Officials with Energix Renewables discussed the company’s plans to locate a solar farm in Patrick County with residents at an April 21 meeting.
Senior Director of Project Acquisition and Development Dominika Sink said there is an interest in solar in Virginia because of its cost competitiveness.
“There’s a study from the U.S. Energy Information Administrative, they publish this report every year. We haven’t actually seen the one from this year, but the one from last year consistently shows that solar energy is the cheapest source of energy,” she said.
Sink said the report takes factors like government incentives into consideration and treats every energy source equally.
Solar energy is also a domestically produced energy source and is not affected by geopolitics like oil, coal, and natural gas are.
“It’s produced right here locally,” Sink said. “It’s a distributive energy source, and by that we mean you have your big power plant, and it supplies thousands of homes with power. If something goes wrong with that power plant, tens of thousands of people lose power.”
However, with a solar farm like the one proposed by Energix, Sink said if something goes wrong, only a few thousand people would lose power.
“So, the smaller, more distributive energy sources, the better it is for the grid. In case of an outage, it will affect fewer people,” she said.
Sink said solar energy is also a low-impact energy generation source compared to coal, natural gas, and nuclear energies. She also noted there are many benefits of solar energy to the county, including increased tax revenue.
“The land used for solar, before solar and after solar, you’ll see an increase in tax revenue that’s 75 times the amount of revenue generated with the county than without solar use. This is a net positive for the county,” she said, adding that matters because the more developments that contribute to taxes, the less likely it is that taxes will have to be raised.
“Solar projects are bringing in well-paying construction jobs, more companies use local contractors. Because we are owners, we really have control over who we hire, and we really maximize hiring local contractors during constructions, also for operation and maintenance,” she said.
Sink said the biggest burden of solar energy is during the construction phase. She estimated a project like the one proposed for Patrick County is expected to take 6 to 9 months.
“During that time, there’s an increase in traffic. There’s commercial traffic going to the site. There may be noise. The number one source of noise during a solar project during construction is piledriving, putting posts in the ground for the structures,” she said.
Before starting, Sink said a solar project has to first go through many steps regarding permitting. The first step is a locality’s land use approvals. Energix is currently working with county officials on this step, she said.
“We work with communities and counties to make sure we meet their local requirements. Step two is working with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on their environmental requirements,” she said.
Sink said a permit by rule is when the DEQ shares the project information, studies, and surveys a company has done with other departments like the Department of Historic Resources (DHR), and the Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
“We go back and forth to make sure that we adjust our site plans so that no Department of Resources are impacted,” she said.
She estimates it takes about six months for a permit by rule to be approved.
The third step involves the company working with the DEQ on erosion and sediment control, stormwater management plans, and a site plan approval. This step typically takes about 12 months.
Energix will also work with the county to gain approval of its site plan, and then seek a building permit.
“After that, we get to construction when we have a building permit,” she said. “After we finish construction, it will be a commercial operation. That’s what we refer to when we start producing power when the construction is finished.”
Sink said Energix purchases its solar panels from an American company that creates Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) panels.
“Five percent of this technology is used worldwide, 50 percent of this technology is used in the U.S., and it’s been in anywhere from schools to drinking water reservoirs in the state of Berlin, all the way to Oceania airbases,” she said. “This technology is used by the American government, by schools, as well as major utilities across the United States.”
Sink said the safety and efficiency of the panel technology has been tested by more than 40 different researchers and institutions, with the closest one being Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
“At the end of its life cycle, “over 90 percent of that solar panel gets recycled and reused,” Sink said. “The information we have from the company is they can reuse solar panels 41 times. The estimated duration of the project is 35 years, so after 35 years the panels can get recycled 41 times.”
Laws in Virginia mandate a surety bond be placed with the locality for decommissioning solar projects because “the counties want to be assured that there’s going to be someone who can remove this project. We plan to be in business for 35 years, but just in case there is a surety for the amount.”
Company representatives also took questions from those attending. Questions ranged from retooling projects, panel makeup, disposal and decommissioning of panels, potential impacts on the environment, and other topics.
