Virginia. She owns the small rowhouse she grew up in. Her electric bill used to eat up almost a full day’s tips every month. This fall, an installer quoted her a price nearly a quarter cheaper than anything she’d seen before. Rosa didn’t haggle for that discount herself. The state did it for her, through a new solar savings program called Switch Together.
Inside Virginia’s New Solar Savings Program
The idea is simple. On your own, you’re one customer asking one installer for one quote. Pool thousands of homeowners together, and installers suddenly have a reason to compete hard for the business. Governor Abigail Spanberger’s office teamed up with the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors to run that buying club statewide. It’s the first program of its kind in the country.
The math is what matters to people like Rosa. A typical home system now costs about $6,300 less than market rate, a discount of roughly 20 to 25 percent. The electricity those panels generate saves most households around $2,200 a year on their power bill. Most homeowners recover what they spent in seven or eight years, then keep the savings for decades after that.
“By using the power of the free market, leveraging the Commonwealth’s buying power, and cutting out middlemen, we are creating significant discounts for families and businesses,” Governor Spanberger said when the program expanded statewide.
Why the State Stepped In
Rooftop solar has always carried a strange penalty. Equipment and labor cost less per watt when a company sells a lot at once, but most families only ever buy one system, once. Switch Together closes that gap without waiting on Washington. Federal solar support has turned unreliable this year, even as programs like Solar for All fight to survive elsewhere in the country.
Brandon Praileau, who directs the program for Solar United Neighbors in Virginia, put the payoff in plain terms:
“If more people go solar, that’s less strain on the grid, and there’s less need to build costly infrastructure.”
Fewer power plants built just to cover the hottest afternoons of the year means lower rates for everyone, solar owners and non-owners alike.
How to Sign Up
The program now covers more than 100 Virginia counties and cities, up from a handful of pilot communities. Signing up costs nothing and commits you to nothing:
- Register for free through the state’s Switch Together portal.
- Get a no-cost roof evaluation and a quote from a pre-vetted local installer offering the group rate.
- Walk away, ask for a different installer, or sign. Nobody owes anybody anything.
This isn’t a one-time fluke. A similar pilot ran in the Richmond area for three years before going statewide. Roughly 4,000 households sat through an info session. Of those, 400 to 500 went on to install panels, and they’re already saving money, as Canary Media reported when the expansion launched. This round alone is expected to bring nearly 4 megawatts of new solar capacity online, and it requires no new state spending.
Most localities are taking sign-ups through October 15, though a few areas, including Richmond, got an extension into mid-November. Maybe you own your roof. Maybe you’ve run the numbers on solar before and winced at the price. This is the moment the math finally tilts your way. Check whether your county is covered, get the free quote, and let someone else do the negotiating for you.