A 1,750-acre solar farm spanning Isle of Wight and Surry counties is ready to produce power.

Ben Saunders, senior director of Cavalier Solar’s Arlington-based parent company, AES Clean Energy, told Surry supervisors on Sept. 12 that the Surry portion of the 240-megawatt solar farm would be energized by the end of September and would commence commercial operation by Oct. 31.

Greg Creswell, senior development manager for AES, told The Smithfield Times following the meeting that the same is true for the portion of the project on Isle of Wight’s side of the county line. Roughly 1,300 acres of the project are located in Surry and the remaining 450 in Isle of Wight.

Saunders said the construction staging area near Mount Nebo Baptist Church in Surry has been decommissioned. Sixty-five employees remain at the project site; that number should decrease to fewer than 50 by the end of the month, he said.

To date, AES has repaired shoulders on Bellevue Road and Mullet Drive and fixed culverts at the intersection of Whitemarsh and Beechland roads that were damaged during construction. Several roads that formed the project’s construction route are also slated to be repaved.

“The road repair schedule is not finalized,” Creswell said. “Our intention is to begin the work in the next 45 days. The resurfacing work will take place from the intersection of Jones Drive and Burwells Bay Road in Isle of Wight County through the intersection of Beechland Road and Whitemarsh Road in Surry County. Once we’ve finalized the schedule with the paving contractor, AES will post the information on our project webpage prior to (the) start of roadway construction, and we will notify Isle of Wight and Surry counties as well. The roadway will remain open during construction; no detour or road closures are anticipated.”

At the time of Cavalier’s 2021 approval, Surry County entered into a siting agreement that stipulates payments of $1,400 per megawatt, or an estimated $252,000 per year, for the 180 megawatts generated in Surry. The payments are to commence one month after commercial operations and continue annually over the next 35 years, bringing the county an estimated $8.8 million by the project’s 2059 decommissioning date in addition to its annual tax obligations.

As of 2022, when AES purchased land for the project, Surry’s share was projected to generate $16.7 million in tax revenue over 35 years. Differing AES and third-party economic impact analyses submitted for Cavalier had estimated the solar farm would generate $5 million to $6 million in combined personal property and real estate tax revenue for Isle of Wight over the same 35 years.

Cavalier is the third solar farm approved for Surry County, and the third to go active. It’s also the third to go active in Isle of Wight, which has approved 10 solar farms to date.