is uh go around the room and do
introductions so what I'd like you to do
is explain your name your position to
know why you know you're
okay all right so we'll uh we'll go
let's start with you thank you yeah yeah
absolutely hi good morning everybody
night springy day to get together here
but uh my name is Tyson uh co-founder
member of Commonwealth Energy Partners
and see if you saw that's our primary
business developing solar projects in
Virginia
um as well as storage and some other
band acquisition efforts so um very glad
to see a lot from another face just to
participated thanks
energy based in Charlottesville Oregon
community business just like Tysons and
uh yeah I appreciate the opportunity
we've been very involved in Virginia
past seven or eight years and I'm
excited to talk with y'all about things
today thank you hello Francis household
um one of the founders John Hillis who's
on the authorities uh evidence partner
um and I am the CEO of solar UNESCO uh
where utilities
thank you and now we're actually getting
on too I'm an actual members of The
Authority yeah
good morning everybody I'm Catherine
Barnes vice president for public policy
and external Affairs for intermediate
energy
can Germans Virginia energy renewable
energy program manager and staff for
this supporting
Glenn Davis was a delegate until a
couple days ago I now drove through the
department of energy
congratulations to Dahlia or director
Davis on his new physician my name is
Skyler so I'm I'm the CEO and founder of
the energy right a module that that
helps to educate rural communities and
Rural governments on utility scale Solar
Development
almost every day in some phase or some
fashion yes my name is Greg Habib I
wasn't Hospitality with director Davis
um we were developing a lot of the
silver policy energy policy did is it
placed today I'm also partner at Century
lock one of my practice involves um
legal policy work around Newport energy
space
I practice in the Solar deal space I'm
not a solar program manager
but uh maybe someday
and coffee
well thank you everyone for welcoming me
here my name is Chase counts I'm a
senior director of operations at
community housing partners of CHP Energy
Solutions uh we are not a solar
developer we are the largest non-profit
writer of uh income qualifying
weatherization and Energy Efficiency
Services and the Commonwealth we do have
some Partnerships with uh some of the
utility also developers and we are
spearheading the LMI shared solar
initiative
with the Dominion and dimension energy
but honored to be here in Nevada
perspective
everyone uh air Berry Hill from The Zone
program manager at the Virginia
Department of energy and staff to the
authority
good morning I'm Carrie Kern I'm an
associate director at the Virginia
Department of energy in the state Energy
Office
and
um also Vice chair of the Virginia
renewable energy Alliance that clean and
chairs
and I
um with a country's largest eliminated
Factor
thank you
so I'm Nick Blanton I am Financial
technical manager at secure solar
features of Stanton
uh I'm Tony Smith president of the cloud
nerve security of solar Futures and we
were the first to introduce solar ppas
and Virginia
Brian McAllister I'm the CEO secure
solar features
all right Hopkins I'm a developer with
hotz management
from where I was Consulting
Warren jailers for the Virginia
Association mechanics Nathan Frost with
Dominion Energy uh Sean Stevens also
with an internship
Jerry Washington energy
all right thanks thanks everybody uh oh
and is John on the line
um yeah John Hillis board chair of shine
Workforce Development initiative and
co-founder of Soul UNESCO and I believe
my business partner Francis Hansel is
presenting today I don't know if he's
there yet but yes
great all right good good also on the
line we have Chelsea Jenkins I believe
deputy secretary of Commerce and trade
good morning
in route
thank you anyone else we've missed
all right uh
remember two directions is the minutes
we are one side the physical Court which
is what we need to do
so um I'm gonna go ahead keep us on
schedule and we'll come back to approval
in a minute once again we have two uh
members Paul Duncan and Michael Corbin
who are stuck on the road but they
assure us I'll be here in about 10
minutes so we'll we'll come back to the
minutes once we have a physical Forum so
I'll go ahead and turn it over to our
first presentation which is local
permanent challenges and I want it just
it's a moment of the explanation for the
agenda uh a lot of times our first
meeting after the general assembly is a
general assembly update but there's so
many things happening on the ground that
we Skyler and I were we were working
with Canada develop the agenda but you
know let's let's address uh
topics of pressing interest right now
local permit and you certainly wanted
them interconnection to start with one
of them so that's why we don't have our
typical General Assembly degree at this
meeting so I'll turn it over to local
Portland excellent well thank you three
for joining us today and just as you
know Betsy Arland of sun tribe
development is not able to join us she
woke up not feeling very well at all I
wanted to spare us all about any
potential sickness so thankfully we have
uh Tyson died with CDP Commonwealth
Energy Partners joining in first stead
um and thank you all for being here I've
been trying to impetus for this
discussion and this point is
extraordinary challenges that solar
developers and local governments are
facing all across Virginia uh many
counties solar projects to solar
ordinances comprehensive plan updates
are the single largest uh policy point
that they're focusing on a regular basis
sometimes these votes are the most
controversial of those to be taking
place at the local level and for the
first time in a long time localities are
having a large setting rightly so but
sometimes dealing with hundreds of
millions of dollars of Investments That
folks want to bring into their
communities develop energy generation
and energy storage facilities there is
certainly a role for the authority to
play Within this matter after the past
couple of years uh that has been
proposed legislation and proposed budget
language to talk about some sort of
study some sort of task force some sort
of analysis of what local permitting
looks like and ways the state can help
and assist localities and making these
decisions whether that's increased
resources some sort of reorganization
would help from the state governments of
these localities make some of these
decisions and lead them on the best
possible paths so that these projects
can be popular can be frequent and can
be substantial contributors to our grid
here in Virginia Sellers we I was very
competitive there's a huge rush to
develop these projects and to deploy
them across Virginia and we have three
experts with us today we're going to be
able to give us kind of the lowdown of
what they are seeing on an everyday
basis as they're going to be deploy new
energy assets across Virginia so these
folks with Tyson being a late addition
to this panel have sort of discussed
points to make I believe they have 10 or
15 minutes maybe 20 of discussion and
then we really wanted to be a
conversation between Authority members
and the experts that we have here
so without further dude Francis I
believe you're leading us off to that
right again thank you
recognizing that there's a lot of
different interests in this room and
different expertise we want to just take
a minute to set the ground or why does
this matter like why why should we even
be talking about this and so
um I'm gonna focus on a couple things
one the solar industry in Virginia but
how it is an enabler of Economic
Development more generally in Virginia
um so first just some statistics about
the solar industry in Virginia again and
I will say these statistics is through
Q4 2022 that I'm about to give you today
uh this is coming through solar energy
Industries Association that the National
Association this
um
set of Statistics has been
produced for I don't know 10 years or
something like that they've spent a lot
of time and energy getting these numbers
right of course it's not perfect but
they they put a lot of time and energy
so in Virginia we're talking about an
industry that today employs about 5 000
people a little less
um there's 208 companies in Virginia
that are in the solar industry where
where it's primary purpose is solar um
that's 29 manufacturers 91 installer
developers 88 others
um there's currently enough solar in
Virginia to power a half a million homes
uh there's 38 installations in Virginia
um just under 5 billion in investment
Virginia ranks ninth in the nation uh
when it comes to solar installations
uh percentage of the state's electricity
from solars 5.6
and it's projected to grow significantly
over the next five years another
um 5.8 gigawatts of solar
um
get a barge gas plant is maybe a
gigawatt so that would be five six very
large combined cycle gas plants
um more importantly
let me start with a parent group about
how solar drives other Economic
Development
three or four years ago there was a lot
of controversy in Mecklenburg County
about solar there's something else going
on in Mecklenburg County Microsoft has a
huge data center like in Mecklenburg
County Microsoft came and this came
directly from Redmond to a public
hearing and sent unequivocally if you
all shut down solar in this County we
will find another place to invest it was
unequivocal it was very clear and I
think it is just an example of the way
many Fortune 500 companies think today
um roughly 80 percent of Fortune 500
companies have significant
sustainable clean energy goals
um in a recent Fortune 500 survey 58 of
CEOs a Fortune 500 companies said they
plan to be carbon Zero by 2050. now I'm
sure many of you like me have had the
opportunity to work with
Executives in large corporations they do
your homework and they understand the
credibility matters they don't just make
item comments because the stock market
is plenty of them for that right so when
CEOs are getting out there and saying
specifically these are our goals they
mean it and I will say that
the other thing the big businesses do
obviously they employ a lot of people
they drive a lot of investment they do
their homework and if they see the state
is not helping them achieve their goals
that's going to infest that that will
have a significant impact on how they
view future investments in that state
it's just it isn't what it is right so
there's a lot of talked about you know
solar and it's
kind of coming from the politics of it
all like the bottom line here and this
is what my company really frankly bets
its future on is demand is absolutely in
place and it is not going anywhere and
either we're going to satisfy that
demand or not
thanks yeah so Kevin and Francis this
point you wanted to provide a little bit
of context too on like how we got here
today and why we're having this
discussion it's knowing that different
people have been involved in different
ways for different amounts of time so I
just wanted to walk a little bit through
sort of the evolution of Solar
Development and permitting in Virginia
and what's been working and what caused
where we see chaos going so I think
solar projects first started to be
permitted in Virginia and probably back
in the mid 2015 2016 time frame
um and that was obviously a new way to
set the time in Virginia so you know
counties localities towns solar
companies didn't have a lot of history
or experience to draw in
um and so you know in those early years
design surround projects and the
permitting process was pretty basic you
look back at some of the patients that
were filing in this early years and
they're not not a lot of pages not a lot
of detail to them
