New solar farm regulations require developers in Virginia to mitigate the impact of their projects on prime farmland in certain cases.
Effective in June, the rules apply to new solar projects that produce less than 150 megawatts of electricity and disturb more than 10 acres of prime soil. Those projects will have to provide a perpetual conservation easement equal in size to the area of disturbed farmland.
Some Hampton Roads farmers, though, question whether the rules will have the intended outcomes.
John Cromwell, a Virginia Beach farmer, said every acre in the easement means there was a loss of prime farmland. And, he said, it’s not coming back once it's gone.
“Where are you going to go get some more land?” Cromwell said. “What, are we going to call God and tell him to make us another planet?”
The ratio required in an easement can be reduced if the developer puts measures in place to lessen the solar farm’s impact on the soil or does other things that benefit the local ecosystem. Loosening up surface soils after grading an uneven plot of land reduces the mitigation ratio by half. Establishing and maintaining pollinator habitats reduces it by a quarter.
The regulations stem from a 2022 law to preserve top-tier agricultural land as solar developers respond to the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act. The 2020 law requires energy providers, such as Dominion Energy, to generate 100% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045.
With much of Hampton Roads’ core seven cities already developed, agricultural land has become increasingly valuable for solar developers. For farmers struggling financially or who are aging and have no descendants following in their footsteps, offers for their land can be hard to refuse.
Solar projects, however, can impact the land in a way that lasts longer than the solar farm, according to Virginia Public Media.
Prime farmland is defined by the USDA as the best soil for crop growth, and can become dense and degraded when solar farms or other equipment are installed. Soil scientists at Virginia Tech say the impact can be minimized.
Farmers such as Suffolk’s David Bosselman, though, mourn any loss of acreage or productivity.
“It will change your farm forever,” he said. “You’ve lost the ability to make a profit out there. Why would you want to do that to your land?”
For Bosselman and Cromwell, using farmland for solar energy production is a cardinal sin. Suffolk limited solar development on agricultural land to 1,600 acres. Virginia Beach prohibits it.
“I think they need to be on buildings,” Cromwell said.“To take a piece of farmland, I don’t care how big it is, and put a solar panel on it is counterintuitive to me.”
He and Bosselman aren’t optimistic the regulations will reverse the trend of farmland loss. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that Virginia lost approximately 500,000 acres of agricultural land between 2017 and 2022, though losses due to solar developments are a fraction of the total.
The rules also allow developers to pay a fee instead of making a conservation easement. It would be calculated by adding administrative costs for creating the easement to the difference between the average fair market value of agricultural land and the average cropland use value for prime land in the project district. The state would use the money to make easements, potentially pooling funds from multiple projects to do so.
Developers could build solar farms that generate more than 150 megawatts and skirt the rules. The farms typically require five to seven acres per megawatt, meaning a 150-megawatt farm could cover 750 to 1,050 acres.
That would be a tight fit in Suffolk; its acreage cap leaves just about 800 acres of agricultural land open for possible solar development. The city also recently passed more stringent sound and setback rules for solar projects.
