Good things have been happening to meet our growing energy needs. Locally, big news is the installation of solar on the roof of Blacksburg’s transit building. The solar panels will provide about 90% of the energy needed for the building, which includes charging about 50 electric buses. Blacksburg will not pay for the panels, nor own them for 25 years. Not owning the electricity being generated, there will still be an electric bill – but at a lower rate than charged by the local electric utility. And – it is a fixed rate! No increase will occur for 25 years. (Wouldn’t everyone like knowing that their electrical bill was not going to increase?) After 25 years, Blacksburg may take over ownership of the panels. It’s impossible to see a downside (unless perhaps you are an investor in Appalachian Power.)
Blacksburg took this project on to help control its budget. It is not a political statement – it saves Blacksburg money – solar is simply cheaper.
Nationally (and internationally), the shift to renewables is happening almost everywhere – with increasing use of solar, batteries, and wind. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that new electrical power generation in the first half of 2026 was dominated by renewable energy. New utility scale solar generators added about 12,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity (the amount typically used by about two million homes) and over 8,000 MW of battery storage. The SunZia wind farm in New Mexico provided 3,560 MW of new capacity – and is the largest wind farm in the country. Only about 2,700 MW of new natural gas capacity was added, and of course no new coal generating plants.
We all know that the demand for new sources of electricity is expanding, driven by the enormous growth of data centers. Locally, an industrial park outside of Dublin is being explored to house several new data centers – and would use a lot of electricity. Rules about data centers becoming responsible for generating their own electricity are still being developed. It will be interesting to see what happens with these new centers, should they be built (certainly a topic for a future commentary!).
Keep in mind that the dominance of new electricity sources coming from renewables comes at a time when the President is calling for a return to coal along with a focus on natural gas. The fact that utilities are instead turning to renewables makes a clear case that their choices are not based on politics, but simply on economics. Internationally, in 2025 about 60% of new capacity came from solar, with another 20% from wind. Clearly, all around the world people are finding that solar is the cheapest way to produce electricity, followed by wind power. Although renewables may cost a bit more to build than natural gas turbines, there is no real argument that their long-term costs are meaningfully less.
Of course, there will be objections from any community selected for a new power generating facility – which could be solar, wind, gas turbines, or even nuclear power plants (as currently being considered in nearby Amherst County). Important to our choices is understanding what each will cost, and about any unwanted impacts on our communities. We can anticipate that everyone will continue to want plenty of affordable energy – although with the production being done someplace else. Difficult choices are in Virginia’s future – interesting will be to see how our local politicians respond to these new challenges.
