Solar developers face new rules to get certain projects approved in Virginia after the enactment of a new regulation earlier this month — part of an ongoing discussion about how to meet Virginia’s growing energy needs.
The new regulation, set in motion by a 2022 state law, would require projects under 150 megawatts that impact enough prime farmland or forestland would be required to mitigate those impacts, either through on-site work or off-site conservation easements.
Soil scientist Lee Daniels, a professor emeritus at Virginia Tech’s School of Plant and Environmental Science, was brought on — along with others from Virginia Tech and Virginia State University — as a subject matter expert to help regulators understand the extent of solar farm impacts.
Daniels focused specifically on soil impacts, and how solar farm development changes soil.
“There are going to be impacts. We need to recognize them. We know how to mitigate them. We know how to minimize them,” Daniels said.
Daniels said soil compaction is a major concern on prime farmland, a US Department of Agriculture designation for land with good physical and chemical characteristics for food production. Heavy machinery presses down on soils, making it difficult or impossible for plants to take root.
Without proper soil amendments, tilling and other measures, formerly prime farmland would be significantly degraded — even after a solar farm has served its full lifespan and the panels have been removed.
That’s particularly true of hilly areas, such as the Piedmont region west of Richmond.
“Most of the sites [there] undergo extensive cut and fill,” Daniels said. “That means most of the site is going to undergo significant disturbance. And then what that means is there is going to be an impact on soil quality,” Daniels said.
The basic rule for any disturbance on 10 acres or more of prime farmland is that the solar developer must mitigate those impacts through a 1-to-1 ratio of conservation easements on other prime farmland — one acre placed under an easement for each acre disturbed.
Developers have the option to reduce that off-site requirement by implementing on-site mitigation techniques.
For example, if a solar farm requires cut and fill — extensive grading of hilly areas into a flat plane — the developer can decompact, or loosen, the soil after grading to cut its off-site easement requirement in half. They can implement other best practices, such as on-site grazing or agrivoltaics, to further reduce their required easements.
The new rules are more straightforward when it comes to mitigating displaced forestland. If more than 50 acres of forest are disturbed, the developer is responsible for securing an off-site easement of equal acreage or paying into a fund that will secure the easement.
Caitlin Vincent, Southeast regional director with the Solar Energy Industries Association, said some members of the industry are concerned about the rules potentially adding significant costs to development, but that SEIA is not opposed to the final language of the regulation.
“We’re hopeful that these regulations are beneficial to the continued ability of solar to operate and be productive in the state,” Vincent said, adding that the industry is dedicated to developing solar with as low an impact as possible.
It’s possible the regulations will encourage developers to choose places other than prime farmland or forestland for their solar projects. But according to Susan Seward, director of government affairs with the Virginia Forest Products Association, it could have the unintended effect of driving those developers to focus on projects larger than 150 MW.
“Our concern from the forestry side is: Have we incentivized a bigger project because a developer doesn’t want to deal with this new set of regulations?” Seward said.
She said that could potentially allow developers to avoid the mitigation requirements in the new rules.
Daniels, the soil scientist, advocates for solar and other alternative energy sources after spending decades studying the effects of coal mining and mined land reclamation. He said it’s possible to do utility-scale solar in a way that protects water and soil quality.
“That being said, we need to recognize that in terms of soil quality, particularly prime farmland or these more highly productive landscapes, we cannot do this without some loss,” Daniels said.
Virginia needs more energy quickly; data centers and electrification are rapidly increasing electrical demand in the commonwealth. Solar advocates say it’s the quickest, cheapest way to get more electrons on the grid — and doesn’t come with the planet-warming emissions of natural gas, coal and biomass. Impacts to forest and farmland have been a major sticking point in proposed developments across the state.
An attempt to set up a state clearinghouse for certain projects failed at the General Assembly earlier this year.
