Our last blog discussed the Commonwealth of Virginia’s substantial energy demands and the importance of accelerating renewable energy adoption to meet that growth. Virginia also has climate goals that must be met. This blog considers the critical role utility-scale solar plays in meeting those goals as laid out in the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA).
Virginia Clean Economy Act
Passed in 2020, the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) sets ambitious goals for renewable energy and carbon reduction – requiring 100 percent clean energy by 2045 for Dominion Energy and 2050 for Appalachian Power Company with a benchmark of 45 percent renewable energy by 2030. In addition, the VCEA establishes a 16,100 MW goal for energy generation from utility scale solar and onshore wind. Utility scale solar will comprise most of this build out.
Utility Scale Solar and Agriculture
Utility scale solar projects are primarily built in rural communities on flat land that is well-drained, with proximity to existing transportation and grid infrastructure. Farmers may lease their land to project developers and diversify their income while preserving agricultural operations on the remaining land. Unlike other forms of development, solar projects may be successfully co-located with agricultural uses.
Despite all the benefits solar brings to rural communities, it is common to hear concerns about solar projects sited on farmland. To understand these concerns, it is important to look at solar land use in context.
About 70 percent of utility scale solar will be built on agricultural land (either cropland or rangeland). The amount of rural farmland directly affected by utility scale solar development though is only a small portion compared with the amount of Virginia’s farmland acres. To put it in context, even if the entire 16,100 MW required by the VCEA was built on farmland, it would only occupy 2.1 percent of Virginia’s farmland. The figure below graphically depicts Virginia’s total acres, farmland acres, and the solar acres to meet the VCEA goals.
Urbanization and economic growth have claimed much of Virginia’s farmland in recent years and remain the leading cause of farmland conversion. The American Farmland Trust produced a 2020 report entitled “Farms Under Threat: The State of the States” which used spatial analysis to report agricultural land conversion. Virginia was eighth in the country in terms of total agricultural acres converted to high-density development.
Utility Scale Solar and Brownfields
Despite the minimal land use impact from utility scale solar, some local communities remain opposed to development. Building on previously disturbed lands is often touted as a better pathway for utility scale solar development. But is this a reasonable option for the Commonwealth of Virginia?
Brownfield properties (“brownfields”) are properties with the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. Examples include abandoned coal mines and power plants or closed factories and industrial facilities. Virginia has thousands of brownfield sites, including more than 10,000 acres (about half the area of Manhattan) of coal fields in Southwest Virginia. The figure below shows a dashboard of these sites across the Commonwealth.
Virginia has established a Virginia Brownfield and Coal Mine Renewable and Grant Fund Program for brownfield site restoration and Governor Youngkin recently announced $1.76 million in funding for six sites. Sun Tribe, for example, redeveloped a brownfield site in Wise County, Virginia on a former coal site.
Despite incentives, brownfield development will not be possible on a multitude of sites. This is due to several factors, but centers on significantly increased cost, permitting complexity, and legal liability for pre-existing site contamination. As a rough rule of thumb, developing a utility-scale solar project on a brownfield site can be at least 30 percent more expensive than a greenfield site.
Transmission access also remains a challenge. Utility-scale solar needs proximity to high-voltage transmission lines, and brownfield sites far from this infrastructure (such as those in Southwest VA) are harder to develop.
Given the challenges described above, brownfield sites are often not compatible with the competing goal to deploy clean energy rapidly and efficiently. Thus, they are an important, but ultimately small contributor to meeting Virginia’s utility scale solar development goals.
Moving Forward
Utility-scale solar is essential for achieving the VCEA targets and decarbonizing the power grid. While most projects will be built on greenfield sites, they will require only a small portion of the state’s total agricultural land. Brownfields are unlikely to significantly contribute to meeting the state’s climate objectives.
Project development, though, is currently stalled at the local level due to a fragmented set of rules that vary across counties. Virginia must tackle these inconsistencies and establish more transparent project criteria to get utility-scale clean energy deployed. Without these steps, Virginia will be unable to develop utility scale solar projects at scale.
This blog post is the second in a series that will examine Virginia’s need for siting and permitting reform for clean energy projects.