Va.’s first onshore wind farm sells power to Google

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 in December 2024 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. Google aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030.

Virginia’s first wind farm being developed on land, Rocky Forge calls for 13 turbines, each 643 feet 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 Apex.

The new Trump administration, which is not expected to be friendly toward wind energy, is not expected to affect development of the Rocky Forge project.

“On the administration side of things, no federal policy change would impact this project,” Brian O’Shea, director of public engagement for Apex Clean Energy, said in November 2024.

The 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. However, that contract expired and wasn’t renewed.

The project regained momentum in September 2024 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 early 2024.

Construction on the project is now set to start in 2025, with electricity expected to begin generating by late 2026, according to O’Shea. Rocky Forge is the second partnership for Apex and Google. In 2023, the two companies announced a power purchase agreement for the energy generated by Apex’s Timbermill Wind project in Chowan County, North Carolina.

Rocky Forge is slated to create up to 250 jobs during construction and should deliver about $30 million in state and local tax revenue over the wind farm’s lifetime, according to Apex.