What localities lose

The new subsection E of § 15.2-2288.7 provides that “No locality shall prohibit the use of a small portable solar generation device, as defined in § 56-596.8, on a residential structure”, subject to three conditions: compliance with the zoning district's height and setback requirements; compliance with any local historic, architectural preservation or corridor protection district adopted under § 15.2-2306; and compliance with the requirements of § 15.2-2288.7 itself and § 56-596.8.

The section's title changed with the amendment. It now reads “Local regulation of solar facilities and small portable solar generation devices.”

What associations keep

Subsection F, added by the same chapters, is verbatim identical to the carve-out in the ADU statute:

“Nothing in this section shall be construed to supersede or limit contracts or agreements between or among individuals or private entities related to the use of real property, including recorded declarations and covenants, the provisions of condominium instruments of a condominium created pursuant to the Virginia Condominium Act (§ 55.1-1900 et seq.), the declaration of a common interest community as defined in § 54.1-2345, the cooperative instruments of a cooperative created pursuant to the Virginia Real Estate Cooperative Act (§ 55.1-2100 et seq.), or any declaration of a property owners' association created pursuant to the Property Owners' Association Act (§ 55.1-1800 et seq.).”

Two sections of the 2026 Code now carry that sentence word for word. Whatever else it is, it is deliberate drafting policy.

The condominium balcony problem

The gap between the statute's reach and a condominium's reality is wider here than it is for ADUs. A plug-in panel on a condominium balcony sits on a limited common element in most Virginia condominiums — an area the unit owner has exclusive use of but does not own outright. The condominium instruments govern what may be attached to it, and § 15.2-2288.7(F) says in terms that the section does not supersede those instruments.

The result is that the Virginia owner most likely to want a plug-in panel — an apartment-style condominium owner with no roof to put anything on — is the owner the new local-government rule helps least.

What did not change: rooftop solar in a covenanted community

Virginia's existing association solar provisions are unchanged by the 2026 session. Section 55.1-1820.1 in the Property Owners' Association Act and § 55.1-1962 in the Condominium Act are the operative sections, and neither carries a 2026 chapter citation. An association's authority over roof-mounted systems rests where it did before: on the recorded documents and on those sections, not on anything enacted this year.

The conditions that change the answer

The device must meet every element of the definition. A panel over 1,200 watts, or without the outage-protection feature, is not a “small portable solar generation device” and the local-preemption rule does not reach it.

The 391-watt exception is about product listing, not about associations. A device with output to the receptacle outlet of not more than 391 watts is exempt from product-listing provisions requiring alterations to the building's wiring or panels — a building-code accommodation, not a covenant one.

Historic and corridor-protection districts still apply. A locality that has adopted one under § 15.2-2306 keeps that authority.

What to watch next

The section takes effect January 1, 2027, and § 56-596.8's own history line reads simply “2026, cc. 998, 1052” — a section with no prior existence. Associations that have never had a plug-in solar policy will be asked for one, and the statute has told them the question is theirs to answer.