Dominion Energy’s 2024 integrated resource plan, filed Oct. 15 with the State Corporation Commission, calls for 12,000 additional megawatts from new solar farms and 4,500 megawatts of new battery storage over the next 15 years to meet the Virginia Clean Economy Act’s mandate that the utility transition to 100% carbon-free energy sources by 2045.

How many of those projects could end up in the pipeline for Isle of Wight and Surry counties depends on who you ask.

One of the first steps in obtaining approval for a new solar farm is for a developer to submit an application to PJM, a regional transmission organization spanning 13 states, including Virginia. 

Then there’s the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s “permit-by-rule” process that state law requires for solar farms with a capacity of 150 megawatts or less. Solar farms also require conditional use permits from their respective counties.

Each permitting agency lists a different number of solar farms pending for Isle of Wight and Surry, and some use multiple names to refer to the same project.

 

What’s in PJM’s queue?

As of Oct. 31, PJM’s queue listed 23 separate identification numbers for solar projects in Isle of Wight County.

PJM lists 10 Isle of Wight projects, the oldest dating to 2016, as “withdrawn.” At least three out of another five listed as “active” don’t match the names or megawatt capacities of any of the 11 Isle of Wight County supervisors have approved since 2015.

These include a 70-megawatt project listed as “Surry-Chuckatuck 230 kV,” a 132-megawatt project listed as “Smithfield-Surry 230 kV” and a 104-megawatt project listed as “Poolesville-Winchester 230 kV.” None of these include the commercial project names used by DEQ and county permitting or any details on their proposed location or acreage.

PJM’s Surry queue lists 30 separate identification numbers for solar or battery storage projects. Sixteen of these, the oldest dating to 2015, are listed as withdrawn. Another 10 projects are listed as “active.”

Three of the active projects appear to be duplicate listings, all submitted on Sept. 16, 2020, for a 20-megawatt “Hopewell-Surry 230kV” project.

There are two additional active listings for “Hopewell-Surry 230kV,” one for an 80-megawatt solar farm and the other for 150 megawatts of storage. PJM lists application dates six months apart in 2021 for the two.

There’s also a 2020-proposed “Surry-Hopewell 230kV” project listed as active that calls for 89 megawatts of solar panels and storage, a 2021-proposed “Surry-Hopewell 230 kV” project that calls for 80 megawatts of solar and storage, a 2021-proposed 20-megawatt “Wakesfield-Poolesville 34.5 kV” solar farm, a 300-megawatt  “Septa 500kV” storage facility and a 100-megawatt, 2023-proposed “Poolesville 230 kV” storage project. None include the commercial project names used by DEQ or county permitting or details on their developers, acreage or location.

“PJM’s role in connecting new generation to the grid is to perform technical studies on the impacts of new resources on the system, and determine if and what transmission upgrades are needed to make connecting to the grid possible,” said PJM spokesman Jeff Shields. “We do not disclose the developers’ name until a project has an interconnection service agreement (ISA).”

Projects listed as active “are being studied by PJM and PJM cannot share the generator developer name,” Shields said. “Once the ISA … is executed the agreement will be posted which includes the generator developer’s name, location of the project and some technical details. These projects will have a status of ‘Engineering and Procurement’ (EP), ‘Suspended’ or ‘Under Construction’ (UC). Finally, once the project begins commercial operation, the status will change to “In Service” (IS). In general, PJM is not free to discuss any details of a project beyond what is posted on the PJM.com website without explicit written permission from the project developer.”

Surry Community Development and Planning Director Horace Wade said that while there may be listings for feasibility studies in PJM’s queue, these projects’ respective developers haven’t submitted any plans to the county.

The only solar farm under review by staff and slated to go to the county’s Planning Commission and supervisors soon is Surry’s 125-acre share of Arlington-based AES Clean Energy’s proposed 240-megawatt Sycamore Cross solar farm, which is slated to span more than 2,200 acres across the Isle of Wight-Surry county line. Isle of Wight approved its share of the project in September.

 

What’s in the DEQ queue?

An Oct. 22 list of Isle of Wight projects to have received or applied for a DEQ permit includes a so-called “Smithfield Solar Farm” that’s been stalled since it submitted a March 29, 2016, notice of intent to the state.

“On Oct. 29, the developer confirmed with DEQ that the project is no longer active and they have no plans to move forward with the development,” DEQ spokeswoman Irina Calos said.

