Attendees applauded the project. The Reworld waste-to-energy plant in the background processes 1.1 million tons of solid waste per year.
With trash trucks rumbling in the background, Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck called the Lorton/I-95 landfill “the backyard that I love,” when officials figuratively raised a glass to a new 12,000-panel solar project on a closed, 37-acre section of the landfill. The June 18 groundbreaking celebrated a five-megawatt solar array project that will generate enough electricity to power about 1,000 homes when completed in 2026.
“It’s a big, big, big day, “a major milestone,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay told the gathering. Fairfax County is the first locality in Virginia to begin construction of a solar array on the grounds of a landfill. Generating electricity from the sun is a “no brainer,” McKay enthused, “the right thing to do environmentally and economically.”
The panels will reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions by 136,000 metric tons, officials contend, and save the county $12 million over 30 years. It will help the county reach carbon neutrality in government operations by 2040.
Braddock Supervisor James Walkinshaw said, “We should treat this as the beginning to meet our carbon neutrality goals,” stressing that the county must “double down.” He lauded his former boss, the late Congressman Gerry Connolly who as a Board of Supervisors Chairman “put the county on a sustainable path” with his Cool Counties initiative. Connolly died on May 21, 2025. Walkinshaw last week won a 10-way primary to be the Democratic nominee to fill Connolly’s seat in Congress with nearly 60 percent of the total vote.
Storck recalled that Lorton “looked very different” 25 years ago and cited the Lorton Visioning 2040 effort that is planning the community’s future. He too reminded, “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get to carbon neutral.”
County officials Chris Herrington and Eric Forbes see the solar panels as a step toward a sustainable community. Herrington heads the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services and Forbes is the Department’s Deputy Director overseeing solid waste management. John Morrill, Director of the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination, called the project one that can “displace carbon emissions and other pollutants.”
Wendy Henley, President of the South County Federation, attended and in an email commended the county. “By repurposing a closed landfill into a renewable energy hub, the project illustrates the potential to convert environmental challenges into meaningful opportunities. This solar array project, which aligns with Fairfax County's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and fostering resilience for future generations, is a testament to the power of community collaboration. It would be great if our schools could leverage this capability.”
Solar Specifics
Fairfax County is partnering with Madison Energy Infrastructure (MEI) to build the complex and leasing landfill land to the company. MEI Vice President Michael Fahey told the group, “It will offer rate certainty, be clean and cost efficient.”
In a follow-up email, Fahey explained that one solar panel is 44 by 89 inches, with a maximum electrical output of 545 watts. Each solar panel has four main components: the frame, solar cells, glass layers and encapsulant. The manufacturers are ZNShine Solar, Vsun Solar and Risen Energy.
The energy from the solar installation will go to Dominion Energy which will meter the kilowatt hours at the point of connection and then credit the county for the energy produced. He termed it “virtual metering.”
His company will plant a meadow using pollinator-friendly seed mix under the panels, seeds approved by county officials.
MEI owns and operates energy assets across the U.S. and collaborates with schools and communities “to lower their costs and enhance operational sustainability,” Fahey reported.
Legislature Gave Authority
Several speakers commended the Virginia General Assembly, especially former delegate Mark Keam who attended, and local advocates who persuaded the legislature to enable the project.
“The concept for the project initially began in 2020 with the enactment of the Solar Freedom Act, a law that focuses on renewable energy,” said Ivy Main, Renewable Energy Co-Chair, Virginia Sierra Club. “It allows residents and businesses to purchase electricity through renewable sources, such as solar. It also allows for virtual net metering for this project, in which power generated at the site can be credited to other county facility energy accounts.
“Among Solar Freedom’s provisions was municipal net metering, which would allow a locality to build a solar array on a closed landfill or vacant land and attribute the electricity to buildings not located at the site. Without this legislation, only buildings that could take electricity directly from a solar array would be legally entitled to use it under Virginia’s net metering statute, and the size of the projects would be much more limited,” Main said.
Main added, “We hope to work with the county again to expand the ability of both Fairfax and other localities to put solar on their closed landfills and other lands that aren’t suitable for other purposes.”
“This solar array helps cement Fairfax County’s leadership in renewable energy, a point of pride for those of us who call this county home.”
How will the average person benefit from this project? Fahey answered, that in addition to county cost savings, “The installed capacity is capacity that the utility doesn't need to provide, which enables the utility to avoid adding costs to ratepayers to fund costs for such capacity.”