Thanks to The Virginia Mercury's Charles Paullin for UVA report sheds light on utility-scale solar farm decommissioning. Paullin read, analyzed, and summarized Decommissioning Utility-Scale Solar Facilities Financial Best Practices for Virginia Localities from Irene Cox at UVA's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.
The long and the short of Paullin's piece? First, "Just over 25% of state’s localities have decommissioning ordinances." Second, "The 60-page report released Tuesday comes after an April survey found decommissioning solar facilities to be one of the top five topics of interest for localities dealing with solar development." (emphasis added)
According to the report, Lancaster, Northumberland, and Richmond counties have "both a utility-scale solar decommissioning ordinance and locally-codified financial assurance requirements." Westmoreland County has neither. Both as of July 2022.
Paullin explains why this matters:
Utility-scale solar accounted for more than 5% of Virginia’s in-state electricity generation during the first five months of 2022, the report found.
Solar generation more than tripled in Virginia between 2019 and 2021.
Much of that is being driven by the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires the commonwealth’s two largest publicly regulated utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Company, to decarbonize by 2050 and 2045, respectively.
Weldon Cooper said utility-scale solar development is likely to increase in Virginia as the utilities comply with the law and the costs of solar generation continue to fall.