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Fairfax County has begun transforming 37 acres of the closed Lorton/I-95 landfill into a five-megawatt solar installation expected to generate enough electricity for about 1,000 homes.
Officials celebrated the start of construction June 18 as trash trucks continued operating nearby. The 12,000-panel array is scheduled for completion in 2026, making Fairfax the first Virginia locality to begin building a solar project on landfill grounds.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay called the groundbreaking a major milestone and said generating electricity from sunlight makes both environmental and economic sense.
County officials project the installation will prevent 136,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and save Fairfax $12 million over 30 years. It is also intended to advance the county’s goal of making government operations carbon-neutral by 2040.
Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck described the landfill as “the backyard that I love.” He recalled how different Lorton looked 25 years ago and connected the project with Lorton Visioning 2040, an effort to plan the community’s future. Storck cautioned that the county still has substantial work ahead to achieve carbon neutrality.
Braddock Supervisor James Walkinshaw likewise said the array should be viewed as a beginning rather than an endpoint. He credited the late Rep. Gerry Connolly with putting Fairfax on a more sustainable course through the Cool Counties initiative during Connolly’s tenure as chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
Connolly died May 21, 2025. Walkinshaw later captured nearly 60 percent of the vote in a 10-candidate Democratic primary to become the party’s nominee for his congressional seat.
County public works director Chris Herrington and deputy director Eric Forbes described the solar development as another step toward a sustainable community. John Morrill, director of the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination, said it can displace carbon emissions and other pollutants.
South County Federation President Wendy Henley praised the conversion of a closed landfill into a renewable-energy site. She said the project demonstrates how environmental challenges can become opportunities through community cooperation and suggested that county schools could potentially benefit from similar capacity.
How the solar project will work
Fairfax County is leasing the landfill property to Madison Energy Infrastructure, which will build, own and operate the installation.
Each panel measures 44 by 89 inches and has a maximum output of 545 watts. The panels, manufactured by ZNShine Solar, Vsun Solar and Risen Energy, contain a frame, solar cells, glass layers and encapsulant.
Electricity generated at the landfill will flow to Dominion Energy. The utility will measure production at the connection point and credit the county through a system known as virtual metering.
Madison Energy Infrastructure Vice President Michael Fahey said the arrangement will provide clean, cost-efficient power and greater certainty about energy rates. Beneath the panels, the company plans to establish a meadow using a pollinator-friendly seed mixture approved by county officials.
Fahey said residents could benefit beyond the projected county savings because the new generating capacity may help the utility avoid infrastructure expenses that otherwise could be passed along to ratepayers.
State law cleared the way
The project became possible after Virginia lawmakers authorized municipal net metering through the Solar Freedom Act in 2020. Officials recognized former delegate Mark Keam, local advocates and members of the General Assembly for helping secure that authority.
Ivy Main, renewable energy co-chair for the Virginia Sierra Club, said the law permits a locality to generate solar power on a closed landfill or vacant property and apply the resulting credits to government buildings elsewhere.
Without that provision, Virginia’s previous net-metering rules generally limited the benefits to buildings capable of receiving electricity directly from an array, sharply restricting where localities could place projects and how large they could be.
Main said advocates hope to work with Fairfax County again to expand opportunities for local governments to install solar arrays on closed landfills and other property unsuitable for conventional development.