Landowners and developer outline 5 MW Inverness solar proposal ahead of 2232 appeal and public hearing

Sean Haney, the landowner and applicant for the Inverness Solar Project, told the Nottoway County Board of Supervisors at their Sept. 11 work session that he and his development partners want to build a roughly 5-megawatt solar installation on a portion of his historic farm and have appealed the planning commission's denial of the project's 2232 review.

"Our goal is to build a solar project in the region in Nottoway County," Haney said. He described the project as designed to avoid above‑ground transmission poles by running the collection lines underground to a nearby Dominion Energy substation and said the system would not include on‑site energy storage.

The project, as presented, would sit on a fenced footprint Haney said would be 20 acres or less of panels inside a farm of roughly 300 acres; Haney described the full installed value of the site as "about a $10,000,000 asset." He told the board the panels and site layout are being sited to minimize visibility from adjacent roads and houses and that the applicant intends to add vegetative buffers and wildlife‑friendly fencing that permits small animals while screening views.

Haney and a developer representative said the application and several requested exceptions were recommended by the planning staff but ultimately denied by the…