Commercial solar · Ashburn, VA

Commercial solar in Ashburn, VA

Commercial solar in Ashburn is sized to daytime load: a business on Dominion Energy at an average 14.1¢ per kWh uses most of its output on site, which is where the value is.

Why the numbers favour business · as of August 2026

Dominion Energy Virginia credits exported power at credited one-for-one at retail against your own annual usage against the applicable residential retail rate, confirmed against your own bill rate, so the value sits in consuming your own production. A Ashburn business that runs through daylight hours self-consumes most of what it generates, which is exactly what the current net energy metering under §56-594 structure rewards. That is a structural advantage over a typical home.

Looking for a solar company in Ashburn? See solar companies in Ashburn: our local team, costs and a free assessment.

Written by , Owner & CEO Reviewed by Drew Taylor, Owner & Sales Director Updated August 2026

Free roof and bill assessment

Takes under a minute. No pressure, and no guaranteed-savings math.

We use your address to look at your roof before we call.

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Need the detailed version? Use the full assessment form.

30+ yrscombined team experience
~450combined experienced installs
Lifetimefull-system + roof-penetration warranty
StatewideSC-based crews, callbacks within the hour

Local commercial reality

The commercial picture in Ashburn

Non-residential net metering in Virginia is capped at 100 kW, and on the commercial buildings around Ashburn that ceiling rather than roof area is usually what shapes the design. Establishing where a building sits against it is the opening question on any commercial enquiry here.

Below the cap the economics are unusually clean for a commercial customer, because retail crediting means the building does not need to consume its own production to capture its value. Demand charges and peak coincidence still matter, so we read interval data, but the self-consumption pressure that dominates our Georgia commercial work is largely absent.

Written for Ashburn specifically.

How we work

Engineering first for Ashburn buildings

We start from interval data and the Dominion Energy tariff, then check roof structure and service capacity before quoting a size.

How we scope a building

Engineering first, sales second

  1. 01

    Load profile and bill analysis

    Your Dominion Energy Virginia interval data and tariff, read before anything is sized.

  2. 02

    Roof, structure and electrical review

    Low-slope membrane, standing-seam metal or ballasted, plus service capacity and switchgear. Inland Mid-Atlantic. No salt exposure, with snow loading a real racking input. The roof stock is recent enough that framing is rarely the constraint; the care goes into flashing detail and freeze-thaw.

  3. 03

    Permits and interconnection

    Building and electrical permits with plan review, structural sign-off, and Dominion Energy Virginia interconnection.

  4. 04

    Install, commission, monitor

    Sequenced around your operations, then Loudoun County inspection and monitoring handover.

Commercial systems carry our lifetime full-system and roof-penetration warranty alongside manufacturer coverage, so one contractor stands behind the roof and the array.

Ashburn specifics

What commercial work involves here

The constraints that actually shape a Ashburn commercial design.

  • 01

    Structural review

    Inland Mid-Atlantic. No salt exposure, with snow loading a real racking input. The roof stock is recent enough that framing is rarely the constraint; the care goes into flashing detail and freeze-thaw.

  • 02

    Interconnection timing

    Dominion Energy Virginia approval precedes energising, and the queue rather than the install usually sets your date.

  • 03

    Architectural review

    Loudoun County has adopted a solar equipment tax exemption, and the terms are worth knowing before you apply: the amount and duration are tied to the system’s nameplate capacity in DC watts, the equipment must be certified by the county as used primarily for collecting or generating energy, and the county will not process an application until the system is operating and has passed all required permits. Under SB 504 a Virginia association may impose only reasonable restrictions on rooftop solar, unreasonable being a cost increase above 5% or a generation loss above 10%.

Tax

Where we stop and your CPA starts

We build and document a Ashburn system for your CPA; Virginia commercial tax treatment depends on your entity, so it is theirs to call.

Permits and approvals

What approval takes in Ashburn

6 approvals for a Ashburn system. We file every one.

  1. 01A building permit and a separate electrical permit from Loudoun County, or from the town where the address sits inside one
  2. 02An interconnection application to whichever utility serves your meter, Dominion Energy Virginia or NOVEC, on that utility’s own forms
  3. 03Written confirmation of the standby-charge position for any system above 15 kW AC
  4. 04HOA architectural review, which applies across most of the county’s master-planned communities, subject to the SB 504 limits
  5. 05An additional electrical permit where battery storage is included
  6. 06A county application for the solar equipment tax exemption once the system is operating and fully permitted

Standing monthly charge:about $1 a month for customers connecting under NEM 2.0, included in our payback figures.

Local factors

What shapes commercial solar in Ashburn

  • 01

    Shade around Ashburn sites

    Ashburn is master-planned and largely open, with thousands of near-identical modern roofs. That uniformity is a genuine advantage: the shading survey is quick and the structural work is predictable.

  • 02

    Who has to approve it

    Loudoun County has adopted a solar equipment tax exemption, and the terms are worth knowing before you apply: the amount and duration are tied to the system’s nameplate capacity in DC watts, the equipment must be certified by the county as used primarily for collecting or generating energy, and the county will not process an application until the system is operating and has passed all required permits. Under SB 504 a Virginia association may impose only reasonable restrictions on rooftop solar, unreasonable being a cost increase above 5% or a generation loss above 10%.

  • 03

    Weather and outages

    Four genuine seasons, with summer cooling peaks aligned to peak production and lower winter output. Retail net metering smooths that across the year in a way an export-credit state cannot, which is the main reason a Loudoun system behaves better than its latitude suggests.

Your utility decides payback

Commercial solar in Ashburn: what your utility pays

Dominion Energy Virginia and NOVEC split Ashburn street by street. We read yours off your bill first.

