Two more solar plants coming to Danville

Two five-megawatt AC solar power plants are being built in Danville and will support 125 jobs in Virginia, the city announced today.

The two solar projects — Irish Road Solar and Whitmell Solar — will span 100 acres and will generate an estimated 23,886,000 kilowatt-hours annually — enough energy to supply energy to 59,000 homes with electricity.

The energy produced by the two plants will be sold under power purchase agreements to Danville Utilities, which covers Danville, the southern third of Pittsylvania County and parts of Henry and Halifax counties.

Construction by Denver-based TurningPoint Energy LLC and Hingham, Mass.-based Navisun LLC for the combined 10MW in Pittsylvania County will begin by the end of the year. The 125 jobs supported by the project include consultants, engineers, construction and related workers to carry out the project.

The solar plants are anticipated to be operational and provide energy to Danville Utilities’ 42,000 customers in summer 2020. After the completion of these two plants, Danville will be home to four solar power plants.

“The competitively priced clean solar energy will be generating for years to come in Pittsylvania County,” Jared Schoch, president of TurningPoint Energy, said in a statement. “These combined projects demonstrate more than $20 million in economic development investment. We are proud to help the growth of the area here locally.”

Gov. Ralph Northam signed Executive Order 43 in September with a goal of having 30% of Virginia’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Only slightly more than 1% of Virginia’s electricity is generated from solar power now.