Surry and Prince George counties each have ordinances allowing and regulating battery storage facilities, but Isle of Wight County’s code is mum on the shipping container-sized units that have become controversial for their fire risk.

Isle of Wight Supervisor Thomas Distefano, on April 3, called on fellow board members to revisit the issue.

Distefano, who was recently appointed to fill the late William McCarty’s District 2 seat on the board, had in his capacity on the county’s Planning Commission served on a five-member energy task force that in 2024 recommended the county develop its own ordinance before the issue hits home.

“The growing trend is that battery storage is coming,” Distefano said.

He said a draft ordinance is in the works by county staff and should soon be introduced to the Planning Commission.

Isle of Wight already has zoning ordinance language addressing the proliferation of solar farms. In 2023 the ordinance was amended to set a limit of 2,466 acres, or 2%, of the county’s prime farmland, a 60-decibel limit at the property line for the noise produced by the inverters that connect solar farms to the power grid, and a minimum 125-foot buffer between a solar farm and any residential parcel.

Dominion Energy’s 2024 integrated resource plan, filed Oct. 15 with the State Corporation Commission, calls for 12,000 additional megawatts from new solar farms and 4,500 megawatts of new battery storage over the next 15 years to meet the Virginia Clean Economy Act’s mandate that the utility transition to 100% carbon-free energy sources by 2045.

According to Idaho-based Clenera, a developer looking to site a 20-megawatt battery array in Surry County, the arrays work by charging during periods of low demand, such as early morning, then release their stored energy to improve grid reliability during peak hours, typically 5-7 p.m.

Battery arrays are already proposed for other Hampton Roads localities.

In 2023, Crossroads Energy Storage LLC submitted plans for a seven-acre battery storage campus in Chesapeake’s Deep Creek area that, according to Virginian Pilot reporting, the city deemed a by-right use for the slated industrial-zoned parcel. It required no City Council approval except for a siting agreement, which the council approved 5-2 in March 2023.

Surry’s recently adopted ordinance will allow Clenera to submit a conditional use permit application for its project proposed for White Marsh Road.