Dominion Energy Virginia

Average home rate (2024)
14.09¢/kWh
Paid for exported solar
credited one-for-one at retail against your own annual usage
Net-metered home solar, utility-wide
53,368

NOVEC

Average home rate (2024)
11.57¢/kWh
Paid for exported solar
Set by the co-op; we confirm it per account
Net-metered home solar, utility-wide
3,602

For comparison: Virginia average 14.41¢ · U.S. average 16.48¢. Virginia had 69,553 net-metered home solar systems at the end of 2024.

Rates: US EIA Form EIA-861, 2024 averages incl. fixed charges, not tariffs. Export terms as of August 2026.

Ashburn sun, month by month

Commercial solar in Ashburn, month by month

About 11,600 kWh a year from a south-facing roof with no shade. July is the strongest month at about 1,226 kWh and December the weakest at about 593 kWh.

Your roof will differ. Ashburn is master-planned and largely open, with thousands of near-identical modern roofs.

Estimate: NASA POWER sun data for Ashburn, PVWatts model, south-facing, no shade.

  1. 721 Jan
  2. 864 Feb
  3. 1,003 Mar
  4. 1,033 Apr
  5. 1,145 May
  6. 1,186 Jun
  7. 1,226 Jul
  8. 1,130 Aug
  9. 1,032 Sep
  10. 896 Oct
  11. 770 Nov
  12. 593 Dec
Estimated kWh per month, 9.5 kW system in Ashburn

Our work

Real systems our crews have installed

Our own job photos, not stock or renders. Inland Mid-Atlantic.

  • Black solar panels on the roof of a modern farmhouse detached garage; commercial solar by Sunburst Solar's own crews
    ResidentialDetached garage arrayFarmhouse-style home
  • Solar panels on an asphalt-shingle roof under a clear blue sky; commercial solar by Sunburst Solar's own crews
    ResidentialShingle rooftop arrayBackyard-facing slope
  • Aerial view of a downtown commercial building with a flat-roof solar install; commercial solar by Sunburst Solar's own crews
    CommercialDowntown flat roofLow-slope membrane rooftop
  • Neatly aligned black solar panels on a residential shingle roof; commercial solar by Sunburst Solar's own crews
    ResidentialClean rooftop layoutBlack-framed panels
  • Top-down aerial view of solar panels across a green metal roof in the woods; commercial solar by Sunburst Solar's own crews
    ResidentialMulti-facet metal roofWooded aerial view
  • Off-grid cabin with a full roof solar array and a lake view behind it; commercial solar by Sunburst Solar's own crews
    Off-GridCabin porch viewFull-slope roof array

Photo locations are not published.

Free assessment · Ashburn, VA

Get a straight answer for your Ashburn roof

We read your bill, confirm your Dominion Energy Virginia export terms, and tell you what your roof in Loudoun County will actually carry, and say so if it will not pay.

  • Most addresses here are on Dominion Energy Virginia, but NOVEC serves some Loudoun County addresses. We confirm yours from your bill before we quote anything
  • A building permit and a separate electrical permit from Loudoun County, or from the town where the address sits inside one: we pull it and manage the inspections
  • Loudoun County has adopted a solar equipment tax exemption, and the terms are worth knowing before you apply: the amount and duration are tied to the system’s nameplate capacity in DC watts, the equipment must be certified by the county as used primarily for collecting or generating energy, and the county will not process an application until the system is operating and has passed all required permits.

Prefer to talk? (843) 310-1128

We use your address to look at your roof before we call.

FreeNo obligationLocal Daniel Island team

By sending this you agree to be contacted by call, text or email about your request. Consent isn’t a condition of purchase. Privacy Policy · Terms

Need the detailed version? Use the full assessment form.

Ashburn commercial solar FAQ

Questions from Ashburn business owners

Does commercial solar make more sense than residential in Ashburn?

Often yes, for a structural reason. Dominion Energy Virginia credits exported power at credited one-for-one at retail against your own annual usage against the applicable residential retail rate, confirmed against your own bill, so the value is in consuming your own production. A business that operates through daylight hours self-consumes most of what it generates, which is precisely what the current net energy metering under §56-594 structure rewards.

What permits does a commercial system need in Loudoun County?

A building permit and an electrical permit, with standard plan review for systems of roughly 10 kW and above, which covers essentially all commercial work. Inland Mid-Atlantic. No salt exposure, with snow loading a real racking input. The roof stock is recent enough that framing is rarely the constraint; the care goes into flashing detail and freeze-thaw. Dominion Energy Virginia interconnection approval is required before energising.

How big is a typical commercial solar system in Ashburn?

It is sized to the building's daytime load rather than to the roof. Each kW here makes about 1,221 kWh a year unshaded, so a 50 kW array makes roughly 61,100 kWh. Dominion Energy households paid about 14.1¢ per kWh on average in 2024.

Does commercial solar in Ashburn need its own permits?

Yes. A building permit and a separate electrical permit from Loudoun County, or from the town where the address sits inside one; An interconnection application to whichever utility serves your meter, Dominion Energy Virginia or NOVEC, on that utility’s own forms. We pull all of it through Loudoun County.

What does commercial solar in Ashburn pay on Dominion Energy?

Dominion Energy households paid about 14.1¢ per kWh on average in 2024. A 100 kW array in Ashburn makes roughly 122,000 kWh a year; the share used on site is worth the retail rate, exports earn credited one-for-one at retail against your own annual usage.

Free, no-pressure assessment

Find out what your Ashburn building can carry

We will read your interval data and tariff, review your roof structure and service capacity, and give you an honest scope, with no guaranteed-savings math.

Mon–Sat, 10am–6:30pm ET · We typically follow up within the hour.

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