FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 21, 2025
TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW ON 1/21/25 CONTACT: RICK LYKE AT 704-916-6152 or 704-340-2840
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: EVAN VAUGHAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MAREC ACTION, 202-431-4640 EVAUGHAN@MAREC.US
MAREC Action Supports Virginia Legislative Efforts to Standardize Solar Ordinances
HB2438/SB1114 would mark progress in reversing a trend of declining solar installations caused by patchwork local regulations, while retaining local authority
RICHMOND, VA – MAREC Action (informally, “Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition”) and its member companies gathered in Richmond last week to ask the Virginia General Assembly to reform the Commonwealth’s renewable energy siting process. The need for reform comes amid a period of heightened and increasingly arbitrary project rejections by localities, which restricts Virginia residents’ ability to lease their land for solar at a time of dramatically increasing demand for electricity.
MAREC Action, a coalition of more than 50 clean energy businesses active in the Mid-Atlantic region, is asking the General Assembly to pass a solar siting ordinance standards bill (HB 2438/SB 1114) so that local economies across Virginia will benefit from a comprehensive approach to renewable energy siting. The bill provides local governments with a set of ordinance guidelines and maintains local review and approval authority.
“Over half of Virginia’s counties have signaled to solar energy that they are closed for business,” said Evan Vaughan, Executive Director of MAREC Action. “There are 55 counties and cities that have either banned or made it difficult and costly to develop utility-scale solar projects. Others have no ordinances at all to regulate solar projects. We acknowledge localities that have welcomed solar projects, but the current situation makes the development process inconsistent and unpredictable for localities and developers alike at the very time that Virginia needs more clean energy.”
In 2024, for the first time in the Commonwealth’s history, Virginia localities rejected more solar projects and more megawatts of solar energy than they approved, according to data from the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center. The amount of new solar capacity approved in 2024 is the lowest amount in six years. Good solar projects that Virginia needs are being blocked through a patchwork of local decisions and policies, while Virginia’s energy demand continues to grow. This trend threatens Virginia’s ability to meet its expanding energy demand and achieve clean energy goals.
Establishing statewide standards to guide localities through ordinance development, ensuring projects are well-designed and suited for their communities, removes one of the key barriers to responsible solar deployment. Under HB 2438/SB 1114, localities would not be able to blanket ban or otherwise place unreasonable restrictions on solar development. However, localities would retain authority to approve, deny or place conditions on individual projects. Localities and developers would also be able to negotiate a mutually agreeable variance in the local ordinance. The current lack of siting guidelines puts energy grid reliability at risk and could also force Virginia to build more environmentally damaging and expensive energy sources.
MAREC Action has established a website (https://marec.us/va-siting-reform) for Virginians to learn more about the need for renewable energy siting reform. Individuals can also sign a petition on the site in support of the Solar Siting Model Ordinance Standards Bill (HB 2438/SB 1114) so constituents can demonstrate to Richmond lawmakers the demand for responsible reform.
Every solar project sited in Virginia has the consent of the host landowner or landowners. Utility scale solar projects are often the highest and best use of land, providing a boost for the local economy without placing demands on schools or other community services. Landowners retain the property, and, at the end of the project’s life, solar developers have a financially bonded obligation to decommission projects and return the land to its original state. Renewable energy is the only type of development that provides such assurances to local communities.
According to a Virginia Commonwealth University analysis, using a high utility-scale solar development scenario (which they defined as 15 percent of projected statewide electricity demand in 2035) would mean 21,164 MW (AC) of utility-scale solar, requiring 147,000 acres, just 0.58 percent of land statewide.
“Renewable energy development is a win for the environment, and brings jobs and tax revenues to localities,” Vaughan said. “Virginia can meet its clean energy goals, respect the approval role of localities and recognize the rights of individual landowners to choose the best use of their land. A Virginia-focused approach in the form of solar siting ordinance guardrails is what we need now to move forward.”
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