Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Following a closed session meeting on Monday afternoon, June 13, members of the Board of Supervisors (BOS) returned from closed doors to table a siting agreement between the county and solar developer SolUnesco and Dominion Energy.

SolUnesco is the developer of Randolph Solar, a proposed 800-megawatt facility set to be one of the largest in the nation if approved.

According to County Administrator Dan Witt, Randolph Solar and Dominion provided an agreement for the Board’s consideration. Still, after negotiating in a closed session, the two sides came to an impasse.

Witt said county staff was directed to continue the discussion with SolUnesco and Dominion and report back to the Board at a later date.

The details of the siting agreement have not been disclosed to the public.

Witt said those details would become available once the two sides agree and a public hearing is held.

The siting agreement may include terms and conditions, including mitigation of any impacts of such solar project or energy storage project; financial compensation to the host locality to address capital needs set out in the capital improvement plan adopted by the host locality, current fiscal budget of the host locality, or fiscal fund balance policy adopted by the host locality; or assistance by the applicant in the deployment of broadband.

At the beginning of June, the BOS also took no action on the project’s conditional use permit following a two-and-a-half-hour public hearing.

The Board could decide on the conditional use permit during a meeting on July 5.