Most solar coverage right now is obsessing over the death of the federal tax credit. That’s fair, but it’s leaving out something more immediately useful: Virginia just built a model that cuts installation costs by nearly a quarter, costs the state nothing, and launched statewide on July 13, 2026. If you’re a homeowner anywhere in the country trying to figure out how to go solar without a 30% federal credit backstopping your investment, pay attention to what Spanberger’s office pulled off.

Governor Abigail Spanberger announced the Switch Together program as the first statewide solar group-purchasing initiative in the U.S. The mechanics are straightforward, which is part of why they work. Homeowners register (free, no commitment), the program aggregates them into a buying bloc, and pre-vetted installers then compete in a reverse auction to win those contracts. Competition drives prices down. The average result: a 23% discount, or about $6,300 off a typical 9 kW system, according to the Governor’s office press release from July 13. Nearly 6,000 Virginians have already signed up since the launch, and the registration window runs through October 15.

The program runs through a partnership between Solar United Neighbors, the D.C.-based nonprofit, and iChoosr, a Dutch group-buying platform that has run similar campaigns in Europe and select U.S. cities. No state dollars required.

Key takeaways
  • Virginia's Switch Together program launched statewide July 13, 2026, the first of its kind in the U.S.
  • The reverse-auction model cuts average installation costs by 23%, roughly $6,300 on a 9 kW system.
  • Homeowners can register free through October 15, 2026; no purchase commitment required to sign up.
  • The program estimates $2,200 per year in electricity savings per participating household.
  • Switch Together costs the state nothing, funded through the iChoosr and Solar United Neighbors partnership.

Why the Reverse Auction Actually Works

Group-buying programs aren’t new. Cities have run them. Nonprofits have run them. But they’ve always hit a ceiling at the local level because the buying group isn’t big enough to move the market meaningfully. Going statewide changes that math.

When installers know they’re bidding for hundreds or thousands of jobs at once, they sharpen their pencils. That’s the mechanism behind the 23% average discount. For context, EnergySage’s 2025 data put the average solar installation at roughly $3.00 per watt before incentives. A 23% reduction brings that closer to $2.30 per watt at scale. On a 9 kW system, you’re looking at a difference that exceeds what a lot of homeowners were netting from state-level incentives alone.

The reverse auction format also solves a problem most homeowners don’t realize they have: installer vetting. The program pre-screens participating companies before they ever bid. You’re not sorting through a dozen cold calls from installers of wildly varying quality. You’re choosing from a pool that already cleared a baseline.

The Numbers, Compared

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Here’s where this gets concrete. The table below puts Switch Together’s economics next to what a typical Virginia homeowner faces shopping the open market without a federal tax credit in 2026.

ScenarioAvg. System Cost (9 kW)Est. Annual SavingsEffective Cost/Watt
Open market, no federal credit~$27,000~$1,500–$1,800~$3.00
Switch Together (23% discount)~$20,700~$2,200~$2.30
Open market with 30% federal credit (pre-2026)~$18,900~$1,500–$1,800~$2.10

The honest read: Switch Together doesn’t fully replace a 30% tax credit. Nothing does. But it closes a meaningful portion of that gap, and it’s available to households that don’t owe enough in federal taxes to fully utilize a credit anyway, a group that’s larger than the solar industry typically admits.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury estimates participating households save approximately $2,200 per year on electricity costs. That’s a stronger savings figure than the open-market average, which makes sense: the program targets homes with favorable roof conditions and usage profiles, so the pool self-selects toward good solar candidates.

Who This Is and Isn’t For

Switch Together is available in more than 100 Virginia localities now, with a stated plan to expand to every community in the state before the campaign closes October 15. Fairfax County is already listed as a participating locality, per county energy coordination documents from July 2026. If you’re in a rural county that’s not yet covered, registering still makes sense since it adds your household to the demand signal that drives expansion.

Who it’s not for: renters (obviously), homeowners with heavily shaded roofs, and anyone who needs an installed system before early 2027, since the auction, contract, and installation sequence takes time. Group programs run on group timelines.

Also worth being clear-eyed about: this is a one-installer outcome. Once you go through the auction, you’re matched with the winning bidder for your area. You’re not comparison-shopping three installers post-match. If the winning installer has reviews that give you pause, you can decline, but then you’re back to the open market.

Can Other States Copy This?

Nationally, more than 101,800 households have registered for Switch Together programs across the U.S., per the Governor’s office announcement. But prior to July 13, those programs were fragmented, running city by city, county by county. Virginia’s move to operate this at the state level is genuinely new.

The replication case is strong because the cost structure is so clean. No state appropriation. No bureaucracy to stand up. Solar United Neighbors and iChoosr bring the infrastructure; the state brings the megaphone and the data partnerships to identify eligible households. A governor’s office announcement plus a functional website is most of what’s required on the government side.

Switch Together: Cost vs. savings by scenario
Open market cost (9kW)$27,000
Switch Together cost (9kW)$20,700
Annual savings: open market$1,650
Annual savings: Switch Together$2,200
Source: Virginia Governor's Office, U.S. Dept. of Treasury, EnergySage 2025

States watching Virginia right now include some with aggressive renewable targets and no obvious state-funded incentive pipeline to replace the federal credit. The Virginia Mercury noted on July 13 that the program is specifically designed to help residents “trim electric bills” at a moment when utility rates are climbing. That framing isn’t accidental. This is a political win that’s also substantively useful, a combination that tends to travel.

Virginia’s experiment is only weeks old. The October 15 deadline will tell us how many of those 6,000 registrants convert to signed contracts, and what the actual installed cost lands at across the auction cohort. But the structure is sound, the economics pencil out, and for the first time a state has put its name behind a program designed to make solar competitive even after the federal credit era. That’s worth watching, and if you’re in Virginia, worth joining.

Sources

Photo: Kindel Media via Pexels

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