Isle of Wight County’s Planning Commission voted 6-3 on June 24 to endorse a developer’s request for a two-year extension of approval for a stalled solar farm. 

County supervisors voted unanimously in 2023 to grant landowner Michael Doggett a conditional use permit that would allow a 3-megawatt solar farm, “Courthouse Hwy Solar 1 LLC,” to occupy up to 18 acres of his 148-acre farm along Courthouse Highway and Poorhouse Road. A condition of that permit had given the project until November this year to break ground.

Planning Commission Chairman Bobby Bowser joined Commissioners James Ford, Raynard Gibbs, Keith Johnson, Brian Shotwell and Matthew Smith in supporting the extension over dissenting votes by Commissioners Jennifer Boykin, Brian Carroll and George Rawls.

The matter will go to county supervisors for a final public hearing and vote Aug. 21.

A Feb. 27 letter to county staff from the developer, Lowell, Massachusetts-based New Leaf Energy, requests that the county extend the permit through Nov. 16, 2027, to “allow more time for the project to be awarded capacity” in Dominion Energy’s expanded Shared Solar Program.

The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation in 2020 to create the shared solar program, which allows Dominion customers who pay rent or occupy buildings with shaded or poor roof conditions and can’t purchase their own rooftop solar panels to instead purchase a subscription for electricity from a shared solar facility that is owned and operated by a private entity, even if they’re not directly connected to the project. According to the Virginia Department of Energy’s website, shared solar customers pay for subscriptions that result in credits on their monthly electric bills based on the amount of solar energy a shared solar farm generates.

According to Dominion’s website, the 2020 legislation limited the first phase of the shared solar program to 200 megawatts of alternating current. In 2024, the General Assembly voted to expand the program by 150 megawatts, but the additional megawatts won’t be awarded until at least 90% of the initial 200 megawatts are subscribed and construction of those solar farms is substantially complete.

According to the letter, Courthouse Hwy Solar 1 LLC  “is the fifth project on the waiting list for the expanded program.” After completing an interconnection study, the project was placed on Dominion’s waiting list Sept. 4.

New Leaf expects the waitlisted projects will be formally accepted into the Shared Solar program no earlier than mid-2026.

“Until you get the award, you can’t start constructing,” Jessie Robinson, senior project developer for New Leaf, told planning commissioners.

Robinson said subscribers can expect 10% to 20% savings on their monthly Dominion bills. Based on its 3 megawatt output, Courthouse Hwy Solar 1 can accommodate 600 to 800 subscribers, Robinson said.

 

Renewed opposition

Boykin, who’d voted against Courthouse Hwy Solar 1 in 2023, took issue with a similar cost-savings opportunity not being afforded to customers of Windsor-based Community Electric Cooperative, which serves much of the southern and central areas of Isle of Wight County. The shared solar program is unique to Dominion, Robinson said.

A public hearing that preceded the June 24 vote drew three speakers, two in opposition and one in support.

David Tucker of Old Stage Highway questioned the feasibility of solar farms absent the federal clean energy production tax credit that House Resolution 1, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” proposes to eliminate for projects that begin construction 60 days after the bill’s enactment or are placed into service after Dec. 31, 2028.

Jean Doggett Moody of Courthouse Highway said she too opposes the project, which would be “directly across from my home.”

Doggett, the applicant, spoke in support, noting the project had been approved unanimously by county supervisors in 2023.

A condition of the Planning Commission’s recommendation for approval stipulates that New Leaf offer Isle of Wight County residents the first right of refusal to subscribe before opening the program to other Dominion customers. Any Dominion customer can subscribe, even those outside Isle of Wight County, Robinson said.

Robinson said an updated project timeline calls for construction to start in April 2027 and be complete by November that year.

Courthouse Hwy Solar 1 LLC is the smallest of 11 solar farms Isle of Wight County has approved since 2015, three of which have begun commercial operation.

Its location would be roughly half a mile from the county courthouse and government complex and just over a mile north of the 20-megawatt, 170-acre Solidago solar farm approved by supervisors in 2018.

Supervisors previously voted, also in 2023, to adopt an ordinance capping the cumulative acreage of existing and proposed solar farms at 2% of the county’s prime farm soils, or a maximum of 2,446 acres, all of which is now spoken for with last year’s approval of Arlington-based AES Clean Energy’s proposed 240-megawatt Sycamore Cross solar farm slated for more than 2,000 acres at Isle of Wight’s westernmost border with Surry County. County staff said in 2023 that all 18 acres of the Courthouse Hwy Solar 1 site meet the definition of prime farmland, or the most ideal for growing crops, through Doggett’s application described the land as the “worst performing” on his farm and said the land has historically “only been used for hay.”