A first-of-its-kind solar farm came online in Northern Virginia Thursday to provide relief for Virginia electricity customers.
The renewable energy project was built on the massive Lorton landfill, land that wasn’t being used since trash was buried there 30 years ago.
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Over the next 30 years, the solar farm will save Fairfax County an estimated $12 million in energy costs.
“This one project will produce about 5% of all the electricity that is used in county government operations in the county,” Fairfax County Office of Environmental Energy Coordination Director John Morrill said.
Rows of solar cells collect energy that is delivered to Dominion Energy. Dominion will credit the county for the energy collected, allowing Fairfax to invest in public services rather than paying bills.
U.S. Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-11^th District, says energy rates are up 11% nationwide over the past 16 months.
“One reason for that is, at the federal level, we’ve been disinvesting from the kind of cheap, clean, renewable energy that you see behind me,” he said. “And if we continue to do that nationally, we’re going to continue to see those rates rise. But projects like this in Fairfax County are going to pay dividends for decades to come.”
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Fairfax County recently brought solar projects online on top of schools with several more to come.
The projects are big because the end goal is huge, County Supervisor Dan Storck said.
“We did it in conjunction with the schools as part of our joint environmental task force to have all of our county facilities net zero energy by 2040,” he said. “2040, that’s just a few years away, and this facility here is a key part of that.”

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