Exploring the Largest Utility-Scale Solar Installation East of the Rockies in Spotsylvania County, VA
Last month, I had the opportunity to tour the largest utility-scale solar installation east of the Rockies in Spotsylvania County, VA. Our partners at Ceres and AES, the installation’s owner, arranged the tour, which also included several state legislators, legislative staff, offtakers, and chamber executives.
Over the course of my chamber career I’ve toured plenty of interesting places, but never a utility-scale solar installation. Here are a few of my observations:
It’s not intrusive. As one of the legislators who toured the facility with us commented, “I bet most of the people in this county don’t even know it’s here.” The entrance to the installation is non-descript, marked only with a simple sign. No solar panels are visible from the road. The only two houses I saw on the tour were next to the entrance. It’s also quiet. The only noises I heard were the bleating sheep and a mild electrical hum when we were standing near the substation, which isn’t near another structure.
It supports local farmers. Local resident Bill Renaud works with AES, owner of the site, and three local farming and ranching families to raise sheep on the property. The sheep graze the grass around and under the solar panels, saving AES money maintaining the property. The farmers get to use their own land for other farming activities, increasing their operational capacity. Renaud gets paid to care for the flocks, moving them around to fresh grazing areas onsite every few days, supplementing their grazing with feed, and providing veterinary services. When the flocks are ready for market, that revenue goes to the farmers. Everybody wins in this scenario.
The land is still usable. Walking the property, it’s clear the land could be used for practically any purpose the community sees fit when the solar panels reach the end of their useful life. Agriculture, residential or commercial development, or reversion to forest would all be viable options without the lengthy and expensive environmental remediation that would be required if the site were a fossil plant. Josh Bass, President of the Currituck Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina, observed that utility-scale solar operates as a sort of land bank for the community - protecting the land the solar installation sits on from more permanent types of development for the useful life of the installation. It should be noted that solar installations produce revenue for landowners in situations where the property is leased and tax revenue that supports schools and other public infrastructure in the community. Land banks don’t generally do that.
All of the interesting sites I’ve had the pleasure of touring are impressive for some reason or another. The shipyard that builds all of the Navy’s aircraft carriers is nothing short of jaw-dropping. A huge port operation masterfully moving millions of containers of goods every year is poetry in motion. The Spotsylvania solar site is impressive because it does the very important job of providing over 500 MW of clean energy so unobtrusively that, to paraphrase a Virginia state senator, you don’t know it’s there.
