Opinion | In Virginia, climate progress and preservation can work together - The Washington Post

Mark P. Coombs lives in Northern Virginia. He was a principal member of the government and public affairs team for the American Battlefield Trust from 2010 to 2021. The views expressed here are his own.

Historic preservation and environmental protection typically go hand-in-hand. “The greenest building,” after all — to cite a phrase coined by architect Carl Elefante — “is one that is already built.”

The complementary relationship of the two movements extends from the built environment to the natural environment. When a battlefield or other natural landscape is preserved for its historic or cultural significance, precious green and open space is protected simultaneously, advancing the goals of preservationists and environmentalists alike.

In Virginia, however, the proliferation of utility-scale solar power plants — also known as “solar farms” — poses one of the greatest challenges to this partnership in the 21st century. Though preservationists warn of the visual and archaeological impacts that these facilities can have on the places that connect us to our past as Virginians and as Americans, proponents of renewable energy welcome the climate-friendly and sustainability-focused impacts that these facilities can have in improving our future as global citizens.

The reality is that both groups are right — and, with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres cautioning recently that the climate crisis is fast approaching a “point of no return,” it is more essential than ever that they come together to align their agendas to meet this moment.

Last year, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D) signature on the Virginia Clean Economy Act established the first statewide renewable portfolio standards in the South, requiring Virginia’s electricity to come entirely from carbon-free sources by 2050. The effect of this landmark legislation in combination with earlier measures reducing or removing various financial and regulatory barriers to solar development has been immediately apparent.

“As policy impacts kick in,” read a recent headline from the Energy News Network, “Virginia climbs into top five states for solar.” The article referenced a June 15 report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie that shows that the Old Dominion added more new solar capacity in the first quarter of 2021 alone than it did annually in 2018, 2019 and any year before 2017.

To be sure, ours is far from the only state encouraging and incentivizing solar’s ascent. SEIA underscores that the technology “accounted for 43 percent of all new electricity-generating capacity added in the U.S. in 2020, representing solar’s largest ever share of new generating capacity and ranking first among all technologies for the second year in a row.” But as the state home to more nationally significant battle sites than any other — just one share of a wealth of historic and cultural resources dating back more than 400 years, treasured by residents and visitors alike — Virginia inspires a particular vigilance on the part of the preservation community.

The size of the utility-scale solar power plants increasingly taking root throughout the commonwealth can reach hundreds to thousands of acres apiece. This has soured some preservation advocates on solar altogether, the facilities’ wide footprint stirring opposition not just to a handful of solar projects in historic areas but to pro-solar policies more broadly for fear that the technology will soon render any number of cherished, immovable landscapes unrecognizable.

Rather than opposing solar outright, however — and working against the many longtime allies of preservation in the environmental movement and in elected office who have championed solar’s rise — the better and mutually beneficial way forward is for preservationists to work with the energy industry and government at all levels to aid in the context-sensitive design and siting of solar facilities and related infrastructure. Solar developers and public officials must in turn be willing to receive and reciprocate preservationists’ outreach, hearing and heeding their concerns and counsel.

Through positive and proactive education and engagement, preservationists are uniquely positioned to ensure that a technology that promises to be a powerful tool in the fight against climate change is deployed respectfully and responsibly. The preservation and environmental movements can join forces now as before to help Virginia and its localities properly identify and safeguard key historic, cultural and natural resources while facilitating solar’s continued progression and fostering superior stewardship of our planet writ large.

Time is of the essence.

Together, preservationists and proponents of renewable energy can make Virginia the state to emulate in demonstrating how to forge a brighter future without forsaking a storied past.

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July 01, 2021 at 08:00PM
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Opinion | In Virginia, climate progress and preservation can work together - The Washington Post
"Opinion" - Google News
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