Work set to begin on Cumberland solar sites

Two years after being approved, multiple Cumberland solar projects will start construction this month. During the Cumberland Planning Commission’s Monday, Sept. 16 meeting, Cumberland Planning Director Stephany Johnson informed the group that land use permits have been issued for both projects.

The first is located at 1671 Cumberland Road, a 3 megawatt small-scale solar facility owned by Borrego Solar Systems. It sits on a 73.22 acre site, labeled ‘the Rowlette site’ because Henry Rowlette is the property owner who is leasing it to Borrego. Out of those 73 acres, 20 will be used for the facility. When it’s finished, the project will include 8,343 solar panels and will be linked to Dominion Energy’s system, to deliver that solar energy to their grid. Once it’s operational, Borrego officials say there will be virtually no personnel on site. The only exception, aside from malfunctions, would be people to handle landscaping maintenance three to four times a year.

Borrego Solar is also in charge of the second solar project, located just down from the first at 1650 Cumberland Road. This one is also going to be a 3 megawatt site, labeled as “Rowlette Site 2” because it is also on a parcel of land owned by Henry Rowlette. The overall site is 65.81 acres, with 17.63 acres being used for the project and 8,640 panels expected.

These were all approved by Cumberland County supervisors before the current revenue sharing ordinance was put in place. That happened months later, back in Sept. 2021. Before the revenue sharing plan, the county’s only option of drawing revenue from solar facilities was to hit them with a machinery and tools tax or business/ personal property tax. While this would have provided the county with some funds upfront, the revenue would have decreased each year as the value of the equipment on the land depreciated.

Work will start soon

Both projects went before the board of supervisors in 2021 and were approved. Now that the paperwork is done, residents will soon see dirt moving, county officials said.

“We have approved their land use permits, so they will begin construction and land clearing,” Johnson said, adding that the county had set up a pre-construction meeting with the developers.

That meeting took place on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

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