um and as those projects started to get
built obviously people learned a lot of
lessons so the Developers is county has
learned a lot of lessons about what
works what doesn't work how things look
and how people feel about this
um and that feedback was invaluable to
shaping where we are today and setting
the path but unfortunately it also
created some long-lasting Impressions
have been hard to overcome and it
created sort of persistent issues so
over the past seven or eight years you
know I can say sort of wholeheartedly
the solar industry is where the very
steadily and very earnestly to improve
the quality of what our work what were
you and also to improve the quality and
the amount of outrage that we have with
counties and the residents you know
we've learned how to better screen
projects through increased setbacks
through retaining natural numbers
through pointing buffers to the point
where the most of the projects that are
proposed today sort of have the status
quo and I'm not really being seen from
any grades or homes
um we've worked with counties to
increase the Revenue after we understood
the implications of some of the early
tax laws around that you know we sat
down in a joint way County Administrator
spending supervisors to revise the tax
code to both pay more in taxes but then
also to give accounting needs more
flexibility localities more flexibility
in structure and exciting agreements
that enable them to increase revenue and
have more flexibility in how they use
that Revenue
um I've got more Creative Solutions to
preserving and restoring money and
creating Wildlife corridors planting you
know what's playing be literally
thousands of Acres of pollinator have
their paths across these restoring
degraded sites and even partnering with
local companies and one of the projects
we're working on back at home we've
partnered with a local weed company
needs being like wine made from honey
um to keep beehives on the properties so
that they can generate the volume of
honey they need to to make the need so
and we've had thousands of hours I mean
Francis Tyson myself spend our hours
traveling across Virginia meeting with
neighbors one-on-one and holding public
meetings attending public meetings
listening to the feedback trying to
figure out how to incorporate that into
our work in a way that produces a better
product and all that results now in
applications and packages that have gone
from you know short stacks to really big
application packages and might have five
or six or seven external reports by
licensed third-party Engineers or other
folks
um and that run hundreds of pages
um and so you know I think that has all
been going on and at the same time a lot
of localities have really worked hard to
build their expertise you know they've
they've really dug in and understood
this and in a lot of cases implemented
really thoughtful comprehensive plans
and ordinances and when that's all
worked it's led to some successes that
we're really proud of like those
projects where you've engaged with the
local community you've engaged group of
County you've come up with a well
thought out well-designed site that has
public support and yields real tangible
benefits for the counties in one County
in South Side we've heard from the head
construction company that they've spent
over 14 million dollars on local
businesses through that project alone
that's real money going into the
accountings and so that's been awesome
like and those success stories are out
there and depending on what you read
like you might see those and feel like
everything's like working well and good
and it is in some cases but I think the
other side of this is that at the same
time that it's still not working in the
way that I think we all approve it would
and I mean localities as well as
developers there you can see that there
is still a searching for Solutions in a
lot of cases and that search is a bit
um a bit disparate across the
Continental you know so I think it
manifests itself in some of the things
that we're seeing in ordinances of
accounting repealing ordinances or
counties refusing to pass ordinances or
putting in
um
you know very Extreme Measures around
requirements for things you have
sometimes that don't want big projects
only one small project you have other
counties that don't want small projects
only want big projects and it's like led
to a pretty confused
um situation out there and I think the
way I see it is it's it's everybody
yearning for a solution here but not
having a good way to do that you know
counties obviously you're juggling tons
of Demands with limited staff doing
their best to learn these things but
solar projects in a big land uses and
those are complicated again you know you
have an application that's hundreds of
pages with third-party reports like
you're getting into some pretty detailed
stuff and so I think you know one of the
things that we see is a need to find a
way to make that all work a little bit
better to make it more cohesive to make
it a little bit more consistent to be
clear I'm not advocating for taking away
Authority from anyone I'm just like it
is very important that localities and
their citizens have input in this
process that I'm not saying or not but I
think we need to make sure the right
decisions are made in the right places
you know for example storm water is a
big concern and it's a valid concern but
more and more I feel like we're having
debates at a County board meeting
between citizens and board members who
and myself who admittedly not in
stormwater experts you know and we have
processes through your agencies to
handle still water and to handle it and
make sure that no ground gets Disturbed
unless there's a plan that is approved
so it's trying to find the right choices
for the right decisions trying to find
the right process that enables good
decisions not every project is a good
project
um but also it shouldn't be subject to
sort of the bakeries of whatever one-off
conversations have had happened in
certain localities between certain
developers and certain people like I
think there's an opportunity to do this
pattern I think
genius energy feature kind of depends on
that you know beyond where obviously
interested in solar the governor
obviously has a very aggressive you know
all the above energy plan that that's my
understanding involves deploying more
energy generation across Virginia and so
some of these permitting challenges are
just
um applicable to solar they're
applicable to really be publicly Works
project that we want to do
um and I think there's some an
opportunity here to to improve that
process
yeah that's that's well said I as you
all heard uh I sort of didn't come today
to prepare everyone because I didn't
realize I'd be speaking but uh I'm happy
to be able to participate and perhaps
contribute some perspective to the
discussion
um I feel like I know that made a great
family more experience in terms of the
demands there I mean we're talking about
fundamental markets and that is driving
the need for these resources and it's
not exclusive to solar you know we know
there's work in the wooden space and
storage space and others but this
concept of moving towards a cleaner
economy is something that is is set in
motion and I think we all recognize
that's that's the future that's ahead of
us and so when we try into investment
and to achieve that goal with many
people benefiting from it as possible
um and I think that's a big part of what
motivates our companies as
virginia-based businesses need to see
that this isn't a extraction business
model you know this is of additive
business model into these communities we
talk a lot about the environmental
benefits that are obvious when it comes
to producing power without emissions but
just to re-emphasize the point about the
local economic benefits are are huge and
I think that honestly those are the
things that stick with you after the
projects are built when you see the
approvements made in school right new
facilities new fire trucks those things
and I think that's Drew's point about
how the industry really has done a lot
in the last five plus years to make sure
that this is a additive solution towards
the energy needs but also those of What
Not development needs you know around
the reformed for local taxes to make
that more streamlined to make more
beneficial for localities and give them
more tools like the side of the
agreements
um you know and something that's very
understandable when it comes to the
registructure those are all all very
positive
um what I'd like to add to the
conversation uh if I'm a like a little
bit of just personal note
because I'm looking around the room and
I see a lot of familiar faces it's so
great to continue to be back with folks
have been involved in this for a decade
or more
um and then new folks getting engaged
seeing the opportunity in Virginia uh
and what has struck me is again like
these four Virginia companies including
Dominion in that there's been a lot of
collaboration over the years really
trying to find like a path here and
uh for being doing this for like on a
personal note you know as a guy who's
born down in Danville Virginia you know
then growing up in Winchester and then
leaving Virginia to go find experience
in the renewable space building sewing
and projects across the country it was
only about 10 years ago when the market
really began to open up here and we were
able to see the cycle growth so
opportunities for folks to come back and
I hear France is talking about the
number of companies in Virginia the
number of employees that's that's only
growing and when we are in the
communities and engaging with
stakeholders and we're hearing these
stories about folks who are saying this
is providing an opportunity
here to stay home and to create these
jobs I don't want the importance of that
to be lost in the sort of regulatory
environment of trying to figure out you
know one plus one doesn't equal two or
not when it goes to storm water rather
than technical issues but I think that
what we're doing fundamentally is a
extremely beneficial thing for rural
Virginia and I don't want to lose sight
of that
are not losing excited is staying
engaged eye to eye with the localities
that are really administering the local
government process here like you I agree
that's fundamentally important to what
we do as Virginia in terms of the land
use decisions that are held at the local
front and we need to do our job and work
with you all to continue to get the
resources and information and education
out we're talking 95 counties plus you
know municipalities everybody knows that
so but it's a massive engagement effort
and we've been attempting to do that
because industry it's been great to have
the support of some non-profits in this
space engn is in space utilities and all
others I think everybody's going to come
collectively working towards that and
um
come back to the concept of we had the
hospital to go six that was passed that
set up you know a a regulatory advisor's
panel that met on a number of occasions
last summer in a number of different
areas now anytime you know I think as
folks know you get a group of I think 70
80 plus stakeholders together it's
pretty hard to find consensus on this
shoe
um but as being a participant in that
process and spending many many days or
hours during the summer together in
rooms with folks who share concerns here
are trying to find a more productive
path board
um I thought that was a very good use of
time and I had the fortune of getting to
work with Joe uh as the co-chair of the
local government engagement subcommitted
as a part of that 206 wrap and we found
some areas where we really could have
consensus on the needs to make sure the
counties are being informed about
