Family: Agriculture and solar farms can coexist
Officials are rallying against the prospect of more solar farms in Accomack County, but the principals of one proposed project aim to clarify their plans during a public hearing Wednesday, Oct. 12.
County officials are concerned about losing farmland to solar projects, but SunTec Solar Solutions minority shareholder Dennis Nordstrom said the company’s proposed utility-scale farm would marry solar with agriculture.
“It’s a win-win,” Nordstrom said of the photovoltaic project that, if approved, would devote part of its 200-acre plot to raising Hog Island sheep.
The Accomack County Planning Commission’s hearing on SunTec’s proposed solar farm follows a unanimous vote by the Board of Supervisors last month approving a Planning Commission request to start preparing an ordinance amendment that would remove utility-scale solar and wind farms from the county’s Agricultural Zoning District— barring the projects from lands zoned for agriculture.
If approved, the amendment would restrict solar developers to building in general business and industrial areas. To plant panels on agricultural lands, they would have to get the sites rezoned.
During its April meeting, the board requested the Planning Commission complete an additional review of the impacts of the proposed 20-megawatt solar farm on VanKesteren Farms, in Tasley.
BACKGROUND: Solar takes farmland, evades fair tax share, officials say
Specifically, the board wanted to examine the impact the project could have on agricultural lands and review recent changes to Virginia tax law for solar sites.
After revisiting the project over four monthly meetings, the planning commission found “the change in the tax policy by the state, which allowed for a substantial exemption on personal property tax, is not worth the loss of farmland,” its report said.
“There’s a contradiction between agricultural land and solar,” Rich Morrison, the county's planning director, said in his report during the board’s September meeting. “It’s basically pick one. You’re either picking solar or you’re picking ag.”
“They haven’t found a place to coexist yet,” he said.
Nordstrom said that is not necessarily the case.
Of SunTec’s proposed 200-acre site, the company would limit development to around 174 acres, he said.
Within that area, the solar panels will occupy between 30 and 40 percent of available space, he said.
That leaves room for a cooperative project between SunTec and Shooting Point Oyster Company that would bring a flock of Hog Island sheep to graze among the panels.
The heirloom breed is listed as “critical” under The Livestock Conservancy’s endangered breeds list and cultivating it would help increase its numbers while providing wool, Nordstrom said.
BACKGROUND: Another large solar project proposed for Accomack
Similar projects are already underway for North Carolina’s Sun-Raised Farms, which grazes thousands of sheep across the state on solar farm sites.
"We think that solar creates a win-win for agriculture,” said Shawn Hatley, Sun Raised Farms’ managing director, in an interview with TWC News. “We get a crop of clean energy and we get a crop of sheep. Sheep is an alternative to mowing the grass or using a heavy application of herbicide to keep the grass dead.”
“We’re working to try and save the environment and produce clean energy, and still keep the farmland in farmland use,” said Logan Nordstrom, SunTec’s project development director.
In addition, the proposed project includes a decommissioning agreement with VanKesteren Farms that would return the site to its pre-existing condition at the end of the land lease, Dennis Nordstrom said.
Another big concern among county officials is the loss of potential tax revenue after Virginia changed its tax laws earlier this year to cut the costs of producing solar energy.
House Bill 1305 provides a total tax emption on all personal property, including machinery and equipment, for solar farms up to 20 megawatts in size.
“Now, it’s a different game with the ruling of the state and not being able to tax that property,” Board Chairman Ron S. Wolff said during September’s meeting.
“That would’ve made a big difference in how I would’ve looked at it,” he said.
However, the county could make up lost personal property tax revenue in real property taxes, Nordstrom said.
Based on recent real property tax bills for SunTec’s proposed site, the county receives about $5,500 from the land annually, he said.
Switching to a mixed-use solar farm would bump that number to around $26,000 per year, based on the same value per acre the county assessor’s office gave to Accomack’s other solar project, in Oak Hall, Nordstrom said.
“The county was a little bit upset, and I can understand this, because they (the state) basically took over their power of taxation,” he said.
However, as Nordstrom sees it, Accomack could garner an additional $15,000 annually from a mixed-use solar and sheep farm, versus a traditional agricultural site — around $375,000 over the solar farm’s projected 25-year lifespan.
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The Planning Commission said in its report that officials should address solar farms on a case-by-case basis, as there might be suitable locations in the county for large-scale projects.
The framework for reviews would need refining under this scenario, the report said.
“However, the siting of utility-scale solar should be carefully scrutinized, should not be placed on prime agricultural lands, and the current zoning should be strengthened to allow for more discretion in reviewing applications,” the report said.
Dennis Nordstrom’s wife, Katrina VanKesteren Nordstrom, is SunTec’s managing shareholder.
“Her family, the VanKesteren family, has been farming around Onancock for generations,” he said.
The family hopes that its plans will show that renewable energy sites and farmland can coexist on the Eastern Shore.
“We want to show to the county that these things aren’t so black and white. They can exist together,” Logan Nordstrom said. “We’re trying to marry both agriculture and solar.”
The Planning Commission’s public hearing on SunTec’s proposed, 20-megawatt solar farm is Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 7:30 p.m. at the Board of Supervisors Chambers, Room 104 at 23296 Courthouse Ave. in Accomac.
The public will have the opportunity to comment on the proposed utility-scale solar farm during the hearing.
Visit www.suntecsolarsolutions.com to learn more about SunTec.