Top 7 Best Solar Companies in Virginia (2024 Reviews)

Blue Raven Solar makes solar loans far more accessible throughout the state. Its warranty coverage is also above-average, and it maintains low pricing.

Blue Raven Solar has limited service offerings, but we still think most homeowners will be pleased with the service they receive from this installer.

Why We Chose Blue Raven Solar as the Best for Financing Options

Blue Raven’s BluePower Plus+ solar financing program is one of the most widely accessible and affordable solar payment options in the entire industry. It includes low interest rates and no down payment requirements. Plus, it provides 18 months of interest-free financing to help jumpstart your solar savings.

In an area like Virginia, where the average cost of a solar panel system is well above the national average, this kind of accessible financing is highly valuable. Paying the VA average of $36,850 for solar, plus $10,000 to $20,000 for batteries after NEM 3.0 is adopted, will likely be out of the question for many people, so this financing option is really going to make a difference in the long run for many Virginians.

It’s also known for delivering excellent customer service, despite being one of the larger installers in the state. Most customers are pleased with the communication they experience from their representatives, and many comment about how personalized they feel their service is.

Finally, Blue Raven manages to keep its pricing below average, which helps keep installation costs down in an otherwise expensive area. Virginians normally pay significantly more than most Americans to convert to solar — around $7,000 more, to be exact — so this is extra helpful in VA.

What We Don’t Like

The biggest downside to Blue Raven Solar, in our opinion, is that it has limited service offerings. The company stated that it would start installing solar batteries in 2022, but as of this writing in 2023, it only installs solar panels.

Batteries aren’t very popular in the area because of the widely available net metering policy, but we’d love to see some other options for customization. Plus, VA is likely going to adopt the new metering policy (3.0) that recently made batteries all but a necessity in California, at which point these limited service offerings could become a significant drawback.

Additionally, Blue Raven doesn’t accept leases or PPAs. We don’t recommend these options anyway, but it would be nice for customers who won’t qualify for a solar loan to have the opportunity to choose them.

Read our full review of Blue Raven Solar for more information.

Solar Products

Blue Raven carries and installs panels made by three different tier-one panel manufacturers: Hyundai, SolarEdge and Canadian Solar. This is a decent line-up of brands, with all three sitting at above-average efficiency ratings to help offset the above-average electricity usage in Virginia.

The SolarEdge panels have the lowest cost per watt, so these will likely be your best bet if you’re looking to keep your installation costs below the high state average. The average cost per kW in Virginia is around $3.35, and these panels should cost you around $3, providing around $3,000 worth of savings for the typical 11 kW system needed to offset electricity consumption in VA.

Blue Raven Solar doesn’t install any add-on products like EV chargers or solar batteries. However, it does install Enphase inverters, so many customers get access to the Enphase solar monitoring app through the company. This gives you real-time information about your solar production and your home energy consumption.

Financing Options

Blue Raven only accepts cash and in-house loans, so anyone looking for a lease or PPA will need to opt for another provider.

However, the BluePower Plus+ does help keep solar accessible to more homeowners than standard financing would. It also tends to save you more over time, as you get the first 18 months interest-free. That should help boost your savings and make paying for your system significantly easier.

We’d still recommend a cash purchase if you can make it work, but if you can’t, the BluePower Plus+ program should serve you well.

Warranty Information

Blue Raven Solar keeps in line with the industry average when it comes to its equipment warranty — 25 years — and its labor warranty — ten years. We do wish the labor warranty was a little longer, though, as systems in Virginia are naturally at a higher risk of damage, given the prevalence of extreme weather in the area.

The panel production warranty lasts for 25 years, which is just a little longer than the industry average.

Click here for a free quote from Blue Raven Solar.

Tesla manufactures equipment that is technologically advanced and user-friendly. Its panels also interface seamlessly with other Tesla equipment.

Tesla doesn’t have the best customer service due to the company outsourcing all of its installations, but we still feel it’s a good option to consider overall.

Why We Chose Tesla as the Provider With the Best Technology

As a tech company that makes end-user products, Tesla specializes in equipment and user interfaces that are easy to use, intuitive and helpful, and its solar equipment is no exception.

