Henry County feels it’s done enough solar power. General Assembly might feel differently.

[Timber Rattler]

https://cardinalnews.org/2026/07/27/henry-county-feels-its-done-enough-solar-power-general-assembly-might-feel-differently/

The Henry County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to act Tuesday on a measure that might be cheered at home but could set the county on a collision course with state government.

The supervisors will take up a measure to reduce the number of acres the county is willing to allocate to solar energy development — “solar farms” to some, “industrial solar” to others, depending on your point of view.

Three years ago, Henry County decided to cap the amount of land it would allow for solar development at 1% of the county’s land mass — about 2,445 acres.

“Since setting the cap, the Boards (both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors) have generally been less willing to allow solar development based on public input and other considerations related to land use, community character, and evolving local priorities,” county administrator Dale Wagoner said by email.

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This year, the General Assembly passed, and the governor signed into law, a bill to “ban the bans.” That law says localities can no longer ban solar projects outright; they have to consider each one separately. They can still vote them down, if they wish, but they now have to tell the state why. (Pay attention to that last phrase.)

(snip)

What might be popular in Henry County (limiting solar development) isn’t so popular in Richmond. One of the legislators who sponsored the new solar law worries that some local governments still aren’t very accepting of solar. (He’s right on that.)

“Legally, it might be possible,” state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico County, says of Henry’s revised acreage cap. “The spirit of the law, that’s a different question. It seems like this ordinance is not [in the spirit of the law]. I think it behooves localities to comply with the spirit of the law.”

What we have here is a clear difference of opinion on solar development. Let’s cut to the chase. The legislators who passed the Clean Economy Act that mandated an energy transition were almost exclusively Democrats who represent metropolitan areas, but the localities that are seeing the solar development are almost all rural, Republican-voting localities, who aren’t nearly as keen on seeing their landscapes transformed. The General Assembly this session passed legislation to encourage more solar development in urban areas — including so-called home “balcony solar” and allowing localities to mandate “parking lot solar” with solar panels over parking lots — but the reality is the only place to find large tracts of land for utility-scale solar is in rural areas.

VanValkenburg says he hopes that by requiring localities to consider solar projects one by one, rather than allowing a blanket ban, counties that have previously rejected solar will eventually come to see the value in some projects. “My hope is this bill will change the conversation,” he said in an interview. “By having to consider projects one at a time, it should be a less ideological conversation and more an economic, property rights conversation.” He adds: “I didn’t think we’d see change July 1; it will take time to suss this out. The Henry County example is a discouraging one but we’ll see how it plays out. They’re sending a signal to the General Assembly.” Rural areas might well agree they’re sending a signal, but legislators might take that signal differently than what localities intend.

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This is a microcosm of the debate over energy sites, be they for solar or battery storage, across rural Virginia. VanValkenburg warns that if counties continue to reject solar projects, the state might move to take away their power over solar siting. “I think local governments should comply with the spirit of the law if they don’t want to give us reasons to engage more on this issue,” he said. “If local governments are not going to greenlight energy projects, we’ll have to take a heavier hand.”

EXCERPT

Note the threat by the slimy NoVA Democrat...