Wind and Solar Leasing on Land in Buckingham County, Virginia

Buckingham's countywide solar cap: 7,500 acres or 1,600 MW, whichever comes first

Rather than regulate solar project-by-project with no overall ceiling, Buckingham County has adopted a countywide Solar Policy -- used in lieu of a standalone solar ordinance -- that caps total utility-scale solar development at 1,600 megawatts or 7,500 acres of project footprint, whichever limit is reached first, with a separate allowance of up to 100 megawatts for small solar projects under 5 megawatts each. For a landowner considering a lease, that cap matters directly: once the county is close to either ceiling, new large-scale project approvals become harder to obtain regardless of how attractive a specific parcel's terrain and interconnection access might be, so ask the county's Zoning & Planning office where current approved and pending capacity stands relative to the cap before assuming a new lease proposal will clear approval.

The county also tightened its own siting rules in a June 2026 round of zoning-ordinance and comprehensive-plan amendments made to align with Virginia's state-law framework for utility-scale solar and battery storage. The changes raised the required setback from an abutting road to 100 feet (up from 75 feet, and the maximum setback state law allows a locality to require), set the vegetative screening buffer at 50 feet (also the state-law maximum), and made a viewshed analysis mandatory for every project rather than something the board could waive at its discretion. A landowner negotiating a new lease should expect a developer's proposed site plan to already reflect these tighter figures, and a landowner buying near an existing, older-permitted project should check whether that project's setbacks and buffers were approved under the prior, looser standard.

Riverstone Solar: the county's largest project, and a real, current compliance dispute

Buckingham's most significant solar development to date is Riverstone Solar, a 149.5-megawatt (MWac) facility spanning roughly 1,996 acres of privately owned timberland leased from Weyerhaeuser, developed by Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy and built out with an estimated 375,000 solar panels -- reported as generating enough electricity annually to power around 29,000 homes. The Board of Supervisors approved Riverstone's special use permit in November 2021 after a contested public hearing process.

That approval has not been the end of the story. Starting in mid-2025, residents brought forward accusations that Riverstone Solar (through Apex Clean Energy) had violated both its special use permit conditions and applicable state and federal requirements during construction -- including using access roads not built to handle heavy construction machinery. Because the project's scale was judged too large for county staff to inspect on their own, the Board of Supervisors negotiated a contract (signed at its July 14, 2025 meeting) to bring in third-party inspectors, with Riverstone required to cover the cost. At its September 8, 2025 meeting, the board went further, directing the county administrator, county attorney, and zoning officials to formally investigate the alleged violations and report back -- a live, unresolved process as of the most recent reporting reviewed for this page, not a closed matter.

What this means if you're leasing your own land, or buying near an existing project

• If you're considering leasing your own land for solar, confirm current remaining capacity against the county's 1,600 MW / 7,500-acre cap with Buckingham's Zoning & Planning office before investing time in a developer's proposal -- a lease that can't clear approval because the county is near its ceiling is a real possibility here in a way it isn't in a county with no overall cap.
• Review any proposed lease's setback, buffer, and viewshed provisions against the county's current (post-June 2026) standards -- 100-foot road setback, 50-foot vegetative buffer, mandatory viewshed analysis -- since a developer working from an older template may propose the pre-2026 figures.
• If you're buying land near Riverstone Solar or any other existing Buckingham solar facility, ask the county directly about the facility's current compliance status and any open enforcement action -- the 2025 Riverstone dispute shows that an approved special use permit does not guarantee ongoing compliance during construction, and a neighboring landowner may be affected by exactly the kind of access-road and construction-traffic issues at issue in that case.
• Get clarity in any lease on decommissioning obligations and financial assurance (bonding) for eventual panel and equipment removal, lease term and renewal language, and the scope of any access-road or transmission easement -- these often extend beyond the panel footprint itself and can affect parts of a property well away from the array.