…Nuby Run Solar LLC, a subsidiary of Charlottesville-based Hexagon Energy, had applied for a conditional use permit on behalf of landowner Robert “Ben” Stagg for a 2-megawatt facility.
It is the sixth solar farm Isle of Wight has approved to date — and the smallest. At present, only the Woodland solar farm the board approved in 2015 at the corner of Woodland and Longview drives is operational.
Nuby Run will be roughly three miles south of the Isle of Wight County Courthouse and one mile from the 20-megawatt, 193-acre Solidago solar farm the Board of Supervisors approved in 2018. The Solidago facility is set to begin construction this spring.
Adam Ventre, Hexagon’s director of development, said his company is taking an “all of the above approach” to Virginia’s transition to clean energy by investing in smaller-scale solar farms like Nuby Run. The passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020, which mandates the state transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050, has spurred interest among renewable energy companies to partner with landowners in developing solar farms.
The idea behind smaller-scale facilities like Nuby Run, according to company officials, is to allow more people — and localities — to partake in the resulting investments. Currently, the farmland brings the county just over $210 per year in tax revenue, but with the addition of the proposed solar panels, the annual tax revenue would rise to $2,550 — or $76,500 over the project’s estimated 30-year lifespan.