projects earlier on
you know so they can be prepared
um so there's opportunities to engage
not only with the developers but also
with some State resources around
what do we need to do what's our role
and process for deciding on land use
decisions for these projects because
I've agreed that there are a lot of
things details that are left really to
purview of State regulators and even
sometimes the Federal Regulations these
projects will not get built they don't
have a necessary state and federal
approvals as well so we need to keep
that context and what's like the the
role and responsibility and and effort
at the local level to really make this
like a qualified name of these decision
um so again I thought there was progress
being made there and I'm just encouraged
that the obviously on plan is to go and
participate today and just be true
perspective to that and that uh you know
this to me is not sort of any type of
you know race to the bottom or you know
basically detracting from the
possibilities here I'm just encouraged
that we're having this discussion and uh
trying to find it in a way to just
benefit everybody with the objects in
thank you chairman I'm going to start us
off with a quick question and then
encourage other authority members to
make use of the three experts and
Business Leaders that we have here today
um at Federal level we call the states
the Laboratories of the Democracy try
new things figure out what works best
and good ideas will flow to the top the
state level the same thing can be said
about the counties
50 plus Counties have different solar
ordinances I've done Mr burial has a map
of almost every County a glowing I'm
talking about how many counties have
recently adjusted their solar policies
that determine how these projects are
permitted uh everybody's doing a little
bit different things but there are some
counties that have
put into policy ordinances that allow
zero Solar Development to take place
whatsoever no matter the size no matter
the proposal no matter how good that
proposal might be not allowed whatsoever
that might be a cap on projects that
make these projects uneconomical uh that
might be 10 miles between projects
because they don't want them to be
clustered and might be 10 to 15 miles
wide that might be aggregate acreage
caps on a county by county level uh
other Counties have uh found a different
way to protect their problem by not
having an ordinance at all zero policy
that allows any landowner their own
citizens from bringing forward a
proposal to permit a project
um sort of a clever way to to get around
it and a frustrating one when you have
that your own citizens trying to put
their land into these projects earn
income for themselves support the local
economy and there's zero local policy to
do so can you all speak to some of the
challenges in that vein that you're
facing at the level and expand upon that
well I'll jump into one specific example
that's to point out one counts a year or
individual but it struck me when I was
having a conversation with our company
was immunization and working with a
number of different counties but in this
one case a supervisor in the county that
that county has experienced with some
solar projects but to receive the
question of isn't it true that these
products don't pay property taxes uh
when it's you've been years of work to
make Congress lessons and guess the fact
we do and beyond that either signing
agreements and other mechanisms to
really make sure this is a good benefit
uh
when you're mentioning the variety
across all those different counties and
approaches being taken
I think that a lot of that has to do
with are we still missing some of the
fundamental education pieces that have
not yet made my way out to localities to
be aware of what the benefits of these
projects can be and that's that's
failing our part this industry but I
think something that we can do more
elected to try and make sure books are
informed what some of the benefits are
this isn't just about
a signal in terms of the the lack of our
ability to have gotten in and out
sufficiently two decision makers at the
local level that that in fact it's not
the case you know these projects are
providing tremendous economic benefits
and what can we do to continue the
instrument because if the impression is
that there aren't then absolutely I can
understand Chinese frustration and
saying hey what did possible we
understand this here so we've got to
make sure that we're doing it not only
in the morning and use front but I don't
like the economic development side if
the things that we've done from our
chair Society agreements
Etc to keep keep that education going
against it so I I would say one thing
that strikes me is having sat through an
I don't know many dozens I don't know if
I'm 30 plus two like 50 75
training commission Board of Supervisors
hearings
when um in many of these counties where
our projects are going and it is rural
Virginia right you'll see a application
like a two-page application for somebody
to build a wedding video or something
like that right and there's a little bit
of discussion and it's approved
um one of our projects comes forward and
there's almost always some people who
because we are a large footprint and
they do see it as change they oppose it
and so all of a sudden it goes from what
I think the county was used to which is
generally agreement that you know some
land use like wedding videos as an
example is something that nobody's going
to be concerned about to there's some
very loud voices in the room that are
saying and I've come to recognize they
genuinely believe
that our projects are going to
fundamentally change the county in a way
that they do not want and they are
fighting it
as hard as they can and our supporters
are basically count I mean sometimes you
get a few people who will stand up and
be like an offices yeah I'll tell a
funny anecdote in a second but you know
and but that Dynamic makes me think and
I'm not we're not here to find the
solution I don't think but you know
these counties need some support and I
think some of this is having
data Management Consultant at one point
in time in my life sometimes you were a
Management Consultant just so the CEO
could say they told me to do it right so
I mean to what extent can we support
these counties which I know in some
cases there are supervisors that would
like to see the project go forward
but they don't see it worth the
political costs of
upsetting their friends and neighbors by
pushing the project forward they may
think this is the right thing to do but
they're like
not gonna you know
it's not going to go there
um
the funny anecdote of the final fighting
is in Lunenburg County one guy did stand
up one time instead
this is an IQ test and if you vote
against this pregnant you fail God you
know I just thought it was kind of a
funny little thing
the supervisors or electives thinking
it's going to fundamentally change
well I think citizens think it's going
to fall in our Channel I think often
over time
um thank you Commissioners and
supervisors get to understand that while
we may be a thousand acres or several
thousand papers on a relative basis it's
you know eight percent or two percent of
the land in that county so I don't think
they worry about it from that
perspective and I think they're well
educated about the technology often
um that it is safe technology and then
as I say and I think we all say don't
trust us like don't trust us that it's
safe technology forced us to make sure
there is no risk to your county by
removing panels when they need to be
removed and things like that there's a
lot of things that can be done
that will get the supervisors
comfortable with the issue I see is
where there's some citizens in the
county that do not want the project to
go forward for there's all kinds of
different reasons
it you know it's their view or it's
their hunting ground or they just think
it's not the right thing and they are
adamant and they often
um bring up the number of
uh claims that I don't think are found
well-founded I can give you another
anecdote one time I sat through a
presentation I went up to the guy I said
I'd really like to know where are you
getting your data from so that you and I
can have a conversation about you know I
have information I can share and he
refused to just spawn down the room
right he was not going to
um let me see where you guys gave it
from the point being that I think
sometimes the opposition
um feels that big business is coming in
and they've got to fight us anyway
anyhow to make sure this doesn't happen
and I do believe they genuinely believe
this is the wrong thing
um but I also believe strongly it's a
very small percentage of that Community
that's very vocal
that gets the rest of the community to
just back away because they don't want
to deal with it
so similar on the same issue so one
percent of your applications and
essentially you feel are getting denied
by City staff which is that we won't
look at it because right if we can solve
that we're not going to look at parties
and we can force them to look at it I
used to be able to download but but uh
we can force them to look at it the
issue is at what percent is being denied
at the days right with the you know 100
people getting up at a you know 500 000
whatever uh complaining and then dying
because of this business is it using the
system but they killed it or do you have
an issue with the staff behind the
scenes still
in my experience staff has usually been
supportive I think the county staff has
been supportive of these projects but
again they don't get out of their Lane
so they they just do what they're
supposed to do in terms of preparing the
board to review the project
um the uh
I think I've seen more and more that
counties are removing ordinances from uh
this whole world in itself so that we
can't even apply or they're constantly
revising the ordinance and telling us
wait wait wait I have been in many
counties where it's been a three or four
year wait to just get your application
submit
um so these are the kinds of things that
are happening
um in my experience more and more okay
if it's for you
for per gym but for some of these
counties how many projects are or
proposed at the same time so for example
if it's not just about the application
that's in front of them it's in there
looking at it in the context of having I
don't know what the right number is 20
more that are taking each hundreds of
Acres potentially is
do we know sort of order of magnitude
for some of these localities and I don't
know if that's you all or two or
somebody else who might be able to
answer that question
I can answer it from my experience this
is a dynamic that is causing the county
also to be concerned because they see
that each of these applications is
causing controversy and often counties
where projects make sense will have
six can applications right coming at um
um at the same time
it's a if it's a first project in a
county there's a learning curve right
and that's pretty routine and if it's
the first or second project we don't I
mean we're not seeing a huge degree of
pushback it it seems that it has to do
with the number of our projects in the
queue and maybe you know where projects
that have already been built like a
couple of projects in the county that
are several hundred acres okay but when
we see I don't know again I asked the
number but I don't know if that's
something that you have or somebody else
does but is it 10 in some counties is it
20 is it thousands of Acres what is it
an altitude
I would want to watch that I totally
agree like when you're the first project
in that county in that region it has not
but that was like five weeks ago and but
also I think counties are seeing the
region don't picture so they're saying