The panels, batteries and inverters all have outstanding specifications, including above-average efficiency ratings that are suitable for offsetting the high energy usage in Virginia. However, the real benefit of choosing Tesla comes when you combine its products and services.

The Tesla app is as helpful for maximizing savings as it is easy to use. You can instantly and remotely switch how your solar power is being used to maximize energy savings. For customers of Dominion Energy, time-of-use plans are becoming more popular, and Tesla’s equipment helps customers find and automate savings.

When the new net metering policy comes to Virginia, batteries are going to be all but necessary to offset electricity consumption, so Tesla is a step ahead of the competition when it comes to future services.

Tesla also offers price matching, which means its prices are below average. This is massively beneficial in an area like Virginia, where the normal cost of converting to renewable energy is well above average — $25,795 after the federal credit as opposed to $$20,979 in the rest of the country.

What We Don’t Like

The most significant downside of working with Tesla, in our opinion, is the potential for poor customer service. Tesla uses third-party installers to deliver and set up its equipment, so customer service varies wildly from customer to customer. There are some great installers in Virginia, but others might not provide the best response times or customer care.

Tesla also only installs its own equipment. The Tesla-branded panels, solar roofs, inverters and batteries have great performance specs, but we still prefer companies that offer a variety of products that are more likely to appeal to a wider audience.

Read our full review of Tesla for more information.

Solar Products

As mentioned above, Tesla only installs its own panels, which are now manufactured by Q Cells. Tesla panels perform well, have an above-average efficiency rating and should meet your energy needs in Virginia. Still, we do prefer companies that have a variety of products to choose from, as that often means options for homeowners looking to maximize efficiency as well as those looking to minimize installation costs.

Solar irradiance in Virginia is around 5.18 kWh per meter squared per day, which is above the national average. That means you’ll see greater production from most panels in all weather conditions than you would in other states, so a slightly lower efficiency rating isn’t the end of the world.

Below, we’ll include a list of additional products and services you can get access to through Tesla:

• Tesla Powerwalls
• Tesla solar roofing
• Tesla solar monitoring app

Financing Options

Tesla accepts all four main solar payment options, including cash purchases, solar loans, leases and PPAs. This is great news in an area like Virginia, where installation costs are significantly higher than the industry average and solar is inherently less accessible to customers.

We still strongly recommend a cash purchase if you can make it work. Thankfully, Tesla’s price matching option often helps keep prices below the local average, so Tesla is one of the most affordable options overall. This is going to be a huge deal once NEM 3.0 takes effect in Virginia. If you can’t make cash work, then a loan is your next best option.

Warranty Information

Tesla’s warranty coverage is about average. The equipment warranty, which lasts for 25 years, is average, and the production warranty — also 25 years — lasts five years longer than the industry average.

The workmanship warranty is also in line with what most companies offer at ten years, although we do prefer labor coverage that’s longer than what’s typical in Virginia. A lengthy labor warranty can help protect your system from Virginia’s frequently severe weather.

Click here for a free quote from Tesla.

Solar SME is known for generally outstanding customer service, despite its larger size, and its accessibility is above-average.

The company does have some minor issues with spotty customer service, but for the most part, we feel Virginians will be more than satisfied with this provider.

Why We Chose Solar SME as the Best Regional Provider

Solar SME has countless positive reviews online, including a 4.69-star rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and a near-5-star rating on Google Reviews. In an area like Virginia, which has almost 100 installers to choose from, this kind of reputation can help make your decision much easier.

Solar SME also instills a lot of confidence in customers. Not only does it employ installers that are certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP), but it also provides excellent warranty coverage that protects your system, production and the workmanship for 25 years. The labor warranty is especially beneficial in VA due to the frequent extreme weather, and it will be most welcome for customers on the east coast that get hit hardest.

Finally, Solar SME is great for Virginians because it accepts all major forms of payment, including leases and PPAs. This helps keep solar more accessible in an area where the high installation costs make cash payments less viable.

What We Don’t Like

The only potential downside we noted regarding working with Solar SME is that the customer service can sometimes be spotty. Depending on your local branch and the representatives you get, there’s a chance you might run into some slow response times, which is to be expected from a company of this size.

Generally speaking, though, Solar SME is a wonderful option if you’re willing to look past the potential for less-than-ideal service.

