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Happy Friday!
August 15, 2025
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This week, the Energy Right attended multiple meetings this week in half a dozen counties, including a round table with Congressman Rob Whitman and a Sussex County community meeting on a potential solar project.
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The Clean Energy Divide:
Growing Demands and Growing Pains
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Sussex County, VA, Blackwater Solar Meeting
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Virginia is in the middle of an energy crunch, with demand rising quickly due to the rapid spread of data centers, especially those powering artificial intelligence. These massive facilities run around the clock and require huge amounts of electricity, putting serious strain on the state’s power grid. A state report recently warned that Virginia will need to double its current pace of solar development, expand wind and nuclear energy, and build new natural gas plants just to keep up. Solar is still the cheapest and fastest energy source to build, but local pushback is making it harder to get projects off the ground. More than 30 counties across the state have passed rules that restrict or block large-scale solar entirely.
Sussex County is a clear example of this growing divide. Many residents have organized against the proposed 4,800-acre Blackwater Solar project, saying it is too big and will harm the environment and rural character of the land. Concerns include tree clearing, stormwater runoff, and the loss of farmland that has been passed down through generations. Community members like Molly Dowless argue that solar belongs on rooftops or previously developed sites, not productive farmland. On the other side, people like former county supervisor Susan Seward believe solar could be a much-needed opportunity. She once opposed these projects but now sees them as a way for rural counties to raise revenue, support farmers, and avoid raising taxes.
At the center of this debate is a difficult question: how can Virginia meet its growing energy needs while still respecting the authority of local governments? Right now, counties have the power to stop projects, and many are doing just that. Developers have responded by shrinking their proposals and offering more environmental protections, but many residents remain skeptical. Lawmakers are beginning to look for solutions that can balance both sides, but time is running short. If well cited solar projects keep being shut down, it is unclear how the state will meet demand or keep the lights on as energy use continues to climb.
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Buzz of the Week
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Hollyfield Solar Farm, VA
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This is what just one panel of busy honeybees looks like—plenty of room for them to move into and fill up!
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Follow Us
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Keeping Energy Benefits Close to Home
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Onshoring the full supply chain for innovative energy technologies, such as solar, battery storage, nuclear, and natural gas, is essential to America’s long-term security and prosperity. The recent push to increase domestic mining of critical minerals is an important first step, but it is only part of the picture. To truly secure our energy future, we must also invest in building robust U.S. manufacturing capacity to turn those raw materials into the essential components our energy systems require. Equally important is expanding the deployment of these technologies across the country, ensuring that American-made products are used here at home to power our communities and industries. Without this next step, the benefits of mineral production will flow overseas, rather than fueling domestic growth and resilience.
True American energy security depends on more than just obtaining resources, it requires a circular system that creates, uses, and reuses the materials that power our modern world. That means coupling mining and manufacturing with end-of-life strategies like recycling, repurposing, and second-hand use to extend the value of every resource extracted. It also means investing in new energy projects, from large-scale solar farms to advanced battery storage facilities, that will put these technologies to work in strengthening our grid and lowering costs for consumers. This is both an energy policy and a national security strategy. If we fail to both produce and utilize these technologies domestically, we will lose out on economic opportunity, technological leadership, and strategic independence to foreign competitors.
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Our team travelled to Charlotte, Halifax, Henrico, King George, and Sussex counties this week!
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On Wednesday the Energy Right team had the opportunity to participate in an Energy Policy Roundtable discussion with Congressman Rob Wittman. Congressman Wittman offered a debrief on the OBBB and its effects on both national and state-level energy policies, as well as our country’s long-term trajectory. All attendees had the opportunity to raise concerns and ask questions. It’s clear that we need to move quickly to get more energy projects approved and running across the Commonwealth to keep up with current demands.
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‘Something’s gotta give:’ Virginia is struggling to balance energy needs with local tensions over solar development
– WHRO
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Opposition to large-scale solar development in Sussex County is emblematic of the broader tension between Virginia’s clean energy goals and local control. The proposed Blackwater Solar project—once pitched at 4,200 acres and 500 MW—has drawn fierce resistance from residents concerned about land loss, stormwater runoff, and the transformation of the county’s rural landscape. While developers like Clenera have scaled back plans, added buffers, and proposed pollinator-friendly plantings, opponents argue these changes don’t address the core issue: utility-scale solar is swallowing too much productive farmland and forest.
Supporters counter that carefully planned projects could provide critical revenue to shrinking rural tax bases and new income streams for landowners. This divide is mirrored across Virginia, where local ordinances are increasingly limiting solar expansion, and lawmakers are exploring ways to streamline permitting without sidelining local voices. As energy demand climbs—driven by data center growth—the Sussex debate underscores the challenge of finding middle ground between preserving community character and building the infrastructure needed to power the state’s future.
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NEXT WEEK
We’ll be traveling through Brunswick, Carroll, Halifax, Patrick, and Middlesex counties!
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The Trump administration has announced plans for nearly $1 billion in Energy Department funding to accelerate U.S. production of critical minerals and materials essential for technologies like EV batteries, semiconductors, and renewable energy systems. The initiative, aimed at reducing reliance on foreign—particularly Chinese—supply chains, includes $500 million to expand domestic processing, battery manufacturing, and recycling, $135 million for rare earth recovery from mining waste, $250 million for extracting mineral byproducts from industrial plants, and $50 million to strengthen the rare earth magnet supply chain.
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