maybe one or two projects here and then
a few projects next to them and so I
think that also causes people to do
if I could add a couple things to that
uh one in terms of yes we have this
large demand again where we need to be
able to build projects
um but the developers who are proposing
projects aren't doing that without like
especially in a vacuum that you already
alluded to Gathering like one there are
the constraints upon the utility grid
itself I think most folks are probably
here today already know that understand
that
um the fact that we are needing to find
location is on the system the grid where
we're able to connect these projects uh
with a more cost effective approach and
that trips down to it and impacts the
ability to deliver power as cost
effectively as possible to customers to
utilities to others who can then create
the approvals that are needed and have a
good long-term benefits rate page so
that's that's important the second is
that these are private companies there's
no in the domain elements of this this
is a private partnership with landowners
often cases private the family
landowners who are looking to utilize a
portion of the property before these
projects
um so there's no sort of forcing this
group in the sense that you know we are
responding to the capacity and
availability on the grid and responding
to being interesting the desire of
private Landing members and evangelists
um and then we're also overlapping to
talk about like Drew is alluding to the
the bone stress test we put on Project
proposals through screening diligence
when it comes to all different
regulatory aspects it would have to be
put down very environmental or otherwise
so a lot of that leads to
the project must end up sort of deciding
themselves where they're going to go
it's just a matter of who happens to get
to that location first where the
capacity is the interest of the private
land in order and the conditions are out
of human permanent
um on the cost-effective projects so you
know we're not just pushing this through
and that's tough one I just I'm just
curious as to like in some of these
counties is it five projects that
they're seeing or is it 25 and maybe
that I think it's something
additionally I know the projects we were
talking about five years ago might have
been the 20 megawatt projects these
newer projects can you describe the
acreage difference
a few questions and if there's anybody
in the room that can answer that on the
Authority or I mean I don't know joking
but just we have the data sets at the
Virginia Department of energy in both
the Virginia solar survey as well as
ongoing tracking of like what's in the
cube and what's already
um permitted so I think that is one
um
if I could add some of the counties that
are putting in these very strict and
restrictive ordinances are encouraging a
massive applications to come their way
before that acreage cap is hit so
there's some counties
what we've seen as some counties have
asked for an immediate envelope session
10 or 20 applications or a capacity of
trying to get grandfathered into them
today's projects are on average
versus
to see two megawatt projects and 800
megawatt projects but I'd say the whole
you guys answer that
average exercise has been projects it's
interesting they've gotten bigger and
and but now I'm seeing a lot of smaller
projects too because of shared solar and
um and I also think that potentially
people are
trying to get harder to
um
aggregate up the way and for the larger
projects and a lot of the kind of large
tracts of land it's probably before
you've been identified so that's one
thing I I think it might also be helpful
to Belgium sex I think this gets right
to Catherine's Point
um
on what is our business and what does
that result in in terms of dynamic we
fundamentally are trying to find a piece
of land that that makes sense and so we
will approach many landowners and get
the conversation going to see you know
if it's going to make sense now we do a
certain amount of due diligence before
we approach the landowner but we don't
go spend a ton of money
prior to even knowing if we've got Linda
and who's interested which means that
you're going to get some new
uh projects started that don't go to
fruition and we kind of realize that
this isn't going to make sense when we
shut it down and counties people
especially in some of these uh smaller
counties in terms of population
there's a good rumor belt that gets
going so you know there's 10 15
landowners that are hearing from solar
developers the county is hearing that
there's 10 to 15 projects it's about to
come their way that may or may not be
the case
um you know it's just the nature of our
business so I think it's important to
understand that sometimes and I I've
seen that in a couple cases where the
County Administrator is like oh my
goodness
I'm about to get totally overwhelmed
with solar projects which didn't
actually happen
again because anybody ever that
questions
they have
yeah and I'm going to suggest um I
clearly messed up I should have
scheduled the whole meeting for this
topic because it was a report dropping
and we're not going to get to the bottom
of a bit so I'm going to suggest that
we're trying to schedule a June meeting
so but I would like to have the
authority consider is uh what we do with
this topic you know do we address it in
our report do we try and have some
stakeholder meetings but I think the
authority needs to think about first of
all obviously we need to get the data
and the farm Advantage you can give us
some of that and then what what do we do
moving forward I know Skyler
um
uh is interested in in having us not
just report on things but actually try
to get some resolution or some some
solutions to perceive policy over the
solar energy development and energy
storage Authority so what what
how can we encourage development in this
area addressing this topic okay
and your character Davis discussion into
a data interior I think the data won't
show necessarily all of the projects
that can be brought forward or have
underdrawn so if none of us want to
waste our entire County's time look how
it's time to pushing projects that
aren't wanted or won't work so I think
just keep that in mind when you look at
the data that like some of these
policies and ordinances are the effect
of making it not possible so that things
were causing people to hold that back
and I think yeah we're under two
directory where this will the conference
point it as president's grown
yeah it it feels like it's grinding
towards the hall and it will say that to
me like
um sky is falling it just it feels like
that's the direction we're going that
there's a certain amount that is
acceptable in certain places and if the
state as a whole economical desires for
us to hit those goals so we're going to
have to figure out something different
to make this work for localities and
make it work for your development
process just uh really quickly John
Phillips online got a stand rates John
do you want to go ahead
yeah thanks I and I've had a risk for a
while so this might be at this point
kind of a non-sequitur but
um I just wanted to mention going back
to what some people had questions about
um projects and a number of projects and
counties and sizes Sean has put it on my
Sean Workforce Development hat right now
has a project pipeline analysis on our
website that has a lot of this
information on there we've done
extensive data mining um
some of the projects may be dead by now
we really need to clean it up but we
have a good platform to to to to extract
this information
but that and also I want to talk about
one aspect that hasn't really been
discussed here is local employment
opportunities and the benefits that has
to the localities
many times when we go to and Francis
knows this very well we try to permanent
project in a county we we talk to them
about those benefits and they say well
what can you guarantee us and we can't
really do anything because there is no
guarantee that the epcs are going to
hire
labor contractors that are going to hire
locally a lot of times they bring in
Crews from out of state
so I was trying to address this or
trying to get people trained up to uh to
do these jobs Central entry level
construction jobs
but we've had trouble working directly
with the dccs they've been great to work
with but we haven't been able to get the
people through the program that we
really want to so we're trying to reach
out to other entities like the
Department of Corrections
um and and local public school systems
um trying to get more local citizens
employed in these entry level entry
level positions but I just wanted to
make sure that we don't overlook that
aspect of the the benefit to the
localities because I think
um that is that is something that they
hear and it's very important to them
short on
schedule and I'm going to turn after the
presentation thank you for the
alternative yeah thank you so much
yes okay uh let me
let me Michael and Paul introduce
himself briefly and then we'll vote on
the minutes so so it is you know it's
really good members here of this
Authority I won't uh
financing as well as with solar energy
returns
bye
um
developers operators
disorders and projects
based upon our own jobs available
for both with utilities as well as
developers on solar and the energy
storage side all the way from concept to
thank you Paul so uh the the I'm on the
agenda before us is the approval of the
minutes from the December 13th 2022
Meeting those minutes were distributed
in advance of this do you have any
corrections or amendments to those
minutes if you're not I would entertain
a motion to approve and commission you
have a second second okay so doing the
first stylish seconded all in favor say
um on any of those
any abstentions all right the minutes
are approved and um Colleen do you want
to introduce yourself briefly well uh
Colleen Lincoln I am a director of
environics development at AES uh working
on uh
uh great enhancing Technologies and
bringing uh transmission uh capabilities
thank you all right uh and now we'll
turn it over to the uh I do when our
attended presentation by first seller
I think finalizing yeah okay
presentation of Sears event
so um I'll start sure uh Sarah I'm
farming Blanco Heartfield government and
um we are it's America's largest solar
manufactured so we're not a developer
and we create the panels and
um one of the reasons that we are here
is
um
we understand
that public service especially those
people down in local government or
making big decisions about the products
and the projects that they have in their
communities and when they make these
decisions they would absolutely prefer
to be making these decisions based on
that
and there's a lot of the messaging out
in the space for your conservative
invalid and this event messaging comes
with a lot of misinformation those with
a lot of misinformation as we heard
earlier about the economic impacts about
the real estate values about the safety
of the products and we keep getting
called in
um to the different families to
share factual information about this big
thing of our product in particular we
don't speak to others obviously but
um you know there's they're they're
distinct it's all safe and so Karen is
going to give a presentation the blood
um on you know our footprint and who we
are as a company
um and that kind of thing but
um so
so the government of spirit Affairs
perspective you know that's the the seat
that I'm in right and driving this and
I'm looking for how do you teach
personally the noise and reach the
decision makers and give them a lot of
playing field the one that they desire
in order to make the best decisions for
their communities and where can we
possibly create a centralized
