Solar Energy

Thirteen commercial solar developments have been approved in far Southwest Virginia since 2020, according to a state database.

Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service has partnered with the state’s Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy (DMME) to host an advisory program, SolSmart, aimed to help local governments implement and embrace solar energy.

The political divide over solar is also a geographical one.

Localities have continued to approve new data center proposals with little thought given to where and how they will get the power to serve them.

The staff of a commission focused on electric utility regulation also recommended establishing a process under which the state could potentially take over from localities the approval process for solar projects deemed to be of “statewide significance."

The database, from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, also shows a drop in local approvals of solar projects.

Acreage caps Isle of Wight and Surry counties enacted last year to restrict the proliferation of solar farms can stay in place – for now. A House of Delegates subcommittee voted on Feb. 27 to carry over to 2025 a bill that would have nullified locally-imposed bans and limits.

A pair of General Assembly bills, one in the House of Delegates and the other in the Senate, propose allowing the state to overrule county-level rejections of new solar farms. House Bill 636 would create an approval process for projects capable of generating 50 or more megawatts, which would be overseen by the State Corporation.

As Virginia seeks to acquire at least 2.6 gigawatts of offshore wind energy to fulfill legally binding decarbonization targets, the bill would require the state to consider a range of bids from offshore wind developers other than Dominion.