Sunfish Solar's latest propaganda

The front of the recent BayWa/Sunfish Solar mailer really irks me. For anyone who hasn't been to James Madison's Montpelier, this is the iconic and expansive view of the property and the Blue Ridge Mountains from the front portico. Montpelier's foundation and staff, in coordination with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, have worked hard to protect this landscape and replicate the look and feel of Madison's time.

How ironic that a company intent on putting hundreds of Orange County's beautiful rural acres into industrial use for a solar plant would choose this scene as the cover of their mailer. BayWa, you have some nerve.

Let's look at the heading: "Sunfish Solar wants to partner with Orange County". What exactly does that mean? According to Merriam Webster dictionary, "to partner" means "to join or associate with another." Thus far, it's an association based on the developer's promises:

• A promise of $13.6 million in revenue -- over the life of the 35-year contract ($388,500/year) - IF BayWa doesn't walk away, which they confirmed at the Planning Commission work session that they could indeed do.

• A promise of increased earnings for local businesses and workers. But no specifics. At the Panning Commission work session the developer confirmed that the majority of the jobs associated with the project would be consultants, contractors and vendors within Virginia (400+) but outside of Orange County. There could be 122 jobs available to Orange County during construction. The developer has said that there will be no onsite personnel for day to day operations because the facility will be monitored remotely.

• A promise to "carefully" preserve Orange County's rural character. This "preservation" involves creating wildlife corridors through the fenced panel areas and vegetative buffers to screen the project from adjacent landowners and passersby. The developer essentially is creating an artificial environment in their attempt to preserve the rural character. How about leaving the proposed project area as it is: rolling hlls, cultivated fields, pastures, trees, no solar panels.

The developer says they want to hear from residents of Orange County. Go to one of their informational meetings. Dig in deep with your questions. Ask them why they aren't building on industrial land. Ask them what their experience is with grazing sheep within a fenced panel area. Ask them how their native pollinator plantings will be maintained to prevent all the common invasives -- such as multiflora rose, autumn olive, and poison ivy, to name a few. Ask them why they were so stingy with their proposed setback for non-participating properties - 50 feet. Ask them why they didn't do a traffic study and were completely unaware of the public safety challenges of the Route 522/True Blue road intersection.

Better yet, send your questions to your district's planning commissioner or all the commissioners (find their emails here). They will be reviewing the project again on June 20. At that time, there may be the opportunity for public comment, potentially followed by a vote for or against the project. PLEASE SPEAK OUT.

Keep True Blue green

Does a solar installation proposed to include 180,000 panels, a substation and a switchyard belong on farmland alongside a quiet country road? It's hard to visualize the impact when looking at the developer's concept plan below. Check out the two photos that follow the concept plan. These were taken along True Blue Road, which bisects the proposed project - is this setting appropriate placement for a utility scale solar installation?

The developer's landscaping plan is shown below. It depicts the layout of the project and the proposed landscaping is color coded to represent areas that will retain vegetation or have new or supplemental vegetation added. In the black circle, the two rectangles behind the block shaded pink represent the proposed location of the 2-acre substation and 2-acre switchyard. The pink shading represents existing greenery that the developer says will remain in place as a buffer.

The photo below was taken on True Blue Road (photo location represented by the star in the photo above). The substation and switchyard, comprising a total of 4 acres, are proposed to be constructed immediately behind the bank of trees on the right side of the photo below. This area is currently farmland. The height of the proposed substation has not yet been identified. However, a substation proposed as part of a BayWa project in 2019 in Culpeper County was identified as up to 60 feet in height. The fields behind the proposed substation and switchyard location, all the way to the farthest tree line visible in the photo, will be covered in panels. This industrial use of agriculturally zoned land is unacceptable.

Below, a look at True Blue Road. Orange County should confirm that the developer will cover road damage if the project is approved. Damage to this narrow state road is likely during construction due to the expected hundreds of vehicle trips involving heavy construction equipment as well as traffic from panel deliveries and workers' vehicles.

As of this writing, the developer has resubmitted the project appliation twice with changes. However, the developer has not prepared a traffic study, despite VDOT's request for such a study during the project's initial review by the county. Also, traffic was a major concern expressed by the the Planning Commission during the commissioners' work session for the proposal. Traffic is a concern for two reasons: the potential impact to True Blue and residents along the road, and the public safety concern related to the project's primary use of the True Blue/Route 522 intersection.

The True Blue community is the wrong place for this utility scale solar project.

Sunfish Solar community meetings - District 1

Protect Orange VA was strongly represented at the April 25 BayWa/Sunfish Solar community meeting held in District 5. Safe to say - based on conversation eavesdropping - there were other like-minded Orange County citizens not part of our group who were in attendance to question the BayWa team.

The event offered nothing surprising in terms of content. It was held open-house style with posters around the room that shared information about solar and the Sunfish Solar project. Numerous representatives from the BayWa team were present to answer questions.

A representative said that BayWa is working on expanding the viewshed study (as suggested by the Planning Commission) and may select landscaping that is taller than the 6-foot tall evergreens currently part of the plan. That adjustment makes sense: the project application describes the fencing as 6 feet chain link and 3 strands of barbed wire, for a total of 7 feet. No one wants to see that. To screen the fencing as well as the panels, the vegetation buffer needs to be thickly planted and have taller plantings than what is currently identified in the plan.

One of the representative said that the benefit to our area is a more reliable grid. And we are getting that added reliability thanks to BayWa, because they must pay for any upgrades that are needed to support the project. They are paying for the substation and switchyard, which will ultimately belong to Dominion. Dominion's transmission lines will receive the facility's power for the grid. It seems there's a lot of money being shifted around, and it's difficult to identify benefits to residents of Orange County.

It was great to see county supervisors in attendance. Their interest is very much appreciated.

More community meetings coming up:

All meetings are at 6 pm.

Wednesday, May 1: District 1, Gordonsville United Methodist Church, 407 N. Main St, Gordonsville

Tuesday, May 7: District 2, Lafayette Station, 26322 Constitution Highway, Rhoadesville

Wednesday, May 22: District 3, Round Hill Inn, 771 Round Hill Rd., Orange

Thursday, May 23: District 4, Lafayette Station, 26322 Constitution Highway, Rhoadesville