um Hub of information that they are
aware of that they trust that they can
plug into and that they can have answers
when people from the community come to
them with their concerns you know do
they have access to a global q a from a
trusted source that tells them this is
what you're going to hear this is what
the truth is here's a good way to
respond to that and it'd be like you
know in the earlier discussion really
laid out the need like the local
government has in particular as they
journey through this nice little
Adventure so I'm going to try to figure
out thank you Carmen then thank you all
for so much for having us apologies for
being so late I dreamed I-95 on the rain
and we appreciate it
um so uh thanks again for having
USD and sustainability for her solar and
then to the next slide I'll provide a
little overview about this so we are the
largest American Solar manufacturer who
were founded in 1999
and we manufactured thin film Canada and
Telluride solar panels that have a
problem that's two and a half times
lower than uh Crystal and silicon
modules produced in China
next slide please
so we are headquartered in Tempe Arizona
and our manufacturing operations are in
folks of Ohio uh we're also expanding
into Alabama we also manufacture in
Malaysia the Vietnam and our building
facility in India
we are unique among the top 10 world's
largest solar manufacturers for not
Manufacturing in China and for not using
poly silicon
next slide please
so why can't tell cantel is a uniquely a
unique solar technology it's invented
here in the U.S in our r d labs in Ohio
River California
it provides environmental technological
economic and energy Security benefits so
it can be manufactured in a fully
integrated manufacturing process which
results in the lowest environmental push
event it has a Superior Energy yield
Advantage being the hot and humid
climates and it has the lowest warranted
degradation rate in the industry and
then last but not least it has the
ability to rapidly scale domestically
without economy from China
um recognizing these benefits the U.S
department of energy launched the 10
cell PV accelerator program
to help uh drive and enhance U.S
leadership in this technology
so this shows how our manufacturing
process different from Crystal and
silicon solar panels uh manufactured so
our process is fully integrated between
student class goes in four and a half a
half hours later and complete the solar
module comes out
contrast that to crystalline silicon's
batch manufacturing process which takes
place uh elephant's plans across
multiple factories sometimes we cross
the multiple properties that all
increases the environmental footprint
but in those panels it also makes
traceability of the materials difficult
and challenging so if you go to the next
slide
this highlights how not all solar panels
have been equal having manufacturing
those panels and where are you
manufacturing them so if you're
manufacturing and energy intensive panel
in a carboning sense of grid like in
China that can increase the permanent by
two and a half times
that aside at least
so besides being the leading
environmental profiling or technology
it's also a safe and proven technology
and the safety is based on the stability
of the materials so when you take
cadmium and you're providing the
solarium it transforms into a stable
compound that's insoluble in water
it also has an extremely high melting of
boiling point five dollars in about 2
000 degrees Fahrenheit
and then our technology is called thin
filled because the the semiconductor
layer is three percent of the thickness
of a human hair so very very thin
encapsulated between two sheets of glass
and sealed with an industrial interior
in addition to that these these panels
are tested Beyond IL and ulc
requirements
so lifetime accelerated testing ensures
that the panels can last at least 30
years
and our technology has consistently from
a lot of something doesn't ranked top
performer for long-term durability and
reliability
as besides that we have a track track
record of having sold more than 50
gigawatts worldwide across more than 45
countries
and um for over a span of two decades
next slide please
in addition to that more than 50
researchers from leaving the US and
international universities and
institutions have confirmed the
environmental benefits and the safety of
our technology
next slide
so you might be wondering okay you've
already here so I'm here because there's
a lot of misinformation about our
technology in Virginia
there's also you know bleaching studies
that are out there that are not
representative of our technology and not
represented in a real world
environments or scenarios and uh and
therefore are learning to have been
leaching which would not actually
occurred so if you look at some reports
by the iempb Power Systems program they
looked at the workspace module modeling
in the event of breakage and acid rain
and then also improper disposal in an
online landfill bearings in mind that
most landfills in the U.S are lying and
those reports concluded that both
principal and silicon Technologies and
had told the thin film Technologies are
stated
there's also a quote here that I've
included from the study by Columbia
University which highlights
studies learning to Academy and
completing were using non-representative
products so they're basically scraping
out the semiconductor material or
grounding into a pattern
mixed together with strong acid to get
the results that they wanted to get
to the next slide
this highlights why we know how
difficult it is to extract the setting
kind of material from our past because
we've purposely try to do that during
our recycling process
personal or established the first
recycling program in the industry back
in 2005.
we're not just precisely we're also
we've also achieved closed loop recovery
of the semiconductor material meaning we
can reuse it in new solar kits
and if you go to the next slide
this highlights our approach to
circularity so and it spans the entire
lifestyle of our product so at the
beginning of the life cycle we're taking
um cadmium which is generated as a
byproduct of zinc Mining and and the
solarium which is a byproduct and the
copper refining dividing that to create
them Eco efficient PB Technology that
can be manufactured using less water
less energy less sodium without the
material
covering more than 90 of the materials
why not 100 there are some inevitable
losses when you press up the materials
uh so so the five to ten percent that
can be recovered are being
um extracted by highly efficiency
filtration systems
so if you go into the next slide this
this provides for any technology nerves
out there
um an overview of our process which
basically first includes
depression the panels and putting it
through a hammer them those small pieces
are then uh sprayed with acid in order
to be able to bleach and extract the
metals those are facilitated and then
refined and then they can be reused and
then used to the first solar panels and
So currently we're at 10 recycled
content for a semiconductor material
that will increase as we see more
modules come back to the field so the
majority of what we're recycling debate
is actually getting the vacuum scrap
because products last for 25 years or
more
to that side at least or maybe just to
highlight
um so the class that is is cleaned and
then it's used in glass container
products and in the laser we found an
outlet for Lambda material which is used
in Rubber products like shoes soles and
bike cameras
so I also wanted to highlight that we
have the first and currently owning
Solar Products included in thinking
which is an independently validated and
globally recognized people later
and this basically addresses an entire
life cycle of the product from
substances used in the product to
manufacturing energy and water
efficiency recycling
as well as corporate responsibility and
Equipment rights
and so this is you know an easy registry
they have categories for
um computers servers about plugs they
now have the PB module in their cabinet
it makes it easy for uh purchasers to
identify environments with leaving
products from socially responsible
companies
next slide please
Okay so
this is my last fight I've come
interested so we have more than 370
megawatts of our panels installed across
the founder development and I wanted to
highlight Explorer technology with the
mature technology it's been sales for
more than 20 years
but we are desperately looking to level
the playing field and not have policies
that discriminate against a safe proven
and Americans technology
um we're not just your neighbor in Ohio
we're also committed to responsible
solar from environmental to Excellence
to respecting human rights across our
Global operations and our supply chain
thank you thank you and I'm going to
have to exercise the prerogative with
the chair and and cut off this
discussion very shortly just because
we're going to run so thank you so much
questions you want to I I apologize for
the piano that picture here all these
solar developers here and not allow a
free range of discussion it's just
restored on time again
meeting so if anyone wants to you know
and continue this conversation that I I
would suggest we we do an Institute
meeting thank you so much all right
we're going to move to uh our
interconnection challenges discussion
reminded me that I sailed in one of my
other responsibilities as careers was
for us to both on the remote
participation from John tell us so in
order for John to officially participate
we need to vote and have support so I'm
going to conform the motion that we uh
allow John to participate remotely do I
have a second any discussion is there
any other members online that might want
to perspects
technology
all right so uh hearing no discussion I
would entertain about alternator said
any post any attention John you're down
there's been part of the meeting thank
you all right
all right Dixon and Tony we're gonna
turn it over to you oh well actually let
me play a little bit of grammar uh the
reason you're discussing interconnection
challenges is because this has been kind
of uh recent developments of the Sierra
area last May the commission opened
adopted saying if you would want some uh
we've got these distribution their
connection regulations out there
um and we uh you know we'd like to get
feedback on whether folks are having
whether they send me to revisit the
commission's distribution regulations uh
both found comments in August 2022 the
staff report came out September 2022 the
SEC after in my opinion some people like
uh on March 3rd issued disorder saying
you know what we're going to start some
some Explorations into this this topic
and then this week on on April 25th the
staff is just issued a survey I hope a
bunch of you got it and responses to
that survey are June 16. so this is a
very timely topic for the authorities
consideration
Spider-Man chair and um honors the
members of the solar flooring Chinese
27th president and founder of secure
solar Futures uh just as a matter of
courtesy and Washington City of dominion
was also like to present any
uh comments on interconnection as part
of this family
we were on the
Channel but
indeed so if demanded wants to have
respond to what goes on here
okay
probably invested here at the panel says
thank you
um so uh just a history of time 2010 we
were the first uh Solar Development
company to introduce solar ppas in
Virginia
University
2012 we've helped organize a stakeholder
group including other solar installers
developers environment groups and with
dominion over pull on summer as early
fall period to see frequences solar PCA
legislation approved uh we were
successful uh with the support of
Senator John Edwards to get PPA
legislation enacted in 2013.
