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Land is a major asset that many rural folks have that could help them grow and prosper — if given a chance. A small-scale solar installation on only a fraction of a farm operation can add a tidy new layer of profit, according to a report generated in neighboring Maryland. Whether a 900-acre corn-soybean operation, a mid-sized cattle grazing farm, or a 10-acre vegetable farm, using just 5-10% of the acreage for solar production can substantially improve profitability and economic resilience. It also reduces pressures to sell the land, because profits become more dependable. And it helps address the challenge of dealing with dramatic swings in weather and climate. So, what is stopping this from happening in Virginia? First, there are state-mandated limits on how much solar power a landowner can generate. Current Virginia code caps the amount of energy that can be generated to only 150% of the previous year’s power consumption. Secondly, the price farmers or other landowners could get for the electricity they would produce beyond their own needs is severely limited. Farms can get a credit against energy they would use, but the purchase price paid by utilities back to the farmer for any excess power is very low — below the wholesale price. And why is that? Because Virginia’s utility companies can influence state legislators to set rules that ensure their control over energy production and distribution - and throw up roadblocks to locally-owned, small-scale commercial solar. (See our interview with State Delegate Sam Rasoul on this. As he shared, the irony is that these are companies who are granted monopoly power for their service areas in return for being regulated by the state.) But across the country, utilities use money collected from customers’ monthly bills to fund their political activities, including to slow down the transition to clean energy. State regulators are supposed to ensure that utility bills only cover the cost of delivering electricity. But these large utilities get around legislators’ oversight and bake this lobbying into their rates. As a result, we the customers pay for lobbying that both impedes small landowners from engaging in commercial solar and delays the transition from dirty energy. This is beginning to change. Three states—Colorado, Connecticut, and Maine—recently passed laws to prohibit this practice. As for Virginia, it does not allow its major utilities to use money collected from rates to pay for lobbying — but they can still use political donations and industry association memberships to influence decisions and engage in a fair amount of lobbying. Adding independent citizen representation to utilities’ boards would help, but the utility companies have resisted such efforts and instead put folks on their boards who do their bidding. In fact, the whole process of state regulation of utilities needs to be overhauled to enable rural communities to share in the prosperity solar power can bring. The place to start would be for our state legislators to develop a new set of policies — that substantially realizes the benefits of dual-use, rural small-scale solar, including financial and tax incentives, better prices for energy generated by farms, directing agricultural extension services to provide technical support to farmers seeking to start dual-use solar, and low-interest loans to enable farm operations to own their own solar installations. All of this will require a state government that thinks differently – one that does not deny to rural communities the economic benefits of locally owned and controlled alternative energy production while stacking its boards and administration with folks from carbon burning industries or who just want to protect the status quo.
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