Solar Products

Solar SME carries and installs more products than the large majority of solar installers in Virginia. In the way of panel brands alone, it offers equipment from Trina, Panasonic, Solaria, Silfab, REC, QCells and SolarEdge.

If you’re looking to prioritize your energy output, we recommend panels from Panasonic or REC. These are tied for the highest efficiency rating, topping out at 22.2%.

You can also opt for the more affordable options, which would be Solaria and SolarEdge.

Below are some additional products and services Solar SME offers:

• LG Chem RESU batteries
• Generac PWRCell batteries
• Enphase Encharge batteries
• Panasonic EverVolt batteries
• Solax Solar batteries, which are ideal for Virginians who tend not to need batteries to eliminate their energy bills
• Multiple brands of EV chargers
• Ground-mount solar
• The solar monitoring app from Enphase

The wide selection of battery options is outstanding, but it will be an even bigger deal once NEM 3.0 makes it so that batteries are a necessity to save money with solar.

Financing Options

Solar SME accepts cash payments, loans, leases and PPAs, so just about every customer in Virginia will be able to find a financing option that works for them. There’s a lot to be said about a company that has such open availability in a high-cost area like Virginia.

We suggest a cash purchase if you can make it work or a solar loan if you can’t. Both of these options will lead to panel ownership, higher energy savings over time and access to the federal credit — an average value of $11,055 in VA. A lease might be a good option if you won’t qualify for a loan and can’t make a cash purchase make sense.

Warranty Information

Solar SME includes 25 years of coverage for your equipment, the workmanship involved in installing it and the panel production. The workmanship warranty is 2.5x the industry average, and this robust coverage is especially helpful in a high-risk area like Virginia. The equipment warranty is average, and the production warranty is five years longer than the average.

Click here for a free quote from Solar SME.

With over a decade of localized experience, Nova’s technicians and salespeople understand the local needs of Virginians.

Nova Solar doesn’t serve the entire state and doesn’t accept leases or PPAs, but for those within its service area, we still feel that it’s an excellent choice.

Why We Chose Nova Solar as the Best for Localized Experience

Nova Solar’s technicians live and work in Virginia, and they specialize in designing systems made specifically for the local needs in the Old Dominion. They also are well acquainted with local incentive programs, so they are often able and willing to help you sign up for tax credits and rebates offered by local electric companies and individual municipalities, whereas larger national companies might not be able to.

That includes statewide incentives, plus local solar incentives, like special net metering policies offered by the City of Danville. Virginia isn’t home to many other local incentives, but if new ones pop up, Nova is likely to know about them.

Nova Solar guarantees that each project is headed by a NABCEP-certified installer, which instills confidence in solar customers and ensures that your system is installed properly. This is important because it helps guarantee that your system will persist through any of the severe weather Virginia is known for. Nova includes solid warranty coverage as well to maximize your peace of mind.

The company has mostly positive reviews and a reputation for outstanding customer service. This is great to see in an area with so many fly-by-night solar installers popping up.

What We Don’t Like

There are two primary downsides we see to choosing Nova for your solar project. The first is that it doesn’t serve all of Virginia, so you might not be in its service area. Naturally, that means the company will appeal to fewer customers overall. it primarily services Central Virginia.

Second, its financing options are limited to cash and loans. Customers looking for more low-cost options like leases and PPAs — which are more popular in Virginia, given the above-average cost of a solar system — will need to find another provider altogether. This could be more of an issue once battery storage is the norm.

Solar Products

Nova installs a few different panel brands, including REC, QCells, SolarEdge and Aptos. Aptos panels are going to provide the most bang for your buck, as they have the lowest per-watt cost of all of these options, by far, but they still deliver peak efficiency ratings of over 20%. They should still be able to offset the typical 1,000+ kWh consumed per month per household in VA.

If you’re looking for maximum efficiency to take full advantage of the abundant sunlight in Virginia and want to have the best chance of eliminating your energy bills, we’d recommend the REC panels. These have the highest efficiency rating of the bunch, peaking at 22.2%. You may be able to get away with a slightly smaller system or fewer panels if you choose REC, which could end up saving you some money.