in 2015 we were still the only solar
developer doing solar PPA projects in
Virginia
uh that was actually at the time the
solar Authority was first established
in 2017 still no other similar to
developers in Virginia we were getting a
lot of questions from school districts
why are they the only ones doing solar
qpas there must be something wrong with
this picture you're saving us money we
don't have to put up any Capital costs
we don't have any operating risk we
don't have to maintain what's wrong with
this texture and and the fact that we
had no competition prompted us together
with the Virginia Community Capital to
sponsor of datalong training session for
other solar companies including Segura
Sunshine Malta energy and others to
train them how to do solar ppas and how
to finance solar projects
that was at the time that the solar
Authority added energy storage so 2017
was the actually the turning point for
the growth of solar ppas in Virginia
after that training session we saw a
huge increase in the number of solar PPA
projects especially with public schools
in Virginia
um so we have been very active in
working with the district Virginia
distributed solar Alliance and so my
comments this morning will be focusing
primarily on that feeder primarily
rooftop solar projects predominantly
with public school districts
universities hospitals non-profits and
some commercial and my colleague um uh
Lisa goldberger will be speaking to
Shared solar projects which are
predominantly in front of the meter with
a larger scale
so as I mentioned uh commercial scale
solar has really turned into a fantastic
solution for K-12 schools because they
save money they can integrate it into
the curriculum it offers Workforce
Development opportunities to consider
CTE students can learn skills and the
trades of the solar industry it's the
fastest growing job created
and yes now
um all of a sudden we're stopped uh
we're essentially stopped on
projects above 250 KW
largely because
um a process that we find ourselves uh
kind of at the receiving end in terms of
new standards and requirements for
interconnection
um and we can bring this to your
attention as the authority competitive
Mission this week
totally embraced as to help increase
financing for solar and to increase the
availability of solar especially for
public and private entities that want to
uh to enjoy those benefits
in December of twenty one of 22
um Dominion introduced uh
interconnectional standings for net
major solar this was halfway through a
process that the SDC started actually in
um
May of 22 when they opened the docket on
interconnection they heard lots of
commentary effects the number one
comment that that was heard why the SEC
was the interconnection issues
uh the SEC uh their students report in
September of 22. and again it was not
just that these were new standards but
they were very costly scanners uh the
direct transfer trip
dark fiber dark fiber costs uh somewhere
in the percentage of 150 to 200 000 per
mile so if you're five miles from a
substation you're looking at 800 000 to
a million dollars on a project that
might be a if it's a one megawatt
project you're adding 30 to 40 percent
to the project cost
the back of the sheet that we handed out
has a listing of the projects that are
now currently
um stopped interrupted or just uh on in
suspension State including Red River
hoods which is a commercial about uh
customer tiger solar Piedmont Community
College uh we're just seeing uh some
delays Habitat for Humanity was plus
some additional costs Chesterfield
County Public Schools brand Market
various solar projects with convert
Augustus solar which was intended to be
the first uh solar shared solar project
for 100 low
um
households will stop
we were presented with a million dollars
in additional costs which was not going
to make it possible for us to meet the
the policy goals of shared solar in
Virginia which was to make someone
available to low-income Health Service
um Prince William County has seen some
delays and numerous projects with
Sunshine Too Many to list of this
attachment uh predominantly with public
experience
so what is happening because of these
requirements they're most heavily uh
impacting rural communities that's where
the uh the distribution feeders have the
least
infrastructure to take the three to one
requirements that Dominion is requiring
in terms of load to generation I don't
get into the weeds but these are
standards which are far higher than the
National Grid average certainly by those
recommended by Symbian National Labs and
uh International renewable energy labs
what is happening is that these costs
are being pushed to the developers and
therefore to the customers and they're
disproportionate to the size of the
projects with projects up to one day it
represents of 20 to 40 percent cost
so we have
um asked that uh to mainly immediately
suspend uh these requirements pending
the due process established by the SEC
which in marched this year laid out a
process for working groups
pilot studies regulatory form which
would likely take at least two or more
years to wind its way through
and unfortunately neither are customers
nor our industry can award that kind of
delay because these projects are now put
on both we have school districts like
Chesterfield verify X
um
Palatine uh
throughout the Commonwealth I would say
that have these sustainability the
lawsuits desire to say one age
incorporated into the curriculum
delivery report are now unable to
proceed so it's an impact on our public
schools on jobs the access to solar for
low income and ultimately on rate payers
because commercial civil solar projects
do save money for ratepayer assessment
documented Nationwide uh that's it
reduces the key demand
and and also for taxpayers we as
Virginians are paying taxpayers uh
dollars towards the dollars that are now
being uh invested through the inflation
reduction act and those dollars are
going to go to states that are solar
friendly
so we as taxpayers in accounting welfare
essentially going to be subsidizing
projects outside of Virginia
so we are asking uh Dominion uh if it
would uh please respond to the concerns
raised by the entertainment distributed
solar Alliance uh we wrote a letter to
the management well we have all blue on
Monday we'd hope to get a response uh
next week and we wanted to bring this to
the attention of the authority because
this is an issue that is right at the
core of your mission and purpose thank
you very much
business development director for the
Mid-Atlantic for New Leaf energy
solar and before that I spoke in front
of you all many years ago as the energy
star Association of State policy
directors of good to see some of the
University as well um I'm going to take
it back Tony spoke about a very specific
issue which is definitely an issue with
some consent in all large extractive
interconnected to the distribution
system in dimendy's territory I'm going
to take us back a little bit and just
talk about General interconnection
challenges and uh what we're seeing in
terms of trying to to implement through
Reading resources but as Tony mentioned
our project our company represents
distributed generation in front of the
leader Community solar DG projects we
also built into the scale solar and
storage so we are also members like
Adobe I I missed not to mention we're
members of ctsa the Coalition for
Community solar access and Chessa we've
been working with them over the both
organizations over the last three years
to really try and address a lot of these
uh in the connection Nations and we've
been working collaboratively with
zooming in as well and some folks in the
room specifically so I did want to
recognize that the new further efforts
to try interested in these issues
um so so
um I want to point out that
um the Dean Corporation Commission
actually updated the rules governing
distribution distribution
interconnection and international
resources into the distribution system
in 2020 the unfortunate thing about that
is that the last opportunity for
stakeholder government was the end of
2019 established into report March 20th
2020 and you all know what happens April
9th 2020 which is that the Virginia
legislature passed two very important
bills for clean energy and distributed
energy in particular the Virginia
economy act which includes a lot of
deployment and clean energy resources in
the Commonwealth but specifically 1100
megawatts of projects three megawatts
and below and student loans territory
and then also the shared solar program
which is which provides access to
dominate customers up to 200 megawatts
into its territory uh the shared solar
programs and and the dcea all triggered
a very robust response from the develop
my community that resulted in quite
significant
application volume of applications were
included generation
um I'll say that the last revision to
the regulations didn't entertain the
scale of the DG resources that we
received and so it's no wonder that
we're seeing these concerns and these
these challenges and so we just need to
get together in the stakeholders against
an address that would perform the rules
governing the connection to bring us to
a point where we can handle
um distribution and connection in a
timely and affordable manner in order to
make sure that the ACA ensure solar
goals are achieved at the time that they
thought that they would be achieved it
in the event of a reasonable cost of
coming in so
how is distribution interconnection done
today I'm not a utility engineer I am a
policy person I will responded student
was linked with terms but
um projects are studied sequentially
meaning that only one project at this
time is studied sometimes the project in
the B position can be studied in
parallel if that be developer opts to do
it and some I mean generally speaking
we've seen in the last three years is
studies take between 12 and 16 months so
that means in a particular substation if
you only have one Transformer it's going
to take about five three to five years
to study two to three megawatts
depending on what's what's up what what
the size of the projects are so that's
just not scalable for us and that's not
going to that's not going to work for
the scale just to give you all a sense
of the numbers in 2020
um I believe the Dominion it's received
560 unique applications in 2021
670 distinct applications in the
distribution Cube and then in 2023 still
part but it's 252 yes okay sorry let me
replace it I think it's 2021 was
400 applications I'll give you a number
that's easier to manage and I'm not
going if I'm older it's about 3 800 uh
mangawa of solar in the queue currently
um so so that's a lot of scale so that
no wonder that it's taking this long to
process through all of these is a lot is
a base down we need to change things up
once you receive your interconnected
study after 12 to 16 months you're often
faced to Tony's point with multiple
millions of dollars a lot of great costs
and there's several reasons for that the
dtt requirement which essentially the
non-technical genders means of physical
control of your stolen project instead
of the software of using uh is that you
know alternative means of controlling
