On Dec. 8, 2025, the Piedmont Environmental Council hosted and recorded a webinar on net metering – the fundamental billing structure that makes small-scale solar financially viable for homeowners, businesses and farmers – and Dominion Energy’s attempt to weaken it.
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Safeguarding the landscapes, communities and heritage of the Piedmont by involving citizens in public policy and land conservation. Learn more about our work by browsing the subject areas below and find out how to get involved!
Update on Solar Regulations, Soil/Forage Research & Agrivoltaic Project Initiatives – Webinar Recording
On December 5, 2025, Virginia Tech’s School of Plant & Environmental Sciences Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) hosted a webinar on updates around solar regulations, soil/forage research, and agrivoltaics project initiatives.
During the webinar, PEC Senior Energy & Climate Policy Advisor Ashish Kapoor and PEC Community Farm Manager Teddy Pitsiokos spoke about PEC’s PEC’s crop-based agrivoltaics project at the Community Farm at Roundabout Meadows. They reviewed the solar and agricultural setups, and how and why they chose those setups, with the goal of being able to replicate the project for farmers and others wanting to implement agrivoltaics in Virginia. In addition, the project serves as a demonstration site for people to interact with an agrivoltaics installation first-hand and learn about the many local advantages of small-scale agrivoltaics (see photo below).
They shared the process for implementing the project, including installing the solar panels and battery storage, planting the in-ground and planter bed crops, and the experimental and data collection process. Finally, they shared unexpected hurdles they encountered along the way, which they have documented so that others may learn from them.
You can watch the recording of their presentation, which starts at the 1:17:20 mark in the video.
Additional Resources:
How Agrivoltaics Can Help Solve Virginia’s Energy Crisis
Shining a Light on Agrivoltaics at Roundabout Meadows
Videos: Agrivoltaics Project at PEC’s Community FarmShining a Light on Agrivoltaics at Roundabout Meadows
Golden to Mars Transmission Line Hearing Delayed, Comment Period Extended After Nearly 600 Sign Up to Testify
In September, we encouraged you to submit comments and sign up to testify at the SCC hearings in Loudoun County to voice your concerns and call for undergrounding the Golden to Mars line, and you rose to the challenge! Over 1,000 comments and nearly 600 witnesses signed up to testify.
Culpeper Update: Moving the Needle
In this quarterly Culpeper update, I share some ways we’ve helped to move the needle in a positive direction, as well as provide a few important opportunities to engage with our state elected officials during the 2026 legislative session.
Video: Restoring Kestrel Habitat in Virginia
PEC’s Lauria McShane and other members of the Virginia Grassland Bird Initiative team are busy this fall and winter installing kestrel boxes across our landscape.
Orange County Residents: Demand Commonsense Data Center Regulation
This coming Tuesday, Dec. 16, the Board of Supervisors is likely to vote on a proposed zoning ordinance that does not go far enough to protect the residents and natural resources of the county. We have serious concerns that the proposed “floating zone” approach will cause land speculation across the county, industrialize agricultural areas, and allow developers to build data centers near parks, schools and homes.
The PEC Leadership Felt ‘Round the World
Finally, the world is hearing the alarm that The Piedmont Environmental Council has been sounding for years: that the unconstrained and unregulated explosion of the data center industry is forever changing the face of not only Virginia, but communities around the world.
Wild & Connected: Shenandoah Borderlands property conserved
Nestled on the eastern slope of Saddleback Mountain, a small cottage in the woods has been a family retreat for sisters Gayle and Cathy Soloe for decades, since their father first purchased the 89-acre parcel adjacent to Shenandoah National Park in 1958.
AC44 adopted: PEC’s engagement secures smarter land use planning in Albemarle
Throughout our 50+ year history, PEC has weighed in on comprehensive plan updates across our nine-county service area, an approach that has been foundational to our success conserving and restoring the lands and waters of the Virginia Piedmont.
The friendliest type of energy generation: a conversation on agrivoltaics
PEC’s Senior Energy & Climate Advisor Ashish Kapoor and Community Farm Manager Teddy Pitsiokos sat down to tell us more about PEC’s groundbreaking agrivoltaics project, which has the potential to revolutionize the conversation around solar and agriculture.