Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger signed a bill defining agrivoltaics in Loudoun County Wednesday morning, at the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Community Farm at Roundabout Meadows in Aldie.
“Agrivoltaics is simple, you put solar panels on farmland in a way that keeps that land in production,” Spanberger said. “The farmer gets supplemental income and lower energy costs, the grid gets clean power, and nobody has to choose between feeding people and powering communities.”
State Delegate John McAuliff, whose 30th District includes Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, co-sponsored the bill with State Senator Russett Perry, said agrivoltaics provides an alternative to the “either/or” decision that farmers face, when offered the chance to sell their land to an electric company interested in installing solar arrays.
“We’re losing farms here. Far too often, agricultural land is sold for development, or for uses that threaten to take it out of production entirely,” McAuliff told the crowd, sitting on folding chairs near crops that were grown near dozens of solar panels, some of which provided much-needed shade.
“This trend not just threatens individual farms, but the long term future of agriculture in our region,” said McAuliff.
Until now, Virginia has lacked an official definition of agrivoltaics.
The bill, which Spanberger signed into law, defines agrivoltaics as sola energy development that:
- Prioritizes and sustains agricultural production
- Ensures land remains in active farm use
- Allows for the continued sale of agricultural projects on existing farm business
- Maintains flexibility for farmers over time
“Agrivoltaics prioritizes agricultural productivity, keeps land in production for the life of the solar array, and is part of an existing farm business,” said Spanberger.
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