Members of the Board,
Energy Right, a non-profit organization that educated Virginians on all things clean energy, is happy to lend its support to this solar project proposal. We've been deeply engaged with community members and organizations across Augusta sharing a commonsense, conservative perspective on clean energy and solar's place in Augusta. I had the chance to participate during the 2021 comprehensive plan update process for solar policies and am glad to see landowners with projects in accordance with these polices come forward for your consideration. I visited this site last week and was impressed by the existing visual buffering and the site characteristics that make this small solar development the highest and best use for the parcel. It is also very clear that the landowner believes solar is the right choice for her property--and we believe individual property rights are paramount. Despite an Urban Service Area designation, other sorts of development have not taken place here. After the useful life of this project, the land is essentially preserved for future development options. With adequate buffers and screening, this project will be a quiet, clean, low traffic neighbor for Stuarts Draft that will lower energy costs for consumers. Rarely are there so many win-win scenarios in a given proposal--this is one of them.
Skyler Zunk
CEO, Energy Right
www.energyrightva.com