the the resource that can trigger
sometimes 300 500 000 if you're lucky
but the problem is that you actually
also trigger quite significant
infrastructure costs because the grid
infrastructure is not up to date to
manage 21st century
ders and so you have the dtt but you
also like trigger control house that you
need to build in the substation and now
people sites are really placing over
because I said the word control has and
then sometimes the substation is not big
enough to handle control the control
house so you have to expand the
substation before they control us and
I'm paying for that too and all this is
borne by that first developer that was
lucky enough to get in the queue behind
all these other competitors who is now
going to prepare anything for all of
that by themselves because there is no
mechanism for cost sharing among
developers and sanitation so there's
some pretty easy best practices that we
can employ and roll out here to make
things more manageable and affordable
more timely and we're certainly very
much looking forward to working with uh
with the within the regulatory process
to make that happen working
collaboratively the stakeholders into
New York good collaboration with
Dominion I'll give a shout out to
Dominion for updating this publishing
their interconnection to every quarter
that there's a huge step in the right
direction shouldn't also a unit
Constantine which helps us understand
the breakdown of cost so there's
certainly movement in the right
direction we really need to see a lot
more opportunities to study projects
together to study them faster to share
the costs among among all of the
developers and maybe even contemplate
some great basing of some of the
infrastructure Investments that
shouldn't really be borne by the only
developers since we're upgrading the
whole grave to manage the 21st century
in a environments so certainly looking
forward to working with everyone yeah so
I'll stop there
thank you sir and any questions concerns
okay I mean for 400 South have a
question first if any board another
question I have a quick question the
dmvt with you go over that again
there are people in Mr Goods again the
latest members I'm not an engineer it's
a method by which uh community control
is a resource that is the solar array
like turning it off in the potential for
three dollars yeah traditionally for
that neither deposits this is handled at
the inverter level where the solar array
and in fact the all inverters
manufacturers they have to meet that
standard
but now
um these are required
that were traditionally for large-scale
solar projects that are now being
employable just under net meter projects
as small as 250 decades so having that
that control from the substation to the
array
uh that means that we have to pay for
the substational improvements to handle
that equipment and with fiber optic
cable and
150 to 200 000 per mile so all of a
sudden uh we're looking at the
potentially if it's five miles away
about a million dollar pause for
some for a project that should not cost
more than 2 billion so we're looking at
a significant disproportionate cost for
that metered objects or short territory
got it and it's a quick follow-up
what's the simple reason being vegan
burners can't handle the automatic shut
up well they can't they're just times to
do that I think
um you know we'll hear from Dominion but
there are a lot of the distributed
resources on the grid and there's some
concern about the reliability of those
inverters accomplished of all the
benefits especially for multiple solar
arrays
um but I think pillows are
so
posing those parameters on an industry
and for customers without going to the
due process of the SEC working groups
these people was pretty mature and I
mean that's why we're asking of course
suspension of the laws requirements for
navigator projects
um we we also believe that there's other
technologies that haven't been fully
embedded
um in lieu of quantum optic controls
especially for larger projects so I
think there's a lot of uh
words that needs to be done and it
should be done under the office so it's
like the FCC working groups having some
pilot projects and as I said this is
going to take years but we can't afford
to wait years for the net meter projects
okay the fnet needed what's the size
you're talking about well we're looking
at predominantly up to including one
minute one even though for Dominion
territory you can let me hear up to
three megawatts of a sweet spot for many
uh K-12 schools is up to one negative
one so you're not asking for suspension
of demandings December 2022 parameters
for all projects just for ones that are
under one Mega one
or up to one thing yeah
all right
any further questions
Gary did you ever
that's our good headline I was just
curious it's an a good additional
information about the
volume of
those 3 800 megawatts that are in the
eighteen position and perhaps the number
of projects that entails that's uh yeah
so that's hard to do so first the first
Dominion does publish on your website a
public queue that
um the key number for each project
demonstrates where it was in that unit
eraser
and then what number it is so you can
get a sense for how many projects apply
each year because of that
um I don't I think I can tell a lot of
them have later on so I haven't done an
analysis of how many unique projects
there are but there are
um definitely a couple of gigawatts of
projects by Michael Watson Below in the
queue
being actively studied we're just
studies to just subordinate so yeah you
only have the eight positions that has
the B positions that even if there's a
bunch of
cdefghi projects that are not easy that
are just waiting to be sliding into the
AP position
um I would like to also mention about
might have to Nate Frost and his team uh
because we actually through uh our one
of our high visibility large commercial
customers
um
they wrote a letter to Bob Lou
asking if their project which was had
previously been a thousand and 25 or 40
kilowatts now down to size to 975
kilowatts and if Dominion would
considered waving the dtt and fiber
optic uh
requirements and Dominion graciously
um said that since this project was
below one megawatt that those
requirements would be waived so there's
a precedent uh that we would like to
lean into uh with Dominion about
providing just kind of Labor suspension
for projects under one leg while they
see because we we actually had a
precedent many in Missouri
see that letter from being Frost in
November of last year
pizza and there are five or six small
projects waiting for interconnection at
a given substation is there any business
Arrangement that could be made between
those five or six developers to share
and that grid upgrade false uh so we so
we so great question we've tried we've
entertained every scenario but
unfortunately because it takes so long
for each project in the study that first
in line project developer will have to
commit to a three million dollar
upgrade hoping that as a deal and
learning with the guys behind him all
right but unfortunately I've taken three
or four years
to get studied and they won't know until
then they won't have enough disability
to what their their potential costs are
and what the cumulative cost is to be
able to really commit to that first
developer to study so that's why it
really needs to be facility
utilities it needs to be studied as a
group that you need to say okay there's
fascinating the sub business Transformer
I'm going to study all those projects up
to that capacity I'm going to tell them
all right I'm sending you guys together
are you ready study them on one go give
them the opportunity to share the cost
collectively but you have to have the
studies coming in at the same time in
order for folks to have this ability to
be able to come into that kind of
classroom
here thank you uh two questions
um if you look at either comparable
States or utilities with successful
models
um what does that look like in other
other territories
um and also my second question is around
new federal uh either competitive or you
know formula funding around written
upgrades and
um in part work with the Virginia
Department of energy will be receiving
about 25 million dollars for five years
for various grid resiliency projects
that will become grants for both
utilities and communities to apply for
through our process
um and then there are many other you
know competitive grants um coming
through the bipartisan infrastructure
law or the inflation reduction act and
so have you looked at specific
opportunities that could kind of
supplement or supplant some of those
costs that are being passed forward
oh I can take up the first one and hunt
the second question but um the first
person is great question there are New
York and Massachusetts National Grid
definitely at the Forefront of both
thinking about non-dtt murder-based
Solutions also class sharing business
studies so certainly there are
significant tariffs that we can lean on
to quickly
pull those kinds of best standards here
and Technical standards according to
Tara to educate the dtt alternative
um on the second question
ccsa Charlie's not here today but cdfa
is very much thinking about how to use
the federal grants so I will make sure
to have him reach out and and
collaborate on that because I think that
is a great idea
for Community solar specifically and
development console life objects you
know we will be looking very closely
with the greenhouse gas production fund
uh funding opportunities from EPA that
will be coming out this summer and so
Gathering can put to really what is
necessary in Virginia specifically to
inform that application yes
already thinking about that I I know for
a fact I don't want it basically and
start start talking about myself so I'll
just make sure to reach out and very
still we're in touch So yeah thank you
and you're probably aware of some of the
national lamp report of 2013 which has
been supplemented since then by the
national renewable energy lab above
alternatives to the dtt technology and
all you said enough time sure
um
okay yes sir
um I'll say a couple things
I don't know about the letter I'm like I
can't comment on any letter because
there are net meter as you mentioned
allowed to bring you back a lot so 30
Acres right more than a lot and Acres
we're not talking about a small rooftop
um insulin installation
and if we get this wrong the
consequences of this from a safety
perspective are very high
to be clear what the trip does is if
somebody's working on a line because
it's down nearby or recess and improves
it above the shutdown
um to work on the grid
without an effective trip it can
backfeed that line and cause
electrocution
so this is not a matter of convenience
it is literally a matter of life to
death
um so we have been working with
stakeholders for years
um and look forward and as well as in
the same Corporation Commissioners not
the project a process and updates
much like in the utility scale space
the products in this space have gotten
substantially larger as well so also
address a couple of things
um the project that was mentioned that
received in a waiver like memory other
