A General Assembly bill to standardize the criteria localities use when evaluating applications for new solar farms died in a tie vote in a Senate committee after narrowly passing the House of Delegates.

House Bill 2438, sponsored by Del. Candi Mundon King, D-Prince William, would have mandated that ground-mounted solar farms “shall be permitted” on agricultural-zoned land, provided they comply with 12 criteria, including a 150- to 300-foot buffer from the nearest edge of the equipment to the nearest occupied building. The bill died in a 7-7 tie Senate Commerce and Labor Committee vote on Feb. 17 after passing the House 48-46 on Jan. 30.

State Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, was the only Democrat to join six Republicans in opposing the bill. Under General Assembly parliamentary rules, tie votes do not pass.

Two other solar-related bills that would have established a state review board for energy projects and required host localities to issue a written explanation for denying approval of a solar farm the board had endorsed died two weeks earlier.

The bills would have had implications for Isle of Wight and Surry counties. Isle of Wight has approved 11 solar farms to date while Surry has approved three. Each county has enacted local ordinances capping the cumulative acreage devoted to solar.

Isle of Wight’s ordinance sets the limit at 2,446 acres, or 2% of the county’s prime farm soils. The county is on track to exceed the cap with last year’s approval of Arlington-based AES Clean Energy’s proposed Sycamore Cross solar farm, which would span more than 2,200 acres across the westernmost edge of the Isle of Wight-Surry county line. Ten previously approved Isle of Wight solar farms, only three of which are active, collectively accounted for just over 2,200 acres prior to Isle of Wight’s approval of Sycamore Cross, which will remove another 614 acres of prime farmland from agricultural production.

Surry’s Board of Supervisors, on Feb. 13, enacted a 10,695-acre, or 7%, acreage cap. Existing solar farms already account for roughly 6%.

In 2020, the General Assembly enacted the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which mandates Dominion Energy transition to 100% carbon-free energy sources by 2045. Some state legislators say increased state oversight of the siting process for solar farms is needed to meet the 2045 goal, while others say the decision should be left to the host localities.