In this letter to the South Hill Enterprise editor, a certified landscape architect points out how large-scale solar projects permanently damage Virginia’s rural landscape, including by clear-cutting and removing all vegetation from solar sites (which damages critical habitat for birds and animals); clearing vegetation from the entire work site instead of just the area where panels will be installed (which leads to significant erosion and run-off into local streams and lakes); removing topsoil from project areas (which permanently removes that land from future agricultural or forestry purposes); and siting many projects near economically disadvantaged communities (which forces them to bear the brunt of the projects’ negative impacts).
Continue readingAuthor: Tree Hugger (Page 12 of 12)
This April 2021 letter to the editor of the Kenbridge Victoria Dispatch outlines numerous concerns over the proposed Red Brick Solar project in Lunenberg County, including the fact that state (not county) agencies provide oversight and control; that the revenue the county receives from the project will decline every year; that any clean-up bond posted by the company will not cover the costs of environmental mitigation and remediation; and that most of the project’s total 1,500 acres will need to be cleared of all vegetation in order to install solar panels, leading to significant erosion and run-off into the scenic Meherrin River. (Note: the language in the letter is a little heated at times but the underlying points are worth reading. We were not able to copy the text, but this link will take you to the full article.)
Fauquier County passed a zoning ordinance defining county standards for industrial-scale utility solar projects in October 2020. This 40-acre solar project (on a leased 170-acre property) would have been built on prime agricultural and/or prime forest soils, according to the county staff report; the property also included wetlands and streams that would have been affected by runoff from the project.
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