The developer of a utility-scale solar power plant in Henry County says a “domino effect” of weather events, including Hurricane Helene last fall and heavy rain the following spring, led to recent environmental issues at the site.
Energix Renewables was recently cited by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for failing to control erosion and stormwater runoff during the construction of Sunny Rock Solar, which resulted in sediment going into nearby streams and wetlands.
The DEQ ordered the company to pay civil penalties totaling nearly $121,000. Those fines marked the fourth year in a row that the DEQ has cited Energix for violations at its Virginia solar sites, bringing its total penalties to more than $460,000.
The company has sent a check to DEQ to pay the latest fines, is almost done correcting the issues and is changing some of its processes in hopes that these will be the last such citations the company sees, said Tim Barker, senior director of construction for Energix Renewables.
“We are where we are, and the only way we can deal with it is acknowledge that it’s happened and fix it,” Barker said. 
Penalties followed inspections of Henry County site
Energix Renewables is an Arlington-based subsidiary of Energix Group, which is based in Israel. The company also operates in Lithuania and Poland, according to its website.
It has solar sites in Southside and Southwest Virginia, including others in Henry County, plus facilities in Appomattox, Buckingham and Wythe counties.
The 20-megawatt Sunny Rock Solar sits on about 180 acres of land off Joseph Martin Highway, northwest of Ridgeway in Henry County. Energix announced on May 6 that the site was newly connected to the grid and producing power.
The recent penalties followed DEQ inspections of Sunny Rock while the project was under construction, in February and again in April, after Energix reported a large discharge of sediment into nearby waters on April 8.
The site received more than 2 inches of rain on April 6 and 7, according to a letter from Energix to the DEQ.
Energix had self-reported “small to moderate” discharges of sediment into water in August, November, December and February, but the DEQ took no enforcement action because the company removed the sediment, according to a DEQ report.
When DEQ inspectors arrived at Sunny Rock, they found “numerous” erosion and sediment control measures that were “either unimplemented or poorly maintained,” according to an agency report.
Erosion in the soil around and underneath solar panels contributed to sediment going into the water, the DEQ said.
Inspectors also found silt fencing, which prevents sediment from being washed away, that had been overwhelmed by heavy flows of water and soil.
On June 27, the DEQ levied penalties through two decrees called consent orders. The public comment period for one of the two consent orders has concluded, but the DEQ will take public comments on the other order through Aug. 27.
Energix says rain hampered erosion control efforts
In an interview, Energix officials pointed to a series of weather events going back to when the remnants of Hurricane Helene hit Virginia on Sept. 27. Henry County received nearly 3 inches of rain, according to federal weather data.
That storm disrupted the Sunny Rock Solar site’s grass-planting. Grass is commonly used for erosion control because its roots help hold the soil together.
“The hurricane comes through, washes everything out,” said Tom Root, project manager for Sunny Rock Solar. “We not only have to regrade everything — now we have to try to reseed it. November turns into December; nothing’s growing.”
More rain rolled in during springtime, further hindering progress.
“It was really just, we’re trying to claw our way back here, but we can’t get the site to where we want it to be and actually establish the growth that we need, and it put us in a very tough spot where we’re taking a couple steps forward and then a leap back because of the rain we get,” Root said.
When enforcing its rules, the DEQ can exercise discretion to allow for unusual weather events, but it also considers a company’s history and maintenance practices, said DEQ spokesperson Irina Calos.
A DEQ report said that Energix has been involved in multiple state environmental cases in recent years, was aware of its legal requirements and “has been the beneficiary of hundreds of man hours of compliance assistance from DEQ’s most knowledgeable compliance and enforcement staff.”
About half of the DEQ’s approximately $121,000 penalty was for the violations themselves, while half was for “aggravating factors,” including the company’s history, according to DEQ documents.
Calos said that at Sunny Rock Solar, DEQ inspectors found the same violations at the same place multiple times, before and after heavy rains.
“Stabilization should have occurred regardless of specific rain events and would have reduced the impacts associated with these rain events,” Calos said.
Company aims to avoid further fines
The penalties related to Sunny Rock come after Energix faced $158,000 in penalties last year for environmental violations at seven Virginia solar sites and nearly $190,000 in penalties during the two years prior.
Barker, the Energix construction director, said that the previous years’ problems were largely due to “some issues” with contractors that the company worked with. He declined to name specific ones.
The problems at Sunny Rock were due to weather, not the contractors working there, he added.
Energix plans to continue developing solar projects in Virginia. It has one in Rockingham County, called Sun Ridge Solar, that is anticipated to go online at the end of this year or early next year.
Barker said that in the future, the company plans to go “above and beyond” baseline environmental requirements at its construction sites to avoid further penalties.
For example, in some situations, the company might add more support for its silt fencing, or it might dig deeper channels to better control the flow of water at a solar site.
“We do not want another consent order put to our name at all again. We really don’t,” Barker said.
Barker said that the company tries to be “good stewards of the land.”
“It’s important that people understand that Energix is not here just to be a one and done, destroy something and run away,” he said. “We own our projects for the duration of their life, so we have these projects for 40 years. We own it for 40 years. We don’t want to be the bad people. We want to be the good neighbor.”
