Solar Power Is Growing in West Virgina, But It’s Still too Early to Celebrate

Renewable energy is the future. It’s not simply a matter of deciding to switch to renewable sources, it’s a matter of necessity or, rather, it will be a matter of necessity at one point, both because the current sources will be depleted and because it will be more convenient for the environment.

But while renewable sources are definitely the future – despite what some say about the grand return of coal, that’s simply not happening – people are still relucant to use them more, and the recent example might illustrate why.

Namely, solar energy is blooming in West Virginia, but while this is absolutely great news, there is a catch – people aren’t really switching. Why? Keep reading to find out!

You might know that West Virgina is traditionally considered a coal state, so every piece of news regarding the expansion of renewable energy in such states is welcome, even if there are no direct benefits for the customers, which is the case here.

Namely, as of the time of writing, three out of five of West Virginia’s solar farms are currently online, as FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison have launched a 5.75 megawatt (MW), 17,000-panel solar farm at Marlowe in Berkeley County.

The solar farm is located along the Potomac River, and the land on which it sits was used to store ash from the now-defunct R. Paul Smith Power Station, so there is some beautiful irony there. The whole project, which ended in 2022, was actually a major cleaning effort, as FirstEnergy managed to take more than 3 million tons of ash from the location and put it to use in cement manufacturing.

The former waste site was thus closed and the company decided to reuse the land to build a major solar farm, one which uses US-made solar panels, a racking system, and electrical equipment.

This farm is thus the third joint farm that will be able to generare as much as 50 MW of clean energy combined, after the Fort Martin Power Station (18.9 MW) and the Rivesville solar site (5.5 MW), both of which went online in 2024, thus bringing the companies’ total to 30 MW of solar capacity at the time.

When observed together, all these farms, the three of them, will create more than 87,000 Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs). Customers will be able to purchase these SRECs for 4 cents per kilowatt hour in addition to normal rates, which would amount to an additional $40 per month if you wanted to go solar.

And there’s the catch. Namely, solar energy is growing and expanding in West Virginia, but at his point, the customers don’t really have a reason to switch. The rates are as they are and aside from being able to say that one has went solar, there really aren’t any major benefits at this point. In fact, customers are being charged more to switch to solar in West Virginia, which is a shame.

As said, renewable energy sources are the future, despite what people say, so the companies and local governments should do more to make it more popular among the customers, especially in such (coal) states; well, at least we know why West Virgnia is ranked 49th when it comes to solar usage in the U.S.

Here is a cool wattage calculation if you need it.

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