Russell County considers 3 small solar projects, as interest in Southwest Virginia grows among solar developers

Russell County officials are considering the county’s first three commercial solar energy developments, eight years after leaders there began working to position the locality to attract the projects.

The projects, which would together produce up to 22 megawatts of power and cover a total of about 230 acres, would be developed on depleted farmland, one near the Russell County-Tazewell County line and the other two on rural sites outside the town of Lebanon.

The first project, which is near Southwest Virginia Community College, is further along than the others and is being developed by CEP Solar, which is part of Commonwealth Energy Partners, based in Richmond.

The other two projects would be developed by New Leaf Energy, a renewable energy developer headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts. The company wants to put solar operations on two separate, adjacent sites off River Mountain Road, behind Oak Grove Baptist Church.

Southwest Virginia is seeing more interest from solar developers because of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes a 10% tax credit for solar developments, as well as the shared solar program approved for Appalachian Power by the General Assembly in 2024.

Russell County may be particularly attractive to solar developers because it has no land zoning, which means no special-exception permits are necessary, county officials say. Some proposed solar projects in Virginia haven’t moved forward after local governments have denied permits to allow solar projects in zones where they would not otherwise be permitted.

The county does, however, have some say and control over the projects. It requires that the companies make a presentation outlining the project to the board of supervisors, and it negotiates siting and revenue-sharing agreements with developers. It also holds a public hearing on each project.

Currently, county officials are working through siting and revenue-sharing agreements with both companies, and a public hearing will likely be scheduled soon for the CEP project, according to County Administrator Lonzo Lester.

On Feb. 3, an official with New Leaf appeared before the county’s board of supervisors to present the details of the projects.

Both companies held community meetings with neighbors earlier, and both said that they got a lot of questions but that the feedback was generally favorable.

Setting the stage for solar

Since 2017, Russell County leaders have been preparing for potential solar projects. In September of that year, county officials signed a letter of commitment to the SolSmart National Designation Program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The effort recognizes counties that have taken steps to address local barriers to solar energy and foster local solar markets.

In May 2019, the county updated its building permit application to include solar projects. On July 1, 2019, the county implemented residential and commercial solar permit fees, $50 for residential and $75 for commercial, plus an additional 2% levy.

Revenue-sharing and siting agreements were adopted by the county in 2023. Under state code, a siting agreement may include terms and conditions, including mitigation of any impacts the project would have, and it spells out financial compensation for the host locality and includes a decommissioning plan for each project.

Under the revenue-sharing agreement, the county would impose a charge of $1,400 per megawatt per year for solar projects and energy storage systems, according to the approved agreement.

The project owner is responsible for decommissioning the site, including removing both above- and below-ground improvements. A decommissioning bond, set during the site plan process, is put in place with the county before construction can begin.

Russell County Supervisor Lou Ann Wallace said she supports the solar projects but feels strongly that county officials need to take the time and make the right decisions with the siting agreement and the details of the decommissioning for the good of the county. 

A growing interest in Southwest

In far Southwest Virginia, 13 commercial solar developments have been approved since 2020, according to a solar database maintained by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service and solar developers. 

Four are in Wise County, two in Wythe County, three in Scott County, two in Tazewell County and one in Smyth County. Another in Buchanan County was allowed by right, without additional approvals beyond standard permits.

Together, those projects total 313.5 megawatts and cover 3,917 acres.

Approval for the first two solar projects in far Southwest Virginia came in 2020 in Wythe County, according to the database.

Since 2022, there has been a “pretty heavy uptick” in interest in Southwest Virginia from solar developers with approval of the Inflation Reduction Act, according to Austin Counts, Southwest Virginia solar and electrification projects manager for the environmental group Appalachian Voices. He is also a part of the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia, a group of nonprofit and community action agencies, colleges, state agencies, planning district commissions and others seeking to develop a renewable energy industry cluster in the seven counties in Southwest Virginia.

