Virginia, US based electric utility Dominion Energy has secured green light from the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) for its proposal to add around 1 GW of solar energy projects along with energy storage to the state's grid.
Dominion Energy said the expansion includes 15 facilities along with power purchase agreements (PPA) with 24 other projects owned by 3rd party developers. These will generate enough clean energy to suffice electricity requirements of about 250,000 Virginia homes.
The facilities are planned to start commercial operations in 2022 and 2023. Dominion Energy expects the projects to generate more than $880 million in economic benefits across the state of Virginia while supporting around 4,200 jobs.
"These projects will support thousands of good jobs and hundreds of millions in economic activity in communities across Virginia. This is a positive step forward for our customers, the environment and Virginia's economy," said President of Dominion Energy Virginia, Ed Baine.
Last year, the utility had sought SCC's permission to bring up 15 solar and energy storage projects. Specifically, these were to be set up as 11 utility scale, 2 distributed and 1 combined solar and storage facility and a dedicated energy storage project having 20 MW/80 MWh capacity (see Dominion Energy Wants 1 GW Solar+Storage).
In January 2022, another utility Appalachian Power filed its most robust renewables plan to date with the SCC to add around 500 MW of solar and wind energy over the next 3 years (see Appalachian Power Eyeing 500 MW RE).
The utilities are towing the line set up under the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) under which the state aims to have 100% renewable energy supply for its energy requirements by 2045.
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