The power grid in the region recently got a little greener.
In late November, Dominion Energy added two local solar farms to its stable of renewable power facilities, with additional units expected to come online within the next few years.
Norge Solar is a 220-acre site in James City County located adjacent to the Farmville Estates and Norvalia neighborhoods. Winterberry Solar, which is 343 acres, is in Gloucester County along Commerce Drive, south of the county seat.
Winterberry became operational Nov. 28 and Norge followed on Nov. 30, according to Dominion spokesman Tim Eberly. Each of the large-scale solar projects are 20-megawatt facilities capable of powering 5,000 homes at peak output, Eberly said.
In recent years, Dominion has been adding to its solar fleet, which is currently the second-largest of any electric utility in the nation, according to Eberly. Dominion’s current solar capacity is enough to power 550,000 homes.
Dominion has more than 30 solar farms in Virginia. Prior to the addition of Winterberry and Norge, Dominion already operated Rochambeau Solar along Rochambeau Drive in James City County. William & Mary has an agreement with Dominion to source half of its electricity from renewable sources, and the solar farm is an effort by the university to meet that commitment.
Also already operational is Gloucester Solar on Waverley Lane in Gloucester County, with the energy committed to helping Facebook parent company Meta offset its carbon footprint.
“Dominion Energy is thrilled to have Winterberry and Norge as the newest members of its solar fleet,” Eberly said in an email. “Since they both came online at the same time, the company’s solar presence in that region has gotten a big boost. And there’s more to come too, as both counties have solar facilities that are under development.”
The Winterberry and Norge solar facilities, which Dominion now owns outright, have been in the works for years. The Gloucester County Planning Commission recommended approval of Winterberry in November 2020, and North Carolina-based Strata Clean Energy developed and built the solar farm.
Norge Solar, which was first proposed in 2017, was designed by Clearway Energy Group and developed by Strata.
While each of the new solar facilities saw significant amounts of construction traffic, the volume of vehicles accessing the site will now be far lower. Dominion staff monitors the sites and performs regular inspections, according to Eberly, but those visits create much less traffic than during the construction phase.
Frank Polster, chairman of the James City County Planning Commission, said there is interest in the region in developing solar energy projects on rural parcels, but there are several issues that landowners, developers and policymakers must contend with before making the three- or four-decade commitment that a solar farm requires.
Solar farms attract the attention of rural property owners because agriculture is no longer a practical option for many of them, Polster said. Children have little interest in farming the land and leasing the property for agriculture is not lucrative. Putting a solar farm on the property generates substantial income is a way to keep the land in the family and helps offset property taxes.
Developing policies that avoid potential problems has been “an evolving process,” however, because the long-term effects of solar facilities are still being understood, Polster said. Planners have insisted on the planting of vegetation that creates a visual screen for adjacent landowners and are demanding measures to mitigate stormwater runoff, such as periodic discing — a method of turning and loosening the soil — under the panels.
Planners at the state and local levels are still navigating uncertain elements of creating solar farms, such as finding the right balance between the construction of renewable energy projects and preserving productive agricultural and forested lands.
“There are lots of nuances at the state level,” Polster said. “None of these are easy issues.”
In the spring, James City County’s Board of Supervisors placed new solar farm projects on hold after rejecting Pivot Energy’s 4.75-megawatt solar farm on almost 65 acres off Richmond Road. The county plans to hold a public hearing on its draft policy to control the future development of solar farms in early 2024.
Nevertheless, the construction of solar facilities is moving ahead.
Eberly said that there are roughly two dozen throughout Virginia in various stages of development. In the Greater Williamsburg region, this includes Camelia Solar in Gloucester, Racefield Solar in James City County and King’s Creek Solar in York County.
Ben Swenson, [email protected]
