By. Neil Williamson, President
Will Albemarle County permanently pull the government shade on potential solar power?
Earlier this month, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors held a work session on “Commercial Solar”. Supervisors were scattered on the direction they believe any such ordinance should take. Opinions ranged from creating a hard governmental cap on the number of commercial solar panels permitted in the county to questioning the need to regulate this activity at all.
First a little background.
Solar energy production has been significantly increasing over the last ten years for a variety of reasons including reduced technology cost, growing demand, state policies and incentives, as well as economic and financial opportunities for landowners, especially farmers.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association:
The US solar industry installed 6.1 gigawatts-direct current (GWdc) of capacity in the first quarter of 2023, a 47% increase from Q1 2022 and a 19% decrease from Q4 2022. This was the best first quarter in the industry’s history, led by delayed utility-scale solar projects coming online.
Each segment had a record-setting first quarter, except for community solar, which faced interconnection and siting challenges in several key state markets. The residential segment set a first quarter record and would have likely set another overall quarterly record had it not been for intense rainstorms that hampered installation crews. Utility-scale solar installations were up 66% compared to the first quarter of 2022. The industry is still operating in a supply-constrained environment, but conditions are improving as module shipments are finally making their way through ports.
Overall, photovoltaic solar (PV) accounted for 54% of all new electricity-generating capacity additions in the first quarter of 2023.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in September 2021, “The [2021 Solar Futures] study illuminates the fact that solar, our cheapest and fastest-growing source of clean energy, could produce enough electricity to power all of the homes in the U.S. by 2035 and employ as many as 1.5 million people in the process,”.
In April, Albemarle’s Board approved the 650 acre, 35-megawatt Woodridge Solar project by Hexagon Energy in the southeastern portion of the county. At the time, much was made of the fact that this one project could conservatively power half of Albemarle county’s households.
Curiously, in the June work session, several supervisors indicated an unwillingness to become an energy exporter.
Supervisor Ann Mallek (White Hall) said:
Projects are being brought forward as a profit making thing and they need to have boundaries that the Board representing the constituents need to take on and not just do this over here and that over there based on what is good for the applicant.
Board Chair Supervisor Donna Price (Scottsville) said:
We, as a county, have an obligation to be producers not just users of power. That’s only fair… but I don’t want to become the equivalent of the landfill site where localities from around the country are using our land for electricity for them … The Hexagon site will produce half of our houses electrical demand; I am not opposed to a second comparable site, but a large number of those, no not interested in that … [I want to] look to put a reasonable cap. Emphasis added – nw
The Free Enterprise Forum believes such a cap exceeds government authority. At the heart zoning is based on impacts and mitigating those impact. We tend to agree with Ned Galloway who suggested the majority of the questions could be answered ‘It Depends’.
Further, we could not have said it better than Vice Chair Supervisor Jim Andrews (Samuel Miller) who in his opening statement asked the most relevant question:
“Do we need to regulate this?”
[Clarification Andrews was specifically speaking about whether government should regulate how close a power generating system must be to a transmission line – he is in favor of many aspects of utility solar regulations, such as set backs, watershed protection, end-of-life remediation, etc., – nw 6/29/23 10:26)
So where does that put us?
In the end, staff was to receive supervisors comments via e-mail (outside the public view?). Based on a comment from the public early in the meeting, staff was also encouraged to hold a roundtable with solar providers to determine a proper path forward.
Why shouldn’t Albemarle County work with solar companies to develop reasonable performance standards (buffers, etc.) that protect neighbors AND allow solar enterprises to flourish.
We hope the way forward will not include a forced government cap on free enterprise but instead focus on letting private enterprises find ways to let the sun shine in and produce all the power that is economically viable while mitigating impacts on neighbors.
Stay tuned.
Respectfully Submitted,
Neil Williamson, President
Since 2003, Neil Williamson has served as the President of The Free Enterprise Forum, a privately funded non partisan public policy organization covering the City of Charlottesville as well as Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson County. For more information visit the website www.freeenterpriseforum.org
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