The act invests in domestic energy production and promotes clean energy, among other things. It includes a 10% tax credit for those located in former energy communities, which would apply to a region with a history of coal mining, Counts said.

“We’re hearing a lot more about solar developers reaching out to individual communities or community leaders talking about what it would look like to have these smaller projects located in the Southwest Virginia seven coalfield counties,” he said.

Most of the interest is for smaller projects because Southwest Virginia’s mountainous topography offers few flat areas large enough to accommodate a big solar array, Counts said. Former coal mine land is a consideration because the sites are large and mostly flat, he added, although building a solar development on such land can be more expensive than on other sites.

The shared solar program approved for Appalachian Power by the General Assembly in 2024 also piqued the interest of solar developers, he said. 

Shared solar allows a customer to buy electricity from a solar company and receive credit for it on their electric bill. The legislation allows for a total of 50 megawatts of shared solar in Appalachian’s service area, and also expands an existing program for Dominion Energy. 

Appalachian Power is still developing its shared solar program, so there are currently no projects in operation. The financial details, such as how much participants would be required to pay to help cover the costs, are still being worked out.

The Russell County projects are not affiliated with Appalachian Power, according to Ashley Workman, a communications representative for the utility. Such projects require interconnection requests and approvals to tie into Appalachian Power’s electrical system.

Projects greater than 2 megawatts include an application and possible investments to accommodate the resource before Appalachian Power can interconnect them, she said.

In Russell County, Lester said leaders welcome solar projects because one of their main concerns these days is the rising cost of electricity with Appalachian Power, which has been particularly tough for those who are elderly and on fixed incomes.

The average residential monthly bill has risen by about $50 over the past three years to $174. However, some lawmakers said during the General Assembly session earlier this year that they heard from constituents who had monthly bills totaling several hundred dollars or even exceeding $1,000.

Lester said new, alternative sources of power are needed.

“There’s got to be more supply because there’s such a high demand,” he said.

Russell is also a big agricultural county, and solar energy offers another use for land that is spent and can no longer be farmed, Lester added.

A mandate, and pushback

The 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act requires Dominion and Appalachian to achieve carbon-free energy portfolios by 2045 and 2050, respectively.

Some observers have questioned whether that’s doable because some local governments, particularly in more rural areas, are now saying no to large-scale solar developments. The main argument against them is that people don’t want fields of solar panels to detract from their area’s natural beauty.

That was the case last year in neighboring Washington County, where a developer drew up plans for a $400 million solar project that would have spanned 1,900 acres covered by 500,000 solar panels. 

The company withdrew the project before it could be considered by the board of supervisors, after the planning commission voted against recommending that the board approve a special-exception permit to allow the solar development on agricultural land. 

In Scott County, the lack of a recommendation from the planning commission did not stop the board of supervisors from approving special-use permits for three solar projects.

Pivot Energy recently received approval for two shared solar projects on private farmland in Nickelsville that are much like the ones proposed for Russell County by New Leaf Energy. Pilot’s projects would also involve two sites, one with a 5-megawatt solar operation and the other at 3.5 megawatts. 

On March 10, the county’s planning commission decided not to recommend the projects to the county’s board of supervisors. However, the board approved them on April 2.

In January, the board approved a special-use permit for a solar project by New Leaf. Like the Pivot projects, it had failed to win a recommendation from the county’s planning commission.

The project will produce up to 4 megawatts on 35 acres of leased farmland in the Rye Cove community. This project is expected to be constructed and reach commercial operation in 2027.

Solar and cattle, side by side

Located in Russell County’s Rosedale community, the CEP project would have a capacity of up to 12 megawatts, which would be enough to power up to 2,000 homes, company officials have said.

The project is expected to have up to 32,400 500-watt solar panels.

Little of the panel area would be visible from the road because existing and proposed vegetative buffers would be used, said Tyson Utt, co-founder of CEP.

