The Arlington County Board has approved a partnership with Dominion Energy to purchase power from a solar farm being constructed near Danville, Virginia.
Arlington County will purchase 31.7% of the power that the solar farm, being called the Amazon Arlington Solar Farm, generates under a 17-year contract.
Under a separate agreement, Amazon will purchase the rest of the annual output, and will use it to power buildings that are part of its HQ2 in Crystal City, Pentagon City and Pentagon Row.
The facility, which will come on line in late 2022, will generate 79,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually. Arlington County will use its share for county buildings and other county-owned facilities and infrastructure.
Arlington County’s Community Energy Plan has set a goal of at least 50% of the electricity for county operations to come from renewable sources by 2022. If fully implemented, this agreement with Dominion will put the county well past that goal.
“This is a groundbreaking partnership for the county,” said Libby Garvey, county board chair. “It will take us a long way toward our goal of 100% use of renewable sources for all electricity used in government operations by 2025.”
Dominion Energy will start construction on the Pittsylvania County solar farm this year on 1,500 acres of land that is primarily agricultural land.
