The sun is setting on the development of solar power plants in Clarke County.
Members of the Clarke County Board of Supervisors say solar facilities are taking away land needed for farms and open space. They’re ordering county planners to make changes to the county zoning ordinance that will prohibit any more from being established.
A solar power plant is typically a large-scale operation containing equipment that turns light and heat from the sun into electricity, which can be supplied to homes and businesses.
Earlier this year, the board approved a site plan amendment for Hecate Energy to proceed with Phase 2 of a 20-megawatt plant on 235 acres off Lord Fairfax Highway （U.S. 340） near White Post and Double Tollgate. County Planning Director Brandon Stidham said Friday that the firm hasn’t started construction on the second phase.
Horus Virginia LLC, meanwhile, is proposing a 50-megawatt plant for 406 acres off Westwood Road （Route 636） near D.G. Cooley Elementary School, just west of Berryville. Stidham said he expects Horus will be ready to present its proposal to the Clarke County Planning Commission in September.
A watt is a measurement of the rate that energy is used. A megawatt equals one million watts.
Solar power plants were added to the zoning ordinance as an allowable use of land in 2010. Currently, rules limit their development to lots “within one mile of a pre-existing electrical substation of 138kV or higher voltage.”
Hecate’s facility is near one, and Horus’ plant would be.
Some property owners and developers are pressuring the county to relax its rules so solar power plants can be sited in more locations, according to a resolution recently adopted by the supervisors.
“The amount of people coming in （wanting to establish the plants） and talking to farmers … is phenomenal,” said board Chairman David Weiss, a farmer who represents the county’s Buckmarsh District.
Developers dangle “a lot of bait” in front of them, Weiss said, referring to incentives.
Officials maintain large amounts of land necessary for solar power plants make property zoned Agricultural-Open Space-Conservation — the vast majority of land within Clarke County — the most suited for them.
The resolution directs the Clarke County Planning Commission, which advises the supervisors on land-use issues, and county planning department staff to prepare a zoning ordinance text amendment:
? Prohibiting the development of any new solar power plants in the county,
? Allowing plants that already exist, or which have zoning approval as conforming land uses, to expand within a mile of the substation they’re near, and
? Protecting landowners’ ability to use “behind the meter” solar power on their properties, but giving them permission to sell excess power to electric utilities.
Overall, “we’re not anti-solar,” said supervisors Vice Chairwoman Terri Catlett, who represents the Millwood District. “Solar power is an important part” in the provision of energy.
But a lot of the power being generated by plants in rural communities ends up in large urban areas, supervisors said to their understanding.
White Post District Supervisor Bev McKay said he’s noticed buildings in Dulles, a suburb of Washington, D.C., that have large, flat roofs but no solar panels on them. He indicated those would be good places for panels to be installed.
“There’s no reason why urban areas can’t generate their solar and not depend on the rural areas to do it for them,” said McKay, who is a farmer.
Berryville District Supervisor Matthew Bass, a lawyer who works in Leesburg, said he would like to see solar panels atop buildings in urban Loudoun County.
Catlett, a veterinarian, mentioned that soil at the Hecate site near White Post isn’t suitable for farming.
There’s a misconception that Clarke County wants to attract more solar power plants because it approved Hecate’s project, the supervisors’ resolution shows.
That must come to an end, according to Weiss.
Solar power plants “degrade and endanger farmland,” he said. “We have to stop this now or in 10 years, there won’t be any farms in Clarke County.”
Without farms that grow fruits and vegetables, or raise livestock for meat, “we’re not going to be able to eat” in the future, he said.
Stidham said he will present the resolution to the Planning Commission during its Aug. 29 work session and begin gathering input from its members.
“It will take a couple of meetings to put together something” — an ordinance amendment — for the supervisors to consider adopting, he said.
