Ask for the lines separately
Ask any installer to show the net metering bill savings and the certificate income as separate lines across a year rather than as a single combined number. Only the first is set by statute.
Virginia Code Section 56-594 compensates a residential system of not more than 25 kW one-to-one at the retail rate, and systems are typically sized not to exceed your annual consumption. Ask what percentage of your annual usage the proposed system covers and ask for the design to be built from your last twelve months of bills.
Certificate income is the variable one. Prices move with the market and certificates are eligible to be sold for 5 years, so ask what price the model assumes and where that figure came from.
Then ask to see the whole projection with certificate income removed entirely. That is your floor, and it tells you how much of the case depends on a market price rather than on a statutory rate.
Two things a projection often assumes away
If Dominion Energy bills you, ask whether the proposed system is above or below 15 kW AC. Residential systems greater than 15 kW AC in Dominion territory are subject to standby charges, with the amount depending on peak power demand used on site, and a projection that omits them is overstating your return.
Appalachian Power and electric cooperative customers are not subject to demand charges, so confirm which utility serves your address before accepting or dismissing that line.
Ask whether the projection assumes a local property tax exemption. Section 58.1-3661 is a local option adopted by ordinance, so it applies only where your county, city or town has taken it up, and it may be partial.
Confirm the position yourself with your commissioner of the revenue rather than accepting an installer summary. It is a short call and it produces a definite answer.
What belongs in the contract
Get equipment specified by manufacturer and model number rather than by description. Model numbers make a warranty enforceable later and let you compare two quotes on the same basis rather than on adjectives.
Establish who honours each warranty and for how long. Panels, inverter and workmanship are commonly covered by three different parties on three different terms, and a company that has left the market cannot support a workmanship warranty however well drafted.
Ask what the workmanship warranty covers on roof penetrations specifically, since leaks around mounting hardware are the most common physical failure in residential solar and typically appear a few years in.
Get the production estimate into the contract along with what happens if actual production falls materially short, and agree in writing who registers the system for certificates and who files the permit. An estimate that appears only in a sales presentation is not a commitment.
Ask your locality about the property tax exemption
Virginia Code Section 58.1-3661 allows any county, city or town to exempt or partially exempt certified solar energy equipment from local property taxes by adopting an ordinance. This is the detail most often got wrong about Virginia solar, because it is a local option rather than a statewide rule.
A guide that tells you Virginia exempts solar from property tax is only right where the locality has actually adopted an ordinance, and it may be a partial exemption rather than a full one. Ask your county or city commissioner of the revenue directly whether an ordinance is in place and what it covers.
Where adopted, the exemption is effective beginning in the next succeeding tax year and is permitted for a term of not less than five years. Ask what term applies locally, since that is the horizon you can plan against.
On the federal side, the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase now receives no federal credit. Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask any such provider what they claim and what of that value reaches you, and confirm with a tax advisor.