Utility-scale solar facilities are crucial to Virginia’s transition to a clean energy future. Utility-scale solar is the cheapest form of new generation available, and its environmental impacts pale in comparison to the fossil fuels we are transitioning away from.¹ 

To achieve a carbon-free electric grid that is consistent with U.S. climate goals, wind and solar must comprise 60-80% of the nation’s electricity mix by 2035, while approximately tripling generation capacity as demand grows.² While distributed energy resources play an important role in decarbonization, demand management, and grid resiliency, we will not be able to meet our energy needs with these sources alone.³ Utility-scale solar projects will play a critical role in Virginia and across the globe.

At the same time, the construction and build-out of utility-scale solar necessary to meet our goals will result in one of the largest land use changes in Virginia history, with most projects constructed in rural communities.⁴ Therefore, the Commonwealth must have protections in place to avoid impacting Virginia’s important natural resources and to minimize and mitigate such impacts where they cannot be avoided.

On average, utility-scale solar requires five to ten acres per megawatt of electricity produced.⁵ As of March 2023, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) had permits and applications for over 8 gigawatts worth of solar, expected to cover nearly 86,000 acres in Virginia.⁶ Many of these facilities are being sited in rural localities with little experience permitting large construction projects, and a majority of these localities do not have established solar ordinances.⁷

As a start, the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) requires Dominion Energy to propose 16,100 MW of onshore wind and solar by the end of 2035, and Appalachian Power Co. must propose 600 MW of onshore wind and solar by the end of 2030.⁸ 

DEQ will soon propose regulations that will require mitigation for impacts to prime agricultural soils and contiguous forest lands for solar projects that seek approval through the permit by rule (PBR) process.⁹ The final regulations will aim to create an environment that continues to support a growing solar industry while minimizing impacts to prime agricultural soils and our most ecologically valuable forests by incentivizing developers to use less disturbing construction practices, incorporate different types of agrivoltaics, and offsite conservation easements. Increasingly cost-effective technologies, such as all-terrain trackers, can help developers minimize grading disturbance and its associated adverse impacts such as stormwater runoff and delays in vegetation growth.¹⁰ DEQ also finalized a new stormwater handbook that took effect July 1, 2024, with sections specific to utility-scale solar, including treating solar panels as impervious surfaces to calculate stormwater management facilities.¹¹

At the state level, Virginia has created an attractive environment for utility-scale solar through potential tax exemptions and revenue sharing.¹² At the local level, counties have already approved a significant amount of solar, roughly 12,000 MW.¹³ However, roughly two-thirds of these projects have yet to commence construction. There is no guarantee that they will be used for our utilities’ compliance with the VCEA and some may fail to come to fruition due to financing or interconnection issues. Despite this early approval of projects, an increasing number of Virginia localities have recently enacted restrictive ordinances that severely limit, and in some cases, ban the development of utility-scale solar. 

Unfortunately, some early pioneer projects employed inadequate construction practices that raised local concerns. In some Virginia counties, local resistance has been fueled by misinformation.¹⁴ If the trend toward restrictions and bans continues,¹⁵ the Commonwealth’s ability to meet the mandates of the Virginia Clean Economy Act might be endangered.

Many of the localities that are seeing an increasing number of solar projects do not have the resources necessary to appropriately review these projects. State-supported technical assistance could provide localities with the tools or employees they need to regulate solar land use within their jurisdictions, or even at a more regional level.

Agrivoltaics, or solar facilities where agricultural activities are also taking place, are an area ripe for enormous growth. As many utility-scale projects will continue to be sited on agricultural lands, encouraging and incentivizing beneficial dual-use of these lands can reduce the impact of these projects on soils while also helping to generate greater support for these projects. When developed effectively, these projects not only help maintain better quality land, they also decrease carbon emissions and costs from site landscaping requirements. An increase in projects growing crops under panels will help minimize the degradation of prime agricultural soils, conserve water,¹⁶ and provide dual economic benefit to the owner, all while dispelling the perception that agriculture and clean energy cannot co-exist.

Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) are legally enforceable contracts between the developer of a project and the community, or a coalition of community-based organizations. CBAs stipulate the benefits that a project developer agrees to fund or implement, in exchange for community support of the project. Benefits can include commitments to hire directly from the community, local workforce training guarantees, contributions to local environmental remediation projects, and flexibility to address local concerns.

Between the VCEA¹⁷ and the Brownfield and Coal Mine Renewable Energy Grant Fund and Program,¹⁸ Virginia’s laws incentivize the development of utility-scale solar in the built environment. This includes brownfields, previous coal mines, landfills, parking lots, retail, commercial, and industrial sites. Virginia should continue to incentivize projects in these locations to the maximum extent possible by pursuing federal funding and appropriating state funding.

Grid storage projects will be critical to maximize our renewable energy as it grows, so excess energy can be used at a later time. Incentivizing the deployment of grid-scale batteries with new or existing renewables is critical to maximizing the potential of renewables.

¹ Lazard, “Levelized Cost of Energy 9,” (June 2024), https://www.lazard.com/media/gjyffoqd/lazards-lcoeplus-june-2024.pdf. 

² “100% Clean Electricity by 2035 Study,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, (June 19, 2024). https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/100-percent-clean-electricity-by-2035-study.html.

³ Pieter Gagnon et al.,”Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Technical Potential in the United States: A Detailed Assessment,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Jan. 2016) at 36.

⁴ Va. Code § 56-585.5 D 

⁵ “Virginia Solar Development Analysis,” LandGate Corp, Prepared in Q4 2023, https://www.landgate.com/_files/ugd/fe762a_929afacdcf4a436da4fec2dcbec3503e.pdf.

⁶ Renewable Energy Permit Database, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, https://geohub-vadeq.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/8abcbea47e7e4faa898a602028efcf4d_98/explore.

⁷ “Virginia Solar Survey: Results and Initial Findings,” Virginia Department of Energy, and Virginia Solar Initiative, (April 2022). https://energy.virginia.gov/renewable-energy/documents/VASolarSurvey_ReportofResults_FINAL.pdf.

⁸ Va. Code § 56-585.5 D.

⁹ See https://www.townhall.virginia.gov/L/ViewStage.cfm?stageid=10341 (noting that the regulation is still in DPB review).

¹⁰ “Virginia Solar Project Using Nevados Trackers Receives State Environmental Award,” Solar Power World, (April 2024), https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2024/04/virginia-solar-project-using-nevados-trackers-receives-state-environmental-award/.

¹¹ Stormwater Handbooks, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, https://www.deq.virginia.gov/our-programs/water/stormwater/stormwater-construction/handbooks.

¹² SolTax Tool, University of Virginia Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, https://www.coopercenter.org/soltax-tool.

¹³ Lerch, Joe. 2024. “Commentary: Virginia Counties Step up to Meet Solar Energy Demand.” Richmond Times-Dispatch. (May 3, 2024). https://richmond.com/zzstyling/view-oped-sig/virginia-counties-are-meeting-demand-for-solar/article_4f49078e-065d-11ef-baee-4fded4336c2b.html

¹⁴ Miranda Green et al., An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America, NPR (Feb. 18, 2023). https://www.npr.org/2023/02/18/1154867064/solar-power-misinformation-activists-rural-america

¹⁵ Matthew Eisenson, Jacob Elkin, Harmukh Singh & Noah Schaffir, Opposition to Renewable Energy Facilities in the United States: June 2024 Edition, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (June 2024) at 286-291, https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/226.

¹⁶ Altyeb Ali Abaker Omer et al., Water evaporation reduction by the agrivoltaic system development, Solar Energy Vol. 247 (Nov. 15, 2022). https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Altyeb-Ali-Abaker-Omer/publication/364350834_Water_evaporation_reduction_by_the_agrivoltaic_systems_development/links/634f721e6e0d367d91a983c9/Water-evaporation-reduction-by-the-agrivoltaic-systems-development.pdf

¹⁷ See Va. Code § 56-585.5 D 2.

¹⁸ Va. Code § 45.2-1725.