Considerable cloudiness. Areas of smoke and haze are possible, reducing visibility at times. Low near 70F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph..
Considerable cloudiness. Areas of smoke and haze are possible, reducing visibility at times. Low near 70F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: July 19, 2026 @ 7:01 pm
Solar panels are a familiar sight on a drive along Climax Road in Pittsylvania County on July 16, 2026.
Solar panels are a familiar sight on a drive along Climax Road in Pittsylvania County on July 16, 2026.
A pounding drumbeat is on to save Southside Virginia with a massive influx of data centers. Starry-eyed promoters tell us this new-found pot of gold will yield a king’s ransom of easy money—$100,000,000,000. Yes, 100 BILLION dollars in investment over 30 years, including around 2,500 high-paying jobs. Pittsylvania and Danville would be awash in fresh tax revenue to make every dream come true.
Our politicians, economic developers and business leaders are also saying it could be our region’s last chance to ensure an enduring future prosperity, since our decades-long dreams of being a mecca for manufacturing have gone up in smoke. Such enthusiasm has a familiar ring and, who knows, these pie-in-the-sky projections might turn out to yield smooth sailing for generations to come. Let’s hope so.
But such extravagant financial projections carry an eerie echo from the recent past. On a larger scale, they are reminiscent of the promises made ten years ago, back in 2016, when we began to hear about the exciting prospect of solar farms in Pittsylvania County. They were billed as a great boon to the public good, as well as enriching landowners who swapped hard work for easy living and sold out their farmland for the projects.
It all turned out to be arguably the biggest disaster in the county’s history—a disaster without realistic hope of satisfactory remediation.
Today, the county has over 18,000 acres of land approved for solar farms—and what you are seeing now is but a fraction of what’s coming as these projects are started and/or completed. Most residents would agree that these hideous monstrosities are an embarrassing blight upon the natural beauty that has been one of our region’s most appealing assets.
For sure, the other-worldly characteristics of solar farms are chilling. On sunny days across the county, millions of shiny panels crane their flat faces skyward like eager little pagans following and worshipping the sun.
While the painful downside of solar farms is easy to see, a question is whether they have paid off money-wise for the public as anticipated. Technically, the answer is probably “yes,” which underscores the shabby deals the supervisors made on behalf of citizens.
Here are some numbers provided by Pittsylvania Assistant Administrator Dave Arnold, Finance Director Kim Van Der Hyde and Chatham-Blairs Supervisor Ken Bowman:
In the early years, the numbers bandied about by self-serving promoters promised around $40 million into county tax coffers over 35 years. These numbers, though modest by today’s lavish promises, won the support of money-hungry county supervisors who opened the floodgates for solar farms. (Whether some supervisors or their families had financial interests in the success of solar farms is a story for another day.)
How much of this windfall has the county realized 10 years down the road? Around $2 million, or about 5 percent.
Here are the primary revenue streams that have trickled into the county treasury from solar farm operations:
1. Direct payments from solar operations that have negotiated deals with the county called siting agreements: around $1 million.
2. Real estate tax revenue from the enhanced value of the land used for smaller solar farms without siting agree-ments, at the new 62-cent rate: around $600,000 annu-ally.
3. While solar operators do not pay the usual machine/tools tax directly to the county, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC) evaluates the farms with siting agreements (Axton: $3.5 million; Maplewood: $34 million; Syc-amore: $17.5 million; Whitehorn: $11 million (figures rounded).
4. As for the smaller solar farms, they pay only real estate taxes on a per-acre assessment of $11,000. Thus, a solar farm with, say, 83.03 acres would be assessed at $913,300. At a 62-cent tax rate, the annual tax would be $5,662. (It would be interesting to know how that annual tax compares to annual revenue.)
The specific leases landowners have with various solar operators are private. However, the person owning the land is responsible for paying the land taxes. In reality, the solar operator presumably pays those taxes, even though the billing might come through the landowner. Land-use tax designations cease when land is leased for solar.
The big question for many residents is: What happens decades from now as the solar farms, one by one, wear out and cease operations? Who cleans up what’s left so the land, in theory, can be returned to traditional agricultural use, or however the landowner wants to use it?
On the large operations, performance bonds (negotiated individually) are in place for decommissioning, including cleanup and land restoration down to a depth of 36 inches. And the bonds have teeth. For example, operators of the Blue Ridge project have on file with the county a $2.6 million bond with Travelers Insurance to cover eventual restoration. A smaller operation of 47 acres has on file a bond of $236,834.
As an additional protection for taxpayers, Pittsylvania County mandates that all regulatory costs be paid by the solar operator, including erosion and sediment inspectors hired by the county.
For the small projects that started prior to the bond requirements, the operations face real penalties for failure to restore the land at the closure of the solar farm. In the event the operator or landowner is unwilling to restore the land, the county can perform the work and then seize the land to recoup its cost.
So, will there be any new solar farms in the county? The effective two-percent rule the county had in place to control new solar farm creation was eclipsed this month by a state law mandating that new solar farms must have a special use permit, a move that at least gives citizens a voice in what transpires.
However, going forward, not much relief is in sight as some of the largest operations continue their build-outs. More troubling is that the supervisors have been lenient in allowing at least one huge operator (Firefly) to twice renew start-dates on planned operations. Residents in those areas will continue to suffer living around heavy-duty construction sites as their neighborhoods are blighted.
So, how has such an intractable mess crept into our lives—a mess in which citizens are so poorly compensated for the loss of one of the greatest treasures of rural living? It is appalling to look back now at the dereliction of duty in terms of research that could have forestalled the disaster.
Put simply, we have been horn-swoggled. While supervisors certainly deserve much of the blame, the burden also rests with a citizenry that pays far too little attention to the sausage-making of our local government. When solar-farm sharpies descended on the county to lure landowners into solar farming—and to lure supervisors into permitting it—they held all the cards. Knowing little or nothing about where this was headed, we were easy pickings.
While there was some strong opposition from the get-go, there was never the powerful, unifying opposition that we saw when the Balico data center people were run out of town by a coalition formed by a small group of smart, energetic women outraged over the threatened destruction of their communities.
So here we are again with the potential onslaught of data centers—a deeply complex prospect in which the promoters seem to hold all the cards. Their handmaidens are economic developers, politicians and business leaders who for decades have made promises that too often failed to play out.
Whether massive data center operations will turn into an evil Trojan Horse, or a bonanza as promised, that’s something that only our great grandchildren will know. For now, citizens must challenge every pie-in-the-sky promise and be ever-mindful of all the familiar echoes from the past.
Henry Hurt is a county native and former Editor-at-Large for Reader’s Digest Magazine.
Your comment has been submitted.
Reported
There was a problem reporting this.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
Do you know anything about this photo? Post your comments below!
A massive development that’s eyeing the Berry Hill Mega Park could be bringing bigger numbers than first reported; despite a half-inch of rain on Monday, the drought is worsening in Virginia; two local companies will get more time to meet hiring goal; city planners have given a thumbs-up to …
Today’s most clicked stories.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
We’ll send breaking news and news alerts to you as they happen!
Receive our newspaper electronically with the e-Edition email.
Would you like to receive our daily news? Signup today!
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
