Solar installations in Nelson County, VA
72 recorded installations in Nelson County, Virginia — capacity, prices and the installers doing the work.
At a glance
Nelson County, Virginia has 72 recorded solar installations totalling 605 kW of capacity — the 33rd-highest count among the 108 Virginia counties with records, and under 1% of the state total. That is about 0.72% of the county's 9,947 housing units, against 0.51% statewide.
Dataset updated . Sources: LBNL Tracking the Sun + city permit records + state programs + USGS/EIA utility-scale.
Search every recorded installation in Nelson County by installer, size, date and equipment.
Search sites →Independent check:Stanford's DeepSolar detected about 151 solar arrays here from 2018 satellite imagery — our recorded data covers roughly 48% of that (this county is under-reported in public program data). A yardstick, not dated records.
Most active
Top installers in Nelson County
No resolved installers recorded in this county.
Growth
Installations by year
How does Nelson County compare with the rest of Virginia?
The median recorded system in Nelson County is 7.38 kW, roughly in line with the state median of 7.49 kW. By share of housing units with a recorded system, Nelson County ranks 12th of 93 Virginia counties with at least 10 installations. Fewer than 30 systems here report an installed price, so no county price median is published.
How has solar adoption changed in Nelson County?
The earliest recorded installation in Nelson County dates to 2006. The busiest year on record is 2019, with 33 installations. The county's cumulative total rose from 9 at the end of 2014 to 72 today. Recent years fill in as state programs and permit offices report, so the latest counts are provisional.
Frequently asked questions
How many homes have solar in Nelson County?
PanelCensus records 72 solar installations in Nelson County, Virginia (605 kW of capacity) — about 0.72% of the county's 9,947 housing units (U.S. Census ACS). Coverage depends on Virginia's public reporting, so the true total is likely higher.
How big is a typical solar system in Nelson County?
The median recorded system in Nelson County is 7.4 kW, against 7.5 kW for Virginia as a whole.
More solar data near Nelson County
- Solar in Virginia· 18,447 installations
- Solar installers in Virginia
- Solar in Roanoke County· 81 installations
- Solar in Roanoke city· 80 installations
- Solar in Floyd County· 79 installations
- Solar in Gloucester County· 71 installations
- Solar in Rockbridge County· 69 installations
- Solar in Suffolk city· 67 installations
County assignment is derived from installation ZIP codes via the Census 2020 ZCTA↔county crosswalk (primary county by land-area overlap) — approximate at county boundaries. Market penetration = recorded installations ÷ housing units (U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year, Table B25001); it undercounts where dataset coverage is partial. See methodology.
About this data
Source: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Tracking the Sun, merged with city permit records, state incentive programs and the USGS U.S. Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Database / EIA-860 plant registers, as published October 10, 2026 — PanelCensus refreshes it as each source publishes new records. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: PanelCensus, “Solar installations in Nelson County, Virginia”, https://panelcensus.com/solar/virginia/nelson-county (data as of October 10, 2026).