Democrats’ stunning electoral losses in Virginia’s recent elections could usher in new opportunities for bipartisan action on clean energy and create a model for the rest of the country, according to Ron Butler, state director of Conservatives for Clean Energy Virginia (CCE-VA).

“I do think the change in government here could actually be a positive thing for what we’re trying to do,” Butler said during a panel discussion at the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association (CHESSA) Solar Focus conference Tuesday. “That’s what I am going to be focused on over the next few months: trying to get some positive voices coming out on our side.”

He noted that Republican Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin has supported an “all-of-the-above” approach to energy, which includes wind and solar. Youngkin was also a clean energy advocate when he was co-CEO of the Carlyle Group investment firm, boasting about the company’s achievement of carbon-neutrality in 2018, Butler said.

Making an economic and locally focused case for clean energy was a major theme in two conference sessions Tuesday: one on rural solar development in Virginia, and a second looking at the state’s solar market in general and the potential legislative challenges ahead with a new 52-48 Republican majority in the House of Delegates.

On the one hand, Del. Todd Gilbert (R), the incoming speaker, has set the repeal of Virginia’s landmark Clean Economy Act (VCEA) as a priority, while Del. Terry Kilgore (R), the new majority leader, voted for the law and has been a strong advocate for energy storage. Passed in 2020, the VCEA sets Virginia on a path to zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and mandates the closure of most of its coal-fired plants by the end of 2024. The law also calls for the state to develop 5,200 MW of offshore wind, 16,000 MW of solar and onshore wind, and 3,100 MW of energy storage.

Harry Godfrey, executive director of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), said the Democrat-led state Senate should serve as a firewall to stave off any repeal attempts. But he also stressed that solar industry advocates should “emphasize the job creation opportunities, the community investment opportunities and then the broader economic gains that are being made as a result of this [law], and as a result the business certainty the VCEA creates.”

The law is driving major economic development opportunities in the state, Godfrey said, drawing data centers and other energy-intensive businesses; for example, Microsoft’s planned expansion of its data center in southern Virginia. The companies are coming, Godfrey said, “because they are looking for states where they know they’re going to be able to effectively decarbonize their load, and the VCEA will help give them certainty and … manage their costs.”

In rural counties, the economic argument can also help ease projects through local permitting before city councils or land-use boards, said Skyler Zunk, Virginia field director for the Land & Liberty Coalition, a nonprofit which began in Michigan and now works in a total of 10 states, supporting “conservative, responsible” clean energy development.

“Since the outset, our goal has been to create a baseline of support in every county in which we engage so that developers can come into these communities, and [we can] point them toward a list of good conservatives who support these energy projects for their own set of reasons,” Zunk said. “Some want to see it bolster the local county tax revenue budget. Some want to see diversification of income; some want to see investment, creation of jobs [and/or] more spending in their communities when these multimillion-dollar projects come to these locations. We’re taking everybody’s different angles into our tent and hopefully making them better advocates.”

‘Stay the Course’

The panel on the Virginia solar market looked more at the impact of the November election than specific market drivers or segments.

While concerned about possible Republican efforts — both in the House and at the Virginia State Corporation Commission — to roll back the state’s progress on clean energy, Del. Alfonso Lopez (D) framed the Democratic losses as “a short-term issue … from a political, electoral standpoint. The long game in Virginia is very much embracing renewable energy, embracing the benefits of an environmental as well as just a bottom-line perspective, and that we only have room to grow.”

He also noted that many of Virginia’s clean energy laws have passed with bipartisan support; for example, the 2019 compromise legislation (SB 1769) that raised the cap for net metering for the state’s electric cooperatives, opening the way for more residential rooftop solar development.

Given past bipartisan successes and current political realities, Virginia AEE’s approach is to advocate for a “diversified energy future,” Godfrey said. “It is not overly reliant upon one particular resource but is a combination of solar and wind, battery storage and grid-edge solutions, along with a host of other technologies, all working in tandem to provide affordable, reliable and clean generation. … Our philosophy is how do we bring these technologies into play? How do we create markets that allow each of these technologies to thrive?”

Based on the job creation and other economic benefits the VCEA is already providing, he said, industry messaging to state legislators should emphasize the need to “stay the course. If you believe you’re a pro-business lawmaker and want to see Virginia grow, the best thing to do is stay the course.”

Brandon Smithwood, senior director of policy for Dimension Renewable Energy, a solar developer, said he spends a lot of time in Republican states where advancing solar depends on making it a bipartisan issue, especially at the local level.

“Some of the challenges that we’re seeing, they’re really [about] permitting projects,” Smithwood said. “A lot of these projects are in conservative parts of the state, and so it was going to be a bipartisan issue anyways because it’s local supervisors in those counties that are making the decisions whether the projects move forward.”

Lopez called for the solar industry to be “out in force” for the coming session of the Virginia legislature, and not just for single organized days. “It’s got to be the dozens of solar CEOs and executives who are building large footprints here in the commonwealth. You’ve got to be in Richmond throughout the session, and you all have to be pushing the same narrative about why growth of renewable energy and growth of solar specifically is so vitally important in Virginia,” he said.

Consistency will be critical, Lopez said. “Every time there’s a hearing, every time there’s a conversation, you’re basically knocking it out of the park,” he said. “That’s how we continue to move forward. That’s how we avoid going back.”

Different Perspectives, Different Tools

The permitting roadblocks developers like Dimension have encountered in Virginia’s rural, largely Republican counties  have prompted CHESSA to work with conservative groups like CCE-VA and Land & Liberty, a recent effort discussed during the panel on land-use issues and rural solar development.

“The goal of CHESSA was to work with rural counties and to bring a value proposition to them that would be unique to them,” said John G. “Chip” Dicks of Gentry Locke Attorneys, CHESSA’s lobbyist in the state capital of Richmond. Local opposition to solar projects means “we need to take a different perspective and to use different tools and a different rationale,” Dicks said.

Land & Liberty started in Michigan, where despite Democratic leadership in state government, projects were still running into local opposition and permitting problems, said Bradley Pischea, the organization’s deputy director. The group’s mission is twofold, he said, “to amplify the voices that already exist in a supportive community, but then also [to] go out and find the ones we can pull into that chorus that already exists.”

The focus is always on issues that resonate well with conservatives, Pischea said. “This is going to fund your local police force. This is going to fund your roads and flow into school funding as well.”

Land & Liberty’s approach aligns well with the findings of a survey CCE-VA conducted in the summer months before the election, Butler said. While the survey found broad support for solar across the state, the one issue that elicited the most positive response was property rights, he said.

“The property owner should have the right to use their land to develop solar if that’s what they want to do because it’s clean energy that benefits everyone,” he said. “The climate change issue doesn’t really resonate with [conservatives]; that’s not something that gets them to ‘yes,’ but the property rights angle does.”

Even before developers are on the scene, Land & Liberty starts building relationships with local conservatives, positioning the organization as an educational nonprofit with a particular focus on land-use issues. Zunk has been traveling the state, talking “with local folks, boards of supervisors, planning commissions, business owners, community members, everybody who has some feasible way of touching the solar industry,” he said.

“When we’re able to approach them with a good deal of on-the-ground knowledge and speak the language that these board members are used to speaking and message to them the kinds of messages that they’re most likely to support —  property rights, economic development, paying for local public goods with their tax revenue — it’s easy to chat with them and have a normal conversation,” Zunk said. “We’ll never lead off with, ‘Hey, there’s this project that you should support.’”