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A solar project in Hanover County’s Beaverdam District is giving one family a way to preserve their farmland and bring a new lease on life to its legacy.
The project developed by Charlottesville-based Hexagon Energy would use about 26 acres of the roughly 100-acre parcel off Blunts Bridge Road to develop a small-scale, 3-megawatt solar farm. 
Although the Harris family have batted away developers’ interests in their property in the past, Vinson Harris said this project will allow them to keep family property (known as Cross Creek Farm) in the fold for future generations. 
“Three, four times a week, we receive mail, telephone calls asking us to sell our property for a subdivision,” Vinson Harris told supervisors in August. “The property has been in my family since before the Civil War, and we wish for it to stay that way.”
The unused acreage will continue to include the Harris family home.
During an Aug. 26 public hearing, Diane Harris told supervisors that Cross Creek dates back to the 1860s and has remained in the Harris family’s hands for more than 150 years. 
Family members from previous generations are buried in a cemetery on the property, and the original homestead site also remains visible.
“We want to pass this farm down to our children, and to our two grandchildren,” she said at the time. 
The Blunts Bridge Solar project, she added, could help make the farm “self-sustainable for future generations.”
The Harrises currently use the property for farming and timber; they hope to continue those activities asHexagon works on the solar farm. 
Ester Rekhelman, a development manager with Hexagon Energy, told VPM News that the 26-acre site was designed with the family’s intentions in mind. 
“We work pretty regularly with smaller landowners and farmers,” Rekhelman said. “Given that we have a strong development pipeline of community-scale projects, those are just well-suited for smaller properties, as they take up less acreage than future projects too.”
Rekhelman said Hexagon worked with the family and Hanover officials to address concerns about minimizing environmental impacts and reducing its visibility from surrounding properties, as is required by the county’s stringent solar policy.
Outside of its benefits to the Harris family, Rekhelman claims the solar farm may provide up to $500,000 in tax revenue to the county and strengthen the local power grid for up to 600 homes. 
The solar facility is also expected to participate in Virginia’s shared solar program, allowing eligible Dominion Energy customers to subscribe and receive potential discounts on their electric bills.
“With every project that we develop, we see it as a continuing relationship with our landowner and also the community in which they live,” Rekhelman said. 
Rekhelman added that Hexagon Energy spoke with neighbors in the Beaverdam area about the community’s vision, and that staff held numerous communities to ensure locals were informed throughout the process
Board Chair Sean Davis praised the proposal as a way to balance renewable energy development with rural land preservation.
“We see this often, particularly for folks who want to preserve their farmland and then use a portion thereof for revenue in order to support those operations and have a legacy to pass their heritage land down to future generations,” the Henry District supervisor said in August. 
With the board’s approval in hand, Blunts Bridge Solar’s construction is set to begin and take four to six months.
Lyndon German covers Henrico and Hanover counties for VPM News. As a Mechanicsville native and graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he hopes to bring a firsthand perspective of the challenges each locality faces.
Prior to joining VPM News, German has been a part of several award-winning news organizations, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Virginian-Pilot and The Progress-Index. Outside of journalism, he enjoys biking, reading and the occasional chess match. 
Email Lyndon: [email protected]
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