Big batch of solar energy projects approved in Virginia

Canadian manufacturers should be “big players” in building major projects in Canada, the leader of an advocacy group representing small- and medium-sized sector members said Monday evening at a national policy conference in Winnipeg.

Catherine Swift, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, spoke during the opening panel at the conference, organized by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a think tank headquartered in the Manitoba capital.

The conference, which continued throughout the day on Tuesday, brought together leaders and experts from defence, Indigenous communities, energy, transportation, business and public policy to explore what it would take to move northern strategic utility corridors from proposal to construction.

“The fact that we’ve struggled as a country with building major projects such as utility corridors in the North has been particularly punitive to manufacturing because, naturally, they should be big players in any such project,” said Swift, who was a senior economist at TD Bank before serving as chief executive at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business from 1987 to 2012.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Dominion Energy has received regulatory approval in Virginia for a series of solar projects expected to generate enough power to light up 250,000 homes.

Dominion estimates the projects will also generate more than $880 million in economic benefits across Virginia and support nearly 4,200 jobs.

The State Corporation Commission approved the plan Tuesday. Dominion said the projects will result in a monthly rate increase of about $1.13 for the average residential customer.

Collectively, the projects will generate nearly 1,000 megawatts of electricity — that's more than the average coal plant in the company's portfolio. For comparison sake, Dominion's nuclear-powered North Anna station generates about 1,800 megawatts.