According to the Smithfield Solar Farm’s 2016 notice, the proposed 14-megawatt project by Durham, North Carolina-based Ecoplexus Inc. would have occupied 122 acres along Scotts Factory Road.

“We do not currently have any solar project under review, to include the ‘Smithfield Solar Farm,’ ” Isle of Wight Community Development Director Amy Ring said.

Another Isle of Wight project listed in the DEQ queue as “Windsor Solar” has a permit number that matches the 85-megawatt Windsor PV1 solar farm, also by Ecoplexus, that county supervisors approved in 2019 and amended in 2021 for 630 acres just outside the town of Windsor.

Windsor PV1, which is the name Isle of Wight County uses for the project, is listed on the PJM queue as “suspended.”

“A developer with a signed interconnection agreement – meaning from PJM’s perspective, they may move to construction – may choose to suspend their project for a limited amount of time before they are required to meet certain construction milestones,” Shields said. “It appears that this developer has chosen to suspend this project for the time being. During suspension, the transmission owner will stop work on any of the required network upgrade. The project developer is free to perform any of their required work such as siting, permitting, procurement, or construction at their location.”

The DEQ list for Surry includes a 2019-proposed, 20-megawatt “Mount Nebo Solar Partners LLC” solar farm slated for 80 acres, presumably in proximity to Mount Nebo Baptist Church. But the project isn’t listed, at least not under that name, on Surry’s PJM queue and Wade confirmed that the project remains stalled.

 

Conflicting names

Surry’s PJM queue shows one suspended project that lists “Wild Indigo Solar” as its commercial name. The associated ISA lists Loblolly Solar LLC as the project name. Surry supervisors voted down the 150-megawatt Loblolly project in 2022, and Wade confirmed the project hasn’t been resubmitted.

Carver Solar, a 91-megawatt facility Isle of Wight County supervisors approved in 2023, originally as a 71-megawatt project for 637 acres adjacent to Windsor PV1, isn’t listed as Carver on the PJM queue. Rather there are five separate listings for “Myrtle-Windsor,” three of which include “Knoxville Solar” as the commercial project name.

Knoxville and Carver are the same, according to an ISA dated Feb. 8 of this year. The alternate Knoxville name is due to the project’s location along Knoxville Road.

“Unfortunately, the names that are on the PJM list are not consistent with the project names found in our applications,” Ring said.

PJM shows the three separate Knoxville listings each beginning commercial operation on June 30, 2025.

Projects whose PJM listing matches the name used during county permitting include the 1,750-acre Cavalier solar farm, which began commercial operations Oct. 31, the 2018-approved Solidago solar farm that went active in August 2023, Isle of Wight’s September-approved share of Sycamore Cross, and Ho-Fel Solar, which county supervisors approved in 2019 and granted an amendment in 2023 for 330 acres near International Paper’s Franklin mill.

Cavalier and Sycamore, each 240-megawatt projects, aren’t on the DEQ’s list because projects over 150 megawatts are reviewed instead by the State Corporation Commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity.

Sycamore shows an expected April 1, 2026, in-service date on its PJM listing while Ho-Fel’s PJM listing shows an expected Oct. 16, 2026, in-service date.

The DEQ list for Isle of Wight includes the 3-megawatt, 18-acre Courthouse Highway Solar project Isle of Wight supervisors approved in 2023 and the 2022-approved 2-megawatt Nuby Run solar farm slated for 20 acres on Orbit Road, though neither is listed on PJM’s queue. Also on the DEQ list is the 20-megawatt Prairie Solar farm supervisors approved in 2023 for 152 acres at Longview Drive. Prairie may or may not be the same as the 20-megawatt “Benn’s Church-Smithfield 34.5 kV” project listed in PJM’s queue.

Though Dominion is listed as the transmission line owner for each of the projects in PJM’s queue for Isle of Wight and Surry, Dominion spokesman Timothy Eberley said his company owns only two solar farms in Isle of Wight County: Woodland and Solidago.

The others, he said, are being developed by someone other than Dominion. As such, he said he could offer no details on those projects’ size or location.

“Dominion develops a good number of solar facilities through our business development team,” Eberly said. “Of course, we also acquire solar facilities too. In some cases, we acquire solar projects but the facility hasn’t been constructed yet.”