The Future of Energy Is in Spotsylvania
Sen. Tim Kaine came to Spotsylvania on Thursday to visit the largest solar energy farm east of the Rockies. It's a model for how energy needs will be tackled in the future.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Miller’s Farm vegetable stand is a staple along Orange Plank Road in Spotsylvania County, and it’s an interesting fusion of old and new.
The stand itself isn’t much changed from the ones that lined Virginia’s roads where farmers sold their produce 50 or more years ago. But the operation is shaped by modern technology. From the point-of-sale system at the cash register that requires data centers to process information, to the Tesla in the parking lot that brought customers and needs energy to charge, and the business’s website which also runs on the back of data centers, it all takes energy, and lots of it.
The solar farm in Spotsylvania is one piece of the energy portfolio that is being constructed to meet the nation’s growing energy demands.
Strengthening the Grid
As at the vegetable stand, old and new converge at AES’ Spotsylvania Solar Energy Center — a solar farm just south of Miller’s Farm.
Riding around the 6,000-plus acre facility, one sees the large group of sheep (1,600 in total) that keep the grass at bay — “vegetation maintenance” workers as one member of the AES team on the tour with us called them. Further, sophisticated cleaning systems that are used at some farms to keep solar panels clean aren’t required in Spotsylvania. Plain old rain takes care of that problem.

The pastoral tranquility of the farm, which is blessedly quiet except when near the substation, belies the complexity of how America is working to address energy issues in the years ahead.
Fossil fuels continue to be the U.S.’s major source for energy production — 60% of energy produced in the U.S. in 2023 was from coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration — but 21% is made using renewable resources. And, EIA notes, solar and wind will lead the growth of U.S. power generation for the next two years.
We know this because the majority of projects in the Interconnection Queue, said Walter Crenshaw, who serves as director of origination for AES, are renewable energy sources.
The Interconnection Queue, according to Energy Markets & Policy, are the series of impact studies “projects seeking to connect to the grid” must undergo before being built. Currently, solar and wind dominate the projects in that queue.

The process, however, is time consuming. To move a project through the ICQ requires three to five years, according to Crenshaw; permitting can take another two years, and the actual construction time an additional two years.
There is overlap, however, between the time a project is in the ICQ and when permitting begins. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who was on the tour to see the solar farm, told the Advance that finding a way to shorten the permitting process is key to getting more energy online sooner. “We can build” the generating plants, he said, but “the chokepoint” is the time it takes to get the permits.
There is a bill before the U.S. Senate now that would do this, though, Kaine says, the bill is not quite ready for the Senate floor.
Financing New Energy Construction
Constructing energy plants is challenging. One reason that renewables are projected to grow so rapidly, however, is because of renewable energy credits, or RECs.
The farm in Spotsylvania was made possible because both Microsoft and Apple, as well as the University of Richmond, agreed to purchase a certain percentage of their energy from the Spotsylvania site before the project ever got off the ground.
Without that agreement, according to Paul Friedman who is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at AES, the facility could not have been built. Their commitment to buy energy essentially served as the collateral the bank required to finance the project.
It’s a win-win scenario. The companies agreeing to purchase the power earn RECs toward their energy renewable goals, which can then be sold on the open market. And renewable energy producers leverage the desire to purchase RECs to bring renewable energy online.
There’s another advantage, however, in that renewable energy is a key part of helping the U.S. develop energy independence. And Virginia is a national leader in this effort.
Sen. Kaine notes that when he first came into the Senate in 2013, Virginia was near the bottom in renewable energy production. That has been reversed for a number of reasons, including the Infrastructure Act, CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Then there’s the willingness of companies like Microsoft and Apple to invest in the development of renewable energy sources here.
It’s a combination that is making Spotsylvania a major player in the renewable market.
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