Community members lead call for responsible siting of solar power projects

JEFFERSON COUNTY, W.Va. ( DC News Now ) — There is a trend going around in the Mountain State’s eastern panhandle where farmers have been selling their land to backers of solar power projects.

The new energy source is a welcome in the region, but with some conditions as some activists insist it has to be done responsibly.

Acres of solar panels are replacing farmland. Suzanne Marman lives in Charles Town and said the current market’s conditions are challenging farmers.

“These farms, this agricultural land,” Marman said. “I really believe it’s being given up because it’s just so hard to do these days.”

At a community forum in Shepherdstown to close out the week, Lucia Valentine embraced the switch from fossil fuels but said solar siting must be done responsibly.

“Some of the projects that we’re seeing here in the eastern panhandle,” Valentine said. “That energy is being sold out of state. So that energy is not directly lowering energy costs for West Virginia consumers.”

Maria Russo has been active in environmental causes. She embraces solar over coal and natural gas but she questions sitting on productive agricultural land.

“We need tax incentives to put utility-scale solar projects on degraded land,” Russo said. “That might look like an abandoned coal mine. It might look like other spaces that we can’t use anymore, like brownfields.”

Both Valentine and Russo hope to shape energy and environmental reforms in the next session of the West Virginia legislature.

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