Solar power plant being considered at historic Audley Farm in ... - The Winchester Star

Solar power plant being considered at historic Audley Farm in Clarke County | Winchester Star | winchesterstar.com

BERRYVILLE — Cattle grazing the rolling hills at one of Clarke County’s best-known historic farms may soon have to make room for a herd of solar panels.

Audley Farm is considering a proposal by Richmond-based Urban Grid to establish a solar power plant producing up to 100 megawatts of electricity, farm General Manager Turner Kobayashi confirmed Thursday afternoon. The plant would occupy approximately 450 of Audley’s 3,000 acres off Harry Byrd Highway (Va. 7) east of Berryville.

A website, soapstonesolarvirginia.com, details how Urban Grid believes the project would benefit the county, both environmentally and economically.

The proposed project comes as the Clarke County Planning Commission prepares for an Oct. 6 public hearing on a proposal by Horus Virginia LLC to develop a 50-megawatt solar power plant at Bellringer Farm, off Westwood Road (Route 636) near D.G. Cooley Elementary School and Chet Hobert Park.

In July, the county’s Board of Supervisors ordered planning staff to make changes to the county zoning ordinance to prohibit any more so-called “solar farms” from being established in Clarke. The supervisors contend the installations are taking away land needed for agriculture and open space.

“We (at Audley) think it’s a little short-sighted” for the county to consider banning the plants, Kobayashi said.

Solar power plants have been a permitted land use in the county since 2010. Typically, they’re large-scale operations with equipment that turns light and heat from the sun into electricity that can be supplied to homes and businesses.

Only one such plant so far has been developed in the county: A 20-megawatt plant on 235 acres off Lord Fairfax Highway (U.S. 340) near White Post and Double Tollgate. The supervisors earlier this year approved a site plan amendment for Hecate Energy to proceed with the plant’s second phase of development.

The plant targeted for Audley would be twice the size of Horus’ proposed facility in terms of power production. One hundred megawatts equals 100 million watts. That’s enough to meet the needs of about 120,000 homes altogether, according to information on energy industry websites.

However, the project’s website states it’s intended to provide electricity for 17,000 homes annually.

“We haven’t yet applied to the county” to get permission for Urban Grid to develop the project, Kobayashi said. But “we are considering it.”

“There is still some work we have to do ... to figure out whether it’s viable,” he continued.

Clarke County Planning Director Brandon Stidham said those involved in the Audley project communicated with the Planning & Inspections Department months ago about a solar power plant possibly being sited there, but not recently.

What’s being proposed “doesn’t conform” to the county’s current rules for such projects, Stidham said.

During the past eight years, said Kobayashi, at least four or five solar energy companies have contacted Audley about the possibility of installing equipment there.

“It’s something that makes sense to us,” he said, due to economic hardships that farms and other producers of agricultural products are facing today.

Not only would it generate revenue for the farm, but also tax money for the county. Preliminary estimates show the county could receive as much as $400,000 over 30 years, the estimated life of the installation, Kobayashi said.

“We’re looking for ways to diversify” income at Audley, he added.

Audley, established in 1749 from land owned by Lord Fairfax, was owned by family members of George Washington for more than a century. Its most famous resident was Eleanor “Nellie” Custis Lewis, Washington’s adopted daughter and the granddaughter of Martha Washington. Her residence, Audley House, is the farm’s main historical attraction, having been fully restored.

Since 1978, Audley has been owned by the Boehringer and von Baumbach families of Germany.

Today, the farm raises purebred Angus cattle, Thoroughbred horses and hay. Audley House is used as a special events center.

Kobayashi said the intended location for the solar panels isn’t in the public’s view, except for maybe at one home along Boom Road.

If the installation is developed, he said, “we don’t want anyone in Clarke County, or who’s driving through, to know it’s there.”

The Hecate facility is near an electrical substation, as required under the zoning ordinance, and the Horus project would be sited near one.

For the Urban Grid project, a new substation would be built off U.S. 340 (Lord Fairfax Highway) near existing power lines north of Berryville. Lines connecting the substation to the existing lines would be placed underground, Kobayashi said.

Audley and Urban Grid held a “community open house” about the project Tuesday night. Kobayashi said response has been “positive for the most part.”

Yet White Post resident John Engels, who received an invitation to the event, wasn’t impressed with what he heard.

Engels lives near the Hecate plant. Concerned about the future of agriculture in Clarke County, he doesn’t want to see anymore solar power plants developed locally.

In a phone interview Friday, Engels said he and other attendees were asked to sign cards indicating whether they will support the project and, if so, are willing to write “op-eds” to newspapers to publicly express their support.

He didn’t sign a card. Instead, he sent The Winchester Star a letter expressing concerns about the project.

Urban Grid representatives were hesitant to answer attendees’ questions about the project in a group setting, Engels said. They asked attendees to speak with representatives individually, he noted.

He interpreted that as “they were not really prepared to answer questions” and they want to put spin on any answers they eventually provide, he continued.

“This shouldn’t be a PR (public relations) campaign,” said Engels, but a presentation of objective information.

Clarke, being a small county, probably doesn’t need the energy that a solar farm at Audley would generate, he said.

And, the project “goes against the county’s vision” of preserving agriculture, Engles added.

The new substation “would invite additional farms to lease their land” for large solar arrays, he envisioned.

In July 2020 in neighboring Frederick County, that jurisdiction’s Board of Supervisors approved a conditional-use permit for Urban Grid, representing Foxglove Solar LLC of Stevensville, Maryland, to develop a $101 million solar facility on about 670 acres in the vicinity of Hites, Marlboro, Klines Mill, Clark and Vaucluse roads in the southern part of Frederick, generating enough energy to power 11,500 homes.

“We understand that farmland preservation is a big issue,” Kobayashi said.

At the end of the proposed project’s estimated 30-year life cycle, Audley is willing to restore for agricultural purposes the acreage it would cover.

But “a farmer should farm,” Engels said. “If they don’t want to farm, they should sell their farm to someone who would.”