More solar groups looking at county
Published 12:00 pm Friday, December 3, 2021
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Like most Virginia localities, Lunenburg is seeing an influx in solar developers looking to construct solar farms throughout rural portions of the county.
Most recently, the Lunenburg Board of Supervisors (BOS) has put a halt to the Red Brick Solar project citing further discussion of a siting agreement.
In addition to Red Brick, several other companies are looking to make Lunenburg it’s home.
The county has received a full application and the 6th Street Solar 1 project has been deemed in substantial accord with county’s Comprehensive Plan.
6th Street Solar 1 is set to be located at 2188 Poorhouse Road in Victoria. The project is spearheaded by Borrego Energy, which proposes a three-megawatt solar facility to participate in the Dominion Energy small-scale solar
program.
Two other solar projects are also on the radar;
Couches Creek Solar and Ashton Road Solar.
According to Director of Planning and Economic Development Taylor Newton, Couches Creek Solar has conducted a pre-application meeting with the county; however, they have not formally submitted their conditional use permit (CUP) application.
According to county documents, Couches Creek Solar is set to be located approximately 2.5 miles west of the Town of Victoria near Overton Road, Couches Creek Road and Fowlkes Road.
The project is currently listed to have site control of around 380 acres for the 60-mega- watt facility.
Ashton Road Solar is another project that has not formally submitted its CUP application to the county.
The Ashton Road project is a 3-megawatt facility being construct- ed, approximately 0.5 miles north of K-V Road on around 20 acres.
According to Newton, the applicant has conducted a pre-application meeting with the county. They have also undertaken a virtual community meeting; however, they will have to hold an in-person community meeting, per the Lunenburg Solar Facilities Ordinance adopted by the BOS in September.
According to Energy News, since 2015, a total of 62 notices of intent to build have been filed for solar projects in Virginia. From this number, 36 permits have been approved by the Virginia Department of Environmental Equality, authorizing project construction for developers.