project gets looked at how did by
Project based on the grid the
connectivity and what's there there was
not a blanket waiver or anything of the
sword but that project just like all the
others got very specific evaluation that
was in German that could be handled in a
particular way
um the grid that we are asking to handle
energy in a completely different way was
largely designed and installed in many
of these substations where decades ago
with the one-way empowering Club in mind
it is the most complicated machine in
the world that we are asking to adapt to
a two-way flow of power and do so in a
safe way and so it doesn't compromise
reliability and I can assure you that
there's
nothing on our part that seeks to
interfere with or slow down the process
to interconnect projects providing to be
done safely without compromising
reliability but safety of our colleagues
and of the public is not something we
can accomplish on it is something we can
collaborate on it is something that we
can continue to evaluate new technology
as it becomes available
but in some areas where there isn't cell
access cellular access or broad being
back to that's the communication between
those devices is more complicated and
that's one of the things
um certainly
um that we talk about and yes there are
many many products of the cube Our
obligation is to look at every single
project in the order that is in the view
and assumes that all of this happen in
that order so if there's nine projects
in a queue we look at the first one then
the second one is soon the first one
this occurred then the third one
assuming the first and decided to the
first at any point in the process they
could be withdrawn but another issue
that we've talked about is just sort of
how in areas where the queue becomes
stale we still have an obligation to
evaluate all the projects even if
there's a little degree of likelihood
some of them of that nine how many will
actually be developed maybe now I give
you three but we've got the obligation
to sort of stack them up on top of each
other and calculate the impact to the
grid accordingly
or
um purposeful delay it is a careful
assessment based on the condition that
convert of the Grave that each one of
these particular organizations in
addition to any other projects that
might be in the cube for projects that
are getting increasingly larger
while keeping
of the current technology that's proven
and again without compromising
remarkability or
um safety but
um a blanket waiver that would
compromise either of those things could
be improved and outside of our duty to
serve our customers and our formation of
safety
all right uh anything further I I have a
feeling this conversation is going to
continue
thank you so much Tony needs an impacted
one it's a different perspective here
so I am delighted Ronnie Kim and time uh
the next topic is the appointment of the
new Authority chair I'm uh I turned to
the pumpkin on June 30th because I've
got two four-year appointments and
that's all you get under the law so
we'll come through 30th we'll need a new
chair so that's another reason for the
June meeting is because I want each of
you to think uh so I was currently Vice
chair so this guy I want to continue
that role does he want to move up if you
want to consider Vice chair or chair but
we've got a lot of hot topics now
pressing topics that we're going to need
um very large Vice chair and chair and
on this Authority so if you took me now
I'm going to meet in June I want you
guys to think hard about whether you
want to step up and be considered or
vice chairs here
uh and I am going to also announcing the
inconsistency that I noticed we all I
can uh because our staff Keeps Us
straight he gave us this you know
between a solar energy about energy
storage Authority all the rules Etc
um that I want to point out and this is
in the report that our 2022 report is
still under review but in that report it
clearly points out that the authority
expires in July 1 2025. I was looking at
the appointment charts that he gave us
and some of your appointment terms go
through 2026 2027. so there's some
inconsistency and and thinking about
this in the morning so another thing we
might want to consider and I'm glad
Chelsea is here and the directors here
you know is there any uh utility in in
extending the life of the authority so
here's such a very kind
courses because now there's a clean
energy Advisory board at the end there's
also disability the topics and the
stakeholders involved have a lot of
profound and common points of view and
so if that were contemplated they both
do annual reports terms of Staff
responsive and migrated efficiency love
to read last report
I don't know what that means legislative
change it would be this is how the
statute the deadlines in the statutes
then are there vacancies on the on the
authority
I think we're 12 up then pull up
the last September and then I think
there's another one who's inspiring at
the end uh uh
here
it is
uh John Offerman he inspires us at the
end of June but he is eligible for
another for reopening so uh that we may
or may not have two vacancies as a two
third one
are there the few words that focus on
similar issues is that this one and then
the cleaning that you could buy or there
are the others
those students but there's also bad
members of the official win so there's
kind of three that
Traverse the same sort of space one on
one one specifically on solar energy
storage energy storage disorder goes to
either button and there's the clean
energy buttons which there's actually
three that are sadly established food
where does the clean energy Advisory
Board kind of run out of its
it does not expire
all right so that's that's what I had on
on A10 to start I hope everyone will
considers about being on our team
meeting and can we do not not yet have a
concert for that evening right we do not
have a lot of people have responded and
results are not good and I'm wondering
should I resend a poll for different
dates
I think the majority of you all have
responded and we still don't have the
foreign
[Music]
I'm going to go through I'm going to
I'll check whether oat but I'm pretty
sure that we are allowed to all virtual
meetings per year that have the same
rights as an in-person meeting including
voting writing session
we're trying to find 30 minutes to just
do
yeah
I wonder if you want to do is is vote
I'm not because that's the only
important
um
needs to be done in that time face I
have saved a 15-minute meeting or a
20-minute meeting to cover just that
topic would be easier to schedule but
we'll leave it up to you
[Music]
um
you know you
below the deadline every year and this
year was no selection and you know we
just have to figure out how to get that
thing going sooner so that we can get it
under reviewed by the secretary's office
um what is the same time for the actual
legislative deadline what's absolution
it's working back from the legislative
headline what's their deadline for
getting that before transfer review
deputy secretary here I know
legislatively it's used in the ga um
I believe but it's got to go through the
end of your office and then our office
before that it almost seems like we need
to start working on it and review it
could be like a fun committee or maybe
that person just a couple of those well
we did that and it didn't work so I'm
just a bit I guess I didn't say to
finish that thought was that perhaps um
we're going to take a look to see if
there's we've added to the report every
single year but there's this awful lot
of sale in commission there for three
catching the blow by blow on every
regulatory proceeding that covered in
these topics which at one point was a
manageable volume but it adds lots of
volume of information that's already in
that bubble domain so it seems to me
like if a group of folks will get back
together in an effort to sort of
streamline and
well I I've heard the currently on my
own set on 2006 here that there may be
some guidelines coming down for what
they would like to see in an annual
report and that's the report that has
been done today or they serve as a white
paper that can still be completed but
that the report should be much more
streamlined and yeah I know we're living
a lot into that June beating bit I think
what what the June meeting should
determine is the one two three topics
you want to focus on sounds like we've
got some hot topics to this so maybe we
can cover the Hot Topics covered here or
other topics but it'd be limited to two
or three and of course we'll we'll
follow whatever guidelines you get but
it might make sense just to if there's
two or three live topics on Solar
Development energy storage development
let's just focus on that and not cover
the water funds we've done in the past
but
a couple of things we have a big meeting
next Wednesday or Tuesday
um or we're going to go through all the
deadline so we'll work right back we are
going to start much sooner this year
which is a good thing
um and they're reporting we are going to
try just because there's so much volume
that comes through our office and then
also to the legislators that we we want
to just get more of any studies and you
know the kind of bottom line up front
for the ones that actually are submitted
but we don't we don't want to discourage
for the development of resources that
are important for the public they are
very stakeholders so you know we're if
there's a report that needs to be done
to put out there then you know we want
to support that but then we also make
sure that we're very concise in regards
to you know the sharing that and the
legislative and all of that so we're
going to try to develop an attempt it
also the hotel
that would be really helpful
all right now belatedly a couple minutes
before but I'm willing to run late
um I'll turn to the national public
comments are there any elements
he never armed and I wouldn't know
the number of people that probably go
online okay so do you have any uh online
public comments
here hi I'm okay I might make a
recommendation for Kim to have circulate
another link with some more options
given that we potentially controlled
meeting and then post it completely
online uh I think there's a lot of work
to do of course get a new chair in place
but I think we've put a lot of excellent
things here today that's perhaps some
direction for the authority and how to
look into that brainstorming and solving
some of these issues for the
Commonwealth and uh good luck for uh our
new director or secretary Jenkins to
join us again in uh June if they are
available to help provide some direction
and perhaps oh we might also want to do
a follow-up meeting because it sounds
like there's going to be work after
change so we might now want to start
setting the meeting that's also the
first after Jam so we can we can keep
keeping the board just go ahead and get
that on the books and I really do want
to thank all of those who paying the the
input was tremendous
all right and I'm amazed we stand
adjourned at well our Energy emergency
turn at a minute early
okay Joanne folks you have a second
what second from Paul all in favor say
aye all right any opposed any extensions
standard
thank you