How SREC income enters the payback math

For the market itself, current prices and how to register, see Virtue Solar's SREC page. This page explains what the calculator does with SRECs and why the number is small.

A Solar Renewable Energy Certificate is a receipt proving that one megawatt-hour (1,000 kWh) of electricity was generated by solar. The electricity goes into your house or the grid; the certificate is a separate thing you own and can sell. Utilities buy them to prove they met a renewable-energy requirement.

Where the demand comes from

The Virginia Clean Economy Act requires Dominion and Appalachian Power to retire certificates from Virginia-sited distributed solar. HB 628, signed April 13, 2026, raised Dominion's distributed-solar carve-out to 4.5% of its renewable obligation for 2026 through 2030 (5% from 2031). The 2026 deficiency payment for that carve-out is $78.82 per MWh, which acts as a ceiling on what a certificate can be worth. Supply (how much solar has been built) sets the price under that ceiling.

How many you'd make

One per 1,000 kWh. An 8 kW system on a median Virginia roof makes about 11,112 kWh a year, so roughly 11 SRECs a year. At the calculator's default of $30 each, that is about $330 a year: real money, not life-changing money. The net metering credit on the same 11,112 kWh is worth many times more.

How homeowners sell them

1. Your system is registered with the regional tracking system (PJM-GATS) after it is commissioned. Installers typically handle this.
2. Production is reported, usually automatically from the inverter's monitoring, and certificates are minted monthly or quarterly.
3. You sell through an aggregator or broker, either on a long-term contract at a fixed price or at spot prices. Aggregators take a cut and handle the paperwork.

What the calculator assumes

Virginia homes earn one Solar Renewable Energy Certificate per 1,000 kWh produced. SRECs trade on an open market and prices move; the default here is a planning estimate you should edit. Prices in Virginia have moved within a fairly wide band over the last few years. Rather than publish a number that will be wrong by the time you read it, the calculator uses $30 as a default, counts whole certificates only (⌊kWh ÷ 1,000⌋), counts them for only 10 years, and lets you change both the price and whether to include them at all (set the price to $0). The payback tables on this site use the same default.

Things worth knowing

• If you lease or sign a power-purchase agreement, the third-party owner usually keeps the SRECs. It is part of how they price the deal.
• Selling SRECs does not affect your net-metering credits. They are separate products from the same kilowatt-hours.
• SREC income may be taxable. Ask a tax professional.
• Certificates have a shelf life for compliance purposes; aggregators manage this.

Policy details reviewed 2026-10-06. Market reference: Flett Exchange — Virginia distributed SREC market.