It would be on 180 acres of private land owned by the Stuart Land & Cattle Co., which is believed to be the oldest continuously operating cattle ranch in the country.

Utt said the site was chosen because the company supports locating on existing farms to provide diversified revenue streams to landowners and the community.

“With that goal in mind, we reviewed the larger property and considered different aspects of the site, including existing farm operations, and where the project could work in parallel with the property’s cattle while also avoiding community impact through generous setbacks and screening,” he wrote in an email to questions about the project.

The company is evaluating whether there will be grazing by livestock at the solar operation, which is being done at some solar sites to manage vegetation. Though the Stuart farm is mainly for cattle, Utt said it’s more likely that sheep would be used around the solar installation.

Because the project is small, it could be constructed and ready to begin generating electricity in 2026, once permitting and grid interconnection studies are complete, he said.

The site would be remotely monitored and would not require on-site operators, so no jobs would be created after it’s built. Regular site inspections would be conducted to maintain the project and vegetation, Utt said.

The power generated would be sent to Appalachian Power’s Claypool substation, according to CEP. 

The company hopes to finalize the siting agreement soon. Once that’s done, a public hearing would be scheduled, and the board of supervisors would vote on whether to move forward, according to Utt.

New Leaf wants to bring shared solar to Russell County

The New Leaf projects, on two separate sites — one 24 acres and the other 26 acres — would be community solar, which would mean that residents, businesses and governments could have a partial interest in the output, according to New Leaf.

The projects would bring about $1 million in new tax revenue for the county over their life spans, Quentin Wood, a project engineer with New Leaf, told the board of supervisors during a Feb. 3 presentation on the projects. 

The county would assess an annual revenue share per megawatt for each project, Lester said. Although the revenue sharing agreements are still being worked on, the agreement approved by the county in 2023 says it would charge $1,400 per megawatt each year.

New Leaf chose Russell County for the projects because it is in Appalachian Power’s territory, which means it would qualify for the shared solar program, according to Jessie Robinson, the project manager for New Leaf.

The sites are good locations for ground-mounted solar and are at least 1,100 feet from the road. They would be mostly screened from public view by using existing topography and vegetation, she said.

The landowner, New Garden Farm, also wants to use the property for solar and can retain ownership of the land by leasing it to New Leaf, Robinson added. The leases for the River Mountain projects are for a minimum of 20 years and could be extended up to 40 years.

The company is going with two sites, each with 5 megawatts, because the shared solar projects are capped by the state at 5 megawatts each, she said.

Under the preliminary designs, each site would have about 12,800 solar panels or modules.

New Leaf officials hope the siting agreement they are working on with the county can be completed by this summer, according to Robinson. If that happens, the company expects to secure the remaining construction permits in mid-2026, with construction starting in late 2026 and completion in early to mid-2027.

The project would create 30 to 40 temporary construction jobs, and then two to four part-time local workers would be hired for mowing and electrical work, she added.

New Leaf has no plans for animals to graze within the solar project fence, although there will be cattle on the farm outside the fenced areas.

Still to come: environmental permitting

Other than county approval, the solar companies must work with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which is the permitting authority for small solar projects that generate 5 to 150 megawatts. For larger projects, the State Corporation Commission is the authority.

Depending on the scope of a project, a solar permit-by-rule may be required. This permit means the project has met the needed requirements, including local government certification, analysis of impacts to air quality and cultural/natural resources and a 30-day public comment period and public meeting.

Irina Calos, communications manager for DEQ, noted that the construction phase for solar developments often requires additional permits, such as for stormwater construction from DEQ and erosion and sediment control permitting with the county. If the project involves impacts to state waters, DEQ may require a Virginia water protection permit, she said.

Currently, DEQ has not received any stormwater or state water protection permit applications for proposed solar facilities in Russell County that match the project descriptions, according to Calos.

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Clarification, 2:55 p.m. April 28: This story has been updated to clarify Austin Counts’ comments regarding the cost of siting solar projects on former coal land.