Virginia County Purchases Power from New ‘Amazon Arlington Solar Farm’

(Photo Credit: Samuel Faber, Pixabay)

by | Jan 29, 2020

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solar farm

(Photo Credit: Samuel Faber, Pixabay)

The Arlington County Board has approved a partnership with Dominion Energy Virginia to purchase power from a solar farm in southern Virginia — one which Amazon also uses. The project goes beyond the county’s adopted Community Energy Plan goal of having at least 50% of electricity for county operations come from renewable sources by 2022.

The facility is expected to generate about 79,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year for Arlington county’s government operations, which is more than 80% of the electricity used annually for all county buildings, streetlights, traffic signals, water pumping, and wastewater treatment.

Arlington County is the first locality in the Commonwealth to enter into a power purchase agreement of this scale for off-site solar energy with an investor-owned utility company. The county board voted unanimously to approve the partnership at the Jan. 28, 2020 board meeting.

Agreement expected to be cost neutral

The agreement will not require any capital funding or upfront costs from the county. The solar farm will generate electricity that Dominion sells into the wholesale electric grid at market rates. The price for the delivered energy and renewable attributes will be the difference between the wholesale power price and the contract fixed price.

For the first year, the net credit or cost will be estimated based on price forecasts and estimates of electricity production. In each subsequent year, the credit or cost will be reset based on the previous year’s actual production and costs.

Arlington County currently pays Dominion Energy for electricity. Over time, this agreement is expected to be cost neutral. The project will have no impact on customer rates.

Solar Farm Details

Arlington County and Amazon are purchasing power from the same solar project. Arlington County is purchasing output from nearly one third of a solar farm; and, under a separate agreement, as majority buyer, Amazon is purchasing the remainder of the output from the same project.

Dominion Energy will build the farm in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Construction is expected to begin in 2020 with the facility becoming operational in 2022.

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