Wind and Solar Land Leasing in Rockingham County, Virginia

A real acreage cap, not open-ended solar development

Rockingham County's solar ordinance sets a cumulative countywide cap of 1,800 acres for large-scale solar energy facilities approved by special use permit, and the county has stated a policy preference for locating solar development on land already developed with commercial or industrial uses rather than converting land actively used for farming. Within that 1,800-acre total, the ordinance allows up to 450 acres to be used for larger individual projects sized between 50 and 150 acres each -- effectively room for roughly three such larger projects alongside a larger number of smaller, 50-acre-or-under sites. If you're a landowner being approached about a solar lease, or a buyer evaluating land near a proposed site, this cap matters directly: how much of the 1,800-acre countywide total remains available, and what size tier a proposed project falls into, affects both whether a given project can realistically get approved and how much competing interest exists for other parcels in the same size category.

2026: the county said no to a bigger 'agrisolar' proposal

The clearest evidence that Rockingham's caps are actually enforced, not just written policy, came in 2026: developer Energix requested a zoning ordinance amendment to allow, by special use permit, "agrisolar" projects up to 360 acres -- more than double the ordinance's standard 150-acre ceiling for the larger project tier -- so long as the project maintained or implemented active agricultural use, such as grazing sheep among the solar panels. The Rockingham County Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial. The commissioners' stated reasoning, per reporting reviewed this session, was that even when combined with an agricultural use like sheep grazing, energy production remained the primary land use of the project -- meaning the 'agrisolar' framing did not change the commission's view that this was fundamentally a large solar installation exceeding the county's intended size limits, not a genuinely dual-use agricultural operation.

Separately, reporting indicates the county's Board of Supervisors passed a Special Use Permit ordinance change specific to solar and energy projects in February 2026 -- this page could not independently confirm the specific substantive content of that change this session beyond the fact that it occurred, so if the exact current permit process or size rules matter to your decision, confirm the current ordinance text directly with the county rather than relying on the acreage figures described here as necessarily unchanged.

What this means before you sign a lease or buy near a proposed site

If you're a landowner being courted for a solar lease, ask the developer directly how large the proposed project is, which size tier it falls into under the county's ordinance (50 acres or under, or the 50-150-acre tier drawing from the 450-acre sub-cap), and how much of the countywide 1,800-acre cap remains available -- a project sized like Energix's rejected 360-acre proposal is a real signal that a developer may be asking for more than the county's current framework allows, and that the special-use-permit approval is genuinely not guaranteed here. Get any lease's payment terms, whether payment is contingent on the special use permit actually being approved, and decommissioning obligations in writing and reviewed by an attorney before signing.

If you're buying land near a proposed or existing solar site, ask the county's Office of Community Development directly whether the specific project has an approved special use permit, what size tier it falls under, and whether it counts against the remaining countywide cap -- and don't assume a large proposed project will necessarily be approved just because it has been publicly announced, given the Planning Commission's 2026 unanimous rejection of Energix's larger agrisolar request.