Axios Live: Takeaways from Richmond roundtable on Virginia's energy landscape

RICHMOND, Va. – The policies, standards and capabilities that make up the foundation of Virginia's energy market must shift to accommodate growing needs, industry experts said.

• Axios' Chuck McCutcheon and Sabrina Moreno moderated a roundtable discussion in Richmond on Sept. 9 that brought together local leaders who discussed these shifts. The event was sponsored by Shell.

Why it matters: Virginia, a leader in the AI data center boom, must contend with the widespread effects of rising energy demand on policy priorities, community economic development and permitting processes.

5 big things: Here's what the attendees had to say …

1. Establishing site standards is a step that could help accelerate Virginia's energy projects, said Kirk Johnson, CEP Solar's director of policy and regulatory initiatives. "Having standards that are consistent across countries would make a lot of sense."
2. "This is an opportunity for the state of Virginia to really showcase its leadership in this space," said Laura Thomas, the city of Richmond's director of sustainability. Thomas said cross-industry dialogue will help the state develop energy permitting standards.
3. Rural Virginia communities can learn about the challenges they might face from those that have already welcomed data centers, Virginia's Gateway Region president and CEO Keith Boswell said. "Our communities, especially around data centers, they're open for business," Boswell said. "The communities are adopting either ordinances or overlay districts in preparation for the projects as they come. And they're coming. … It's all about the power right now."
4. For officials in these growing markets, putting money back into their communities is key, Virginia Clean Cities East region director Graham Sheridan said. "The reason that your towns all want these things [data centers] is that they're incredibly valuable, and part of the way to make these things work is to be creative and smart in the use of the data center revenues."
5. Energy costs have become an important policy issue heading into next year's midterms. Virginia Department of Energy director Glenn Davis, who's been involved in 10 election cycles in 15 years, said that it is "the first time I've really seen energy as part of the conversation during election season."

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Shell Energy Solutions CEO David Black outlined how quickly power demand is rising in Virginia.

• "As many of you are aware, Virginia's annual load is growing at 4+%," Black said. "It looks to be continuing for a period of time, largely driven by an influx of data centers, the electrification of transportation, advanced manufacturing, a whole host of things that are really driving the demand."
• "But at the same time, Virginia can't produce all of the energy that it needs for today," he said, adding that the market needs more innovation to address these problems.