Virginia Natural Solutions to Capture Carbon – Call to Action

What:    Press Conference – Soil Carbon Project to get Virginia to Net-Zero CO2 by 2045

Where:   The Free Speech Monument – Charlottesville Downtown Mall

When:   Thursday, November 3, at 4 p.m.

American Climate Partners – formerly known as the Center for Natural Capital and located in Rapidan, Virginia – announces an innovative multi-year pilot project with Dominion Energy to capture carbon in the soil at the company’s largest solar installation at Fort Powhatan, Virginia.

Program:

  1. Welcome, Al Weed, ACP Board Chair
  2. New Biodiversity and Climate Developments, David Perdue, ACP Board Vice-Chair
  3. Grassland Sequestration in Energy Generation
    • Solar Soil Carbon Pilot Project Announcement, Cedric Green, Senior Vice-President, Generation – Dominion Energy
    • The Promise of Biochar and Soil, Sabina Dhungana, Virginia Department of Forestry
  4. Grassland Sequestration in Ranching
    • Michael Carter, Jr., Carter Farms
    • Brent Wills, Virginia Association of Biological Farming
  5. Grassland Sequestration in our Yards and Lawns
    • Dr. Joel Temme, Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action
  6. Questions – Michael Collins, ACP Executive Director

The pilot project will measure changes in soil carbon caused by the application of biochar which is created from waste wood.  The biochar will be placed under the solar panels and the carbon reductions will be measured over time as part of the four year pilot study.

“We are at the dawn of accelerated and deliberate carbon storage in natural areas of the mid-Atlantic region. Our  need for all the above climate restoration strategies compels this bold step now,” said Al Weed, Chairman of American Climate Partners. “It is in the best spirit of our American entrepreneurial heritage that we will learn much about soil carbon drawdown in Virginia’s natural areas in the years ahead.”

The Virginia General Assembly has set a goal for a Net-Zero CO2 economy by 2045. All sectors of Virginia’s economy are called to participate in meeting this goal. To date, only targets in the energy sector have been established in state energy policy. In the Solar Soil Carbon pilot project, American Climate Partners will study, the capturing of already released greenhouse gases in the grass underneath Dominion Energy’s solar installations.

This partnership is part of the larger Virginia Grassland Deep Carbon Project, launched this year by American Climate Partners. In a generational commitment to help Virginia reach its climate goals, American Climate Partners has embarked on actions to improve the health of the climate and the economy in our rural communities specifically through the use of natural solutions.

The Deep Carbon Project intends to help mobilize landowners such as Dominion Energy and others in the agricultural, residential, and commercial sectors to implement products, services, and methods to capture carbon in grassland soils over the next 20 years.