The governor of the US state of Virginia (8.5 million inhabitants) has signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act into law that aims at boosting the state's renewable power capacity, by raising the limit for generation capacities that are declared to be in the public interest from 5,000 MW to 16,100 MW for solar and onshore wind and from 16 MW to 3,000 MW for offshore wind.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act replaces the existing voluntary renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS) programme with a mandatory RPS Programme. Under the mandatory scheme, Dominion Energy Virginia and American Electric Power are required to generate their electricity from 100% renewable sources by 2045 and 2050, respectively, which means that the companies will have to shut down their thermal power plants by these dates. In addition, Dominion Energy Virginia will be required to develop at least 5,200 MW of qualified offshore wind projects by 1 January 2034.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act also aims to develop 3.1 GW of energy storage to support renewable power development. By 2035, Dominion Energy Virginia and American Electric Power and will be required to build or acquire 2,700 MW and 400 MW of energy storage capacity, respectively.
The new law establishes an energy efficiency standard: as of 2022, Dominion Energy Virginia will have to achieve incremental annual energy efficiency savings of 1.25% of its average 2019 energy retail sales (0.5% energy efficiency savings target for American Electric Power).
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