|
|
|
Happy Friday!
August 1st, 2025
|
|
|
|
The Energy Right team travelled to over half a dozen counties to sit in on and participate in community meetings and learn about potential energy initiatives—and bring our knowledge on what energy, the right way, looks like!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Takeaways from Resilient Virginia 2025
|
 |
|
Resilient VA, 2025
|
|
As communities face mounting challenges from energy scarcity, aging infrastructure, and growing energy demands, local resilience planning is more essential than ever. At this year’s Resilient Virginia 2025 (RV2025) conference, the message was clear: renewable energy’s main contribution isn’t just environmental sustainability; it’s about security, autonomy, and readiness. Technologies like solar, wind, and battery storage are now central to building decentralized, reliable power systems that reduce dependence overall. When paired with microgrids and smarter grid design, clean energy can help ensure that critical services—like hospitals and emergency response centers—remain operational during outages and crises.
Much of the conversation focused on how grid modernization and storage are unlocking a new era of energy flexibility and control. Transitioning away from rigid, centralized grids to smart, modular networks allows localities to isolate threats, respond to demand spikes, and plan around community priorities. Solar-plus-storage systems in particular were highlighted as clean, quiet, and fuel-independent alternatives for backup power, offering both environmental and operational advantages over other types of generators.
Perhaps most important, the RV2025 discussions reframed renewables as tools of empowerment and local ownership. Whether through community wind, shared solar, or neighborhood battery banks, clean energy is closing the gap between vulnerability and preparedness. These systems create local jobs, keep tax revenue in communities, and allow residents to participate directly in shaping their energy future. If our communities have the options laid out in front of them and are able to make the informed decisions on which way to move forward, that’s all that we can hope for—and time and time again it’s been shown that these energy projects offer a crucial revitalization to landowners and communities alike.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Buzz of the Week
|
|
|
 |
|
Hollyfield Solar Farm, VA
|
|
This field of flowers among the solar panels at Hollyfield Farms is a primary source of pollen for the bees. Though they are closest to these flowers, bees often travel much further, contributing to pollination for a large amount of land. Relax and breathe in the flowers!
|
|
|
|
Follow Us
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unlocking American Energy Dominance
|
|
|
|
|
The Mid-Atlantic is approaching a breaking point. PJM’s latest capacity auction sent costs skyrocketing, in some zones increasing tenfold, adding even more pressure to family budgets and business bottom lines. At the same time, demand from data centers and electrification is surging, while reliability concerns persist across the grid. If Virginia and the nation want to stay economically competitive and protect ratepayers, something has to change.
The main problem? We already have the energy—but ease of access is blocked by red tape from outdated or uninformed regulations. Tens of thousands of megawatts of affordable, American-made power, much of it solar and battery storage, are stuck in PJM’s outdated interconnection queue. These projects are shovel-ready, backed by landowners, and capable of strengthening our grid. Yet they remain sidelined by permitting delays, regulatory bottlenecks, and a system that wasn’t designed for the scale and urgency of today’s demand.
To truly unlock American energy dominance, we need a modernized approach that cuts red tape, streamlines approvals, and builds a balanced mix of generation. That includes fast-moving renewables alongside firm, always-on resources to keep the grid stable. Getting low-cost power to homes, businesses, and job creators is about securing our future, strengthening Virginia’s energy economy, and making sure clean, reliable energy isn’t something we wait for while energy prices continue to hike upwards.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This week our team went to Albemarle, Botetourt, Brunswick, Carroll, Greene, Lunenburg, and Pulaski counties!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Pulaski County, VA
|
|
|
|
This week, the Energy Right team visited the New River Valley Fair in Pulaski County. Local fairs are a core part of the identity of rural America. We had the opportunity to speak with local stakeholders and share more about the important work of supporting property rights and renewable energy done the right way—and can’t say we didn’t enjoy the work trip!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why your energy bill is suddenly so much more expensive
– Vox
|
|
Electricity prices across the U.S. have grown nearly 5% recently, even as general inflation slows, due to the combined pressures of rising demand, aging energy infrastructure, and volatile natural gas prices. PJM’s latest capacity auction favored natural gas over renewables, locking customers into higher rates. Meanwhile, delays in interconnection and outdated grid regulations are slowing deployment of urgently needed clean energy projects.
Experts emphasize that the clean energy transition itself isn’t to blame. Renewables and batteries remain the most cost-effective long-term solutions, but building and integrating them is costly and complicated. Upgrading the grid—especially poles and wires—is ballooning in cost, pushing infrastructure spending to over half of utility budgets. Without regulatory reforms and faster clean energy rollout, most Americans will continue paying more just to keep the lights on
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEXT WEEK
We’re excited to have members of the Energy Right team travelling to Chicago for the 2025 Solar Farm Summit to learn more about agrivoltaics and the power of combining energy and agricultural production.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Virginia has enacted new regulations for large-scale solar projects aimed at reducing environmental impacts from poorly sited installations. Effective June 18, the rules require mitigation measures based on land disturbance and encourage better construction practices, especially on former farmland and forestland—key to aligning clean energy goals with water quality and land conservation priorities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
