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Yet until this month, PPAs were not available to public schools in Southwest Virginia. Without PPAs, net-metering, which was subject to a low cap on the program capacity, was largely unavailable, too.
“The opportunities [for solar] that exist in the rest of the state don’t happen here,” Appalachian Voices’ Regional Director of Community and Economic Development Adam Wells told SELC in a 2019 episode of our podcast Broken Ground. “It could be really easy if the laws were different.”
Now, they finally are. Thanks in part to the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia, a coalition that includes both Appalachian Voices and SELC, the new contracts Appalachian Power will sign will give public schools and localities in the Virginian coalfields access to the financing options they need to tap into all the benefits of clean energy through solar.
Solar energy in Southwestern Virginia is expected to increase, now that the utility that serves the region, Appalachian Power, may be lifting long held
That pluck has landed his Charlottesville company the opportunity to be the first to generate large-scale renewable power on the coalfields of Central Appalachia. If the bold venture announced this week comes to fruition, roughly 550 acres of deforested minelands sprinkled across an expansive Nature Conservancy preserve will generate up to 75 megawatts of solar energy within two to three years.
“If it were easy, everybody would be doing it,” Van Clief said about plunging into untested territory. “I’m thrilled … to play a small part in the energy transition in Southwest Virginia. This is a breakout moment for the region. There’s been a lot of talk about this but not as much action.”
“We are excited to make solar more accessible to homeowners in our region through this residential solar program, and to connect them with the local job force that can make it an affordable reality,” says Mark Moormans, Manager of Strategic Projects with People Incorporated and a co-convener of the workgroup. “It’s a win-win creating more economic opportunity for local businesses while increasing energy independence for their customers.”
With eight Southwest Virginia communities achieving designation under the national SolSmart program, the region has embraced the growth of local solar energy markets. These were the first communities in the Central Appalachian region to apply for and receive the SolSmart designation.