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Another solar farm could be on its way to southern Chesapeake, where city leaders have already approved four such projects covering roughly 2,000 acres of land.
The Borrego Centerville Solar Field would produce 3 megawatts of energy on 18.5 acres off of Centerville Turnpike South. It would sit on land close to Hickory Solar Farm, a 154-acre, 32 megawatt project approved by the City Council in February 2018. As of this summer, the city’s solar farm projects were all in various stages of development but none were in operation yet.
Planning commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday night to approve the consent agenda, where the Borrego project appeared for consideration. It now heads to the City Council for final approval. City council is not obligated to follow the planning commission vote.
Borrego Solar Systems, which is headquartered in California and has built solar projects across the country, is leading the development. The company began to consider building solar farms in the commonwealth after state legislators passed laws last year that aimed to push Virginia away from a reliance on fossil fuels, said Nitzan Goldberger, the company’s director of policy and business development.
One of those laws was the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a landmark environmental bill that mandates phasing out old fossil fuel plants and requires 100% of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources like wind and solar energy by 2050.
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Some in Chesapeake worry that solar projects are taking prime agricultural land from the traditional farming economy. Others say the city shouldn’t get in the way of landowners, including farmers, who support bringing a solar project to their land.
“If we’re going to have farming as one of the pillars of the city, we really do need to look very carefully at how those alternative uses are put there,” planning commissioner Heather Barlow said during Wednesday night’s meeting. Barlow ultimately voted to approve the project, saying it aligned with the city’s solar farm policy and comprehensive plan while also voicing concern about farmland being “eaten up.”
Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show Chesapeake had 51,861 acres of cropland in 1997. By 2017, that number dropped to 32,325 acres.
If it gets the green light, the solar farm would become the fifth such project the City Council has approved in the past three years. All told, the projects encompass close to 2,000 acres, all in the southern end. In June, council members approved the massive, 944-acre Chesapeake Solar Project near the regional airport. That project drew concerns about preserving the city’s agricultural economy and balancing the rights of landowners who opt to lease their farm land for other uses.
The portion of the property where the solar farm would go is currently zoned agricultural land, according to city documents. The Borrego project would sit 2,850 feet off Centerville Turnpike South, on the east side.
As part of the application, Borrego said it will give $50,000 to Chesapeake’s Open Space and Agriculture Preservation Program. Since 2003, the city has barred any future residential development on about 404 acres of land through that program, which lets the government buy development rights from landowners.
Gordon Rago, 757-446-2601, gordon.rago@pilotonline.com