Below, we’ll include a list of additional equipment you can get installed when you choose Nova Solar for your solar project:

• Quasar 2 bi-directional EV chargers
• Enphase inverters and microinverters
• The Enphase solar monitoring app

Note that Nova doesn’t install batteries, so it might not be the best option for maximizing savings after NEM 3.0 takes effect.

Financing Options

As mentioned previously, Nova Solar only accepts cash and loans, so the financing options are limited. We consider this a downside, specifically because leases and PPAs help improve accessibility to photovoltaic (PV) equipment in high-cost areas like Virginia.

We recommend paying in cash if you can, as this will maximize your return on investment (ROI), leave you with the lowest overall system costs and lead to immediate panel ownership.

Warranty Information

Nova Solar includes with all of its installations a 25-year warranty for the equipment and the panel production. The equipment warranty is average, and the production warranty is a little above average. The company also offers a 20-year workmanship warranty, which is double the industry average and especially welcome in an area with frequent severe weather, like Virginia.

Click here for a free quote from Nova Solar.

If you’re looking to support a local business and want the kind of customer care and one-on-one attention you’d expect from a local installer, we can’t recommend Virtue Solar enough.

Virtue Solar doesn’t have the longevity that some of the bigger players on our list have, but we still feel this is a trustworthy company.

Why We Chose Virtue Solar as the Best Local Installer

Virtue Solar has localized experience in Virginia, having been solely serving the Old Dominion since 2012. The company brings a lot to the table, including just under a decade of experience, good warranty coverage and NABCEP-certified installation technicians on every single job it completes.

Most importantly, Virtue Solar’s representatives are well-versed in navigating local solar incentives and rebate programs. With the one-on-one service you’ll receive from this small company, you might get access to more solar perks and benefit programs than you would opting for a larger company that isn’t as in touch with local regulations and incentives. That includes incentives offered only in specific municipalities, like Danville.

Additionally, Virtue Solar has near-perfect ratings on all platforms online. Those include an unprecedented 5-star rating on Google Reviews and an A+ rating with the BBB. It’s clear that the company prioritizes customer service. This is a great asset in a high-competition and high-demand state like Virginia.

What We Don’t Like

Virtue Solar was founded in 2012, so it has just over a decade of experience. We prefer to recommend companies with even more experience, as a lot of companies in high-demand areas like Virginia pop up to turn a profit and end up going out of business and voiding your warranties. We don’t feel that’s the case with Virtue, but we still prefer more evidence of longevity.

Additionally, as a small local company, Virtue doesn’t serve the entire state, and it doesn’t accept leases or PPAs. Overall, the availability and accessibility are less impressive with Virtue than most other companies on our list.

Solar Products

Virtue Solar doesn’t publicize the panel brands it installs, although we expect that it provides access to a variety of tier-one, monocrystalline panel options. Given how focused the installer is on customizability, we wouldn’t be surprised if Virtue Solar can get access to any of the major panel brands based on your specific needs. Ultimately, that could help you save money or maximize your solar production, depending on your preference.

Below is a list of other products and services available from Virtue Solar:

• Enphase batteries
• Sunlight Backup systems, which are a great option in Virginia, where blackouts are somewhat common but expensive solar batteries don’t provide many benefits because of the net metering policy. This option lets you maintain power off-grid without a battery (only when the sun is shining and providing sufficient power)
• The Enphase solar monitoring app

Note that the Sunlight Backup system might be great now, but it won’t help much when NEM 3.0 is put in place. You’ll still maintain power through daytime blackouts, but it won’t offset your consumption at night or on cloudy days, so you’ll still save less each month than you would with a battery.

Financing Options

Virtue Solar only accepts cash purchases and solar loans, which means it’s less accessible than many other installers that entertain leases and PPAs. Since conversion costs are significantly higher in Virginia than they are in most other states, we consider this a pretty big drawback to working with Virtue.

With that being said, though, we do only recommend cash and solar loans to fund your solar project, so if you can make one of those work, then Virtue is a great option.

Warranty Information

Virtue Solar includes a 25-year warranty for the equipment, which is average, and the power production, which is a little longer than average. You also get a 10-year warranty for the labor. This is in line with the industry average as well, but in an area at elevated risk of system damage like Virginia, we’d ideally like to see lengthier coverage for the workmanship.

Click here for a free quote from Virtue Solar.