We’ve started to add new resource pages on citizen organizing in your county or town to make sure your voice is heard.
The first page includes tips on how to start a local group to share your concerns about large, utility-scale solar projects on Virginia’s agricultural and forested lands.
The second resource page shares ideas on how to spread the word in your community about your group and your concerns over utility-scale solar projects that are being proposed for your county or town.
A third page includes a letter from a solar developer to county officials. This illustrates how big solar developments can be in the works for months, sometimes years, before ordinary citizens are even aware that something is being planned for their community.
Coming soon!: A chart showing the key provisions of solar ordinances across Virginia counties, including required set-backs from neighboring properties, project size caps, requirements for community notifications, environmental protections, and decommissioning agreements. We’ll be rolling this out gradually, since there are 79 counties with utility-scale solar projects that are in operation, under construction, or at various stages of development.
Because solar developers have a head-start on getting their projects approved at the local level, it’s critical to spread the word and get people engaged in the process.
When local government meetings discuss utility-scale solar projects, the voices they hear are important. If most of the people who attend are either the solar developers or their supporters, officials may assume that county or town residents are in favor of the project or that they have no opinion on it.
But this is often not the case at all. Most of the time, people don’t attend the meetings because they don’t even know about a big solar project. And developers are only required to contact the people who live immediately next to the development, not everyone in the county, and to give them only one or two weeks notice.
But our communities are for everyone, and it’s important to include everyone’s voice in discussions about responsible and smart solar choices. That makes it critical to spread the word among as many of your neighbors as possible, as early as possible, once you’ve started a group.
Here are some ideas on how to do that:
- Make a flyer with your group name, its goals, and contact information.
- Have a booth or some other type of presence at community events to share flyers and other information about your group, its goals, and opportunities to participate.
- Post flyers at community hubs (stores, community centers, etc.) to raise awareness.
- Post notices about your group meetings on community calendars and local websites.
- Include comments about your group if someone gives a local media interview.
- Encourage group members to bring a friend to your next meeting or event.
- If your group resources allow it, make a t-shirt with your group name and wear it to community events or local government meetings. (Alternatively, pick a color for your group and ask everyone to wear something in that color to government meetings as a sign of public support.)
- If your group resources allow it, make yard signs (12” x 18”) with your group slogan or purpose so that supporters can share their opinions. (Ideally, the sign’s background color will be in whatever color you’ve chosen for your group.)
These are just a few ideas to get things started. Think about what will work best in your community and go from there!
#KeepVirginiaGreen
When it comes to large-scale solar projects in your area, solar developers have the initial advantage. They’ve been working hard for months to smooth the path to approval. They’ve met quietly with local officials, figured out how to get past their most likely roadblocks, and lined up “studies” to show how environmentally friendly and low-impact their projects will be. And they’ve often limited community input by sending out notices at the last minute or only notifying the immediate neighbors of a proposed solar project and not the entire community.
All this makes it critical to build a group of people to attend local government meetings, phone or email officials to express their opinions, and reach out to inform others about large solar projects being proposed for your county or town. It’s never too late to start a group to promote responsible and smart solar choices!
Here are some ideas to help you start a group in your area:
- Hold a kick-off meeting with people you already know. Be sure to have a signup list and notetaker at the meeting! And be respectful of everyone’s time by keeping an eye on the clock.
- Spend some time sharing the common frustrations everyone has already faced in pushing back against large-scale solar projects.
- Discuss whether people want to continue meeting. Some people may want to be actively engaged while others don’t have a lot of time but want to stay informed and would be willing to help where they can.
- If yes, talk about what your group’s goals will be. Goals might include things like recruiting new members, spreading the word in your community about big solar projects, or engaging more actively with local officials.
- Brainstorm how to achieve those goals, either at that first meeting or at the next one. This can also include asking for volunteers who can work on specific topics in between meetings.
- Decide how you’ll communicate with each other. This might be an email list or a social media site (Facebook is perhaps the easiest to set up).
- Decide when and where to meet again.
- Send a follow-up email afterwards to thank everyone for coming and share the notes of the meeting.
#KeepVirginiaGreen
