Big tech company to buy power from Va.’s first onshore wind farm

Even as political winds shift in Washington, D.C., a long-delayed onshore wind farm in Botetourt County might finally be sailing to completion.

Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy announced Wednesday that it has reached a deal for Google to purchase the full capacity of Rocky Forge Wind, a wind farm the Charlottesville company has been working to develop in Botetourt since 2015.

Virginia’s first and only wind farm being developed on land, Rocky Forge calls for 13 turbines, each  64 stories tall, to be erected atop North Mountain outside the rural town of Eagle Rock. Collectively, the turbines will generate about 79 megawatts of power, which Google will use to support its data centers in Virginia, according to a news release.

The incoming Trump administration, which is not viewed as friendly toward wind energy, is not expected to affect the development of the Rocky Forge wind farm.

“On the administration side of things, no federal policy change would impact this project. I can’t speak for offshore,” said Brian O’Shea, director of public engagement for Apex Clean Energy, in late November.

The Rocky Forge project has faced stiff headwinds since it was first unveiled. Legal challenges, permitting problems, design changes and the impacts of the pandemic have all combined to delay construction of the turbines.

In 2019, Dominion Energy struck a deal to purchase Rocky Forge’s power and resell it to Virginia state government to help meet its goal of sourcing at least 30% of electricity for state agencies from renewable energy sources. More obstacles developed, and that contract expired and wasn’t renewed.

The project regained momentum in September when the Virginia Court of Appeals rejected a legal challenge by upholding a circuit court ruling that had approved the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s permit for Apex. Two other lawsuits against the project were dismissed by a circuit court judge in January.

Construction on the project is now set to start in 2025, with electricity generated by late 2026, according to O’Shea.

Botetourt County still must complete a final site-plan review that includes gaining approval from the Virginia Department of Transportation for improvements to a gravel road that would allow heavy equipment and tractor-trailers access to the remote mountaintop. Local fire and emergency services must also review the road plan, according to Botetourt County spokeswoman Tiffany Bradbury.

Rocky Forge would mark the second partnership for Apex and Google, which aims to achieve net-zero emissions and 24/7 carbon-free energy for its operations by 2030. In August 2023, the two companies announced a power purchase agreement for the energy generated by Apex’s Timbermill Wind project in Chowan County, North Carolina.

“As we continue to progress towards our goal to operate every Google campus on clean electricity every hour of every day by 2030, we are always looking for opportunities to accelerate the delivery of new clean power to the grid,” Amanda Peterson Corio, head of data center energy for Google, said in a statement.

Rocky Forge will create up to 250 jobs during construction and will bring about $30 million in state and local tax revenue over the lifetime of the wind farm, according to Apex.

“As far as I can tell, it’s full steam ahead,” said Botetourt County Administrator Gary Larrowe in  November.

Or, in this case, full wind ahead.