Buckingham County, Va. (Newsradiowrva.com) - Dominion Energy has started a pilot program aimed at helping both the bee population and local farmers’ crop production.
As part of the program, beehives will be added to solar farms. So far, the only solar farm to have beehives installed is Black Bear Solar in Buckingham county. Over 180,000 bees have been there since August.
“The beehive project is an ideal pairing for a solar farm. Both are environmentally friendly, so we’re generating clean pollution-free energy at Black Bear while helping increase the pollinator population to the benefit of nearby farmers,” said Dominion spokesperson Tim Eberly.
Eberly notes that bees are critical to crop production.
“For the last year, Dominion has been looking for ways to pair solar farms with surrounding farms with food or crops. This is known as agrivoltaics,” Eberly explains. “The primary purpose of this pilot project is to help increase the pollinator population.”
The beehive pilot follows another project, initiated last year, to put sheep on solar farms to eat the grass and vegetation. Dominion says it hopes to double the number of hives to eight by spring of 2025.
“If all goes well, by spring, we’ll have eight beehives,” Eberly said. “We’ve got an empty bench with room for four more.”
