A transition to renewable energy is imperative for our planet, and the good news is that Virginia has taken a major step in that direction with the ambitious Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) passed in 2020. The VCEA requires that Dominion Energy build 16.1 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind energy in the public interest by 2035 and operate with 100% renewable energy by 2045. Recent studies by the University of Virginia tell us we are well on our way. However, a history of poorly designed solar projects in Virginia have made it clear that utility-scale solar can have significant hidden costs if not done well. The consequences from previous installations have fueled opposition, including PEC’s, to some large-scale solar projects.
That’s why we successfully advocated for HB206—legislation that requires solar developers to offset the negative impacts of large solar projects on water quality and agricultural and forested lands. Since that legislation passed in 2022, PEC has been part of a regulatory panel of solar developers, environmental advocates and state agencies working to define those requirements.
Why HB206?
A recent study found that in Virginia, 58% of all utility-scale solar projects replaced forested land, 25% replaced cropland and 7% replaced pasture land. These lands play a critical role in Virginia achieving its goals around the Chesapeake Bay, water quality, conservation and agriculture.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has cited numerous projects for stormwater violations. Soil compaction from heavy machinery and mass grading at utility-scale solar sites has created significant runoff and water quality problems; it also severely slows groundwater recharge and revegetation, further worsening runoff and erosion impacts at project sites.
In the past, developers have cleared forests before applying for their project to avoid proper regulation and stripped and sold off onsite topsoil, which can take 1,000 years to regenerate through natural processes.
Meanwhile, skyrocketing data center loads are vastly increasing energy demand, which exacerbates pressure on our rural lands because large-scale solar is so land-intensive. We must transition to clean energy, but because of data centers, the Commonwealth is now being asked to support double or even triple the amount of land necessary to make that transition, all while the costs of related transmission and generation for the richest companies in the world are passed onto Virginia ratepayers like you and me.
We know that large-scale solar benefits from economies of scale and that rural areas will play a critical role in our transition to clean energy. That’s why it’s more important than ever that developers create renewable energy projects that minimize impacts to soil and water, maintain the integrity of the land for future use, respect natural and cultural resources and create a more holistic process around utility-scale solar development.
PEC believes that with its mitigation requirements, HB206 is a thoughtful way to incentivize best practices on future projects, so that we may create better renewable projects while also protecting our natural resources and contributing our fair share to the clean energy transition.
How does HB206 lead to better solar facilities?
HB206 requires that developers mitigate impacts on DEQ’s permit-by-rule solar projects between five and 150 megawatts — typically involving around 50 to 1,500 acres of land — that impact at least 10 acres of prime agricultural land or 50 acres of forest.
For every acre of land disturbed on a solar project, there must be an equivalent amount of mitigation. For example, if a proposed project impacts X amount of prime agricultural land, HB206 regulations might require the developer to permanently conserve the same amount of offsite land, or pay a fee to compensate for the loss of resources. But, if that developer were to use “best practices,” such as avoiding critical natural resources and deploying better construction techniques, the conservation requirement or fee could be lowered.
Fortunately, proven methods exist that can achieve these best practices while often saving the developer money at the same time. For example, all terrain trackers are prefabricated joints that give solar arrays a unique ability to follow sloped and rolling terrain, minimizing the need for most types of grading. Use of these trackers on a large-scale solar facility in Winchester saved the developer millions of dollars, since they did not need to remove significant amounts of dirt and truck it offsite.
Agrivoltaics, generally defined as the operation of agriculture and solar on the same site, is another practice that decreases the mitigation required. Though research on this emerging dual use is just beginning to refine the practice, crop growth and thoughtfully developed grazing can be ways to retain agricultural activity and contribute to the local agricultural economy while adding clean energy to the grid.
A third innovative development practice involves “land transfer agreements” that place the land under conservation easement to ensure it remains in agricultural use after the solar array reaches the end of its life. In scenarios involving agrivoltaics, the farmer also gains ownership of the land over time. At a time when rising land costs pose a tremendous challenge to new farmers, this provides an entryway to land ownership and a continued career in farming.
In all such projects, specific requirements and best practices must be in the final proffers, but there is potential for mutual wins. Through demonstration projects, site visits and conversations with stakeholders, PEC continues to build upon what these gold standards can look like.
Beyond large-scale solar
Recognizing the tremendous demands that large-scale solar places on our lands and natural resources, PEC continues to make distributed solar a priority in our effort to shape and advance Virginia’s clean energy future. We believe that solar on rooftops, brownfields and parking lots, as well as smaller scale agrivoltaics and long- and short- duration batteries that can increase the efficiency of renewables, should be priorities for the Commonwealth.
By maximizing use of the built environment, these options are a much more efficient use of our land and lead to additional energy independence and cost saving benefits for consumers like you and me.
But we cannot meet all our energy needs, particularly with the rapidly growing energy demands of data centers, with distributed generation alone. While Virginia’s solar journey has been characterized by poorly constructed large-scale solar projects that have created public resistance to future projects, the best practices incentivized by HB206 would lead to better renewable energy projects with fewer negative impacts.
The HB206 draft regulation has gone through executive review and a 60-day public comment period that ended Dec. 6. PEC submitted substantive public comments that contained some further suggestions, but was overall supportive of the draft regulations. We can expect the final regulations sometime next year.
Over time, these regulations can create a more welcoming environment for solar development in Virginia, and we can work to reach our clean energy goals in ways that bring together stakeholders and serve as a standard for other regions.