For all the time we’ve spent on and around Naval Air Station Oceana, there’s one thing we always wondered about.

All those solar panels.

There’s a whole solar farm out there. So, as the world turns its attention to Earth Day 2022, we thought it was time to find out what alternative energy generation at NAS Oceana is all about.

It turns out, the farm was built by Dominion Virginia Power, the Department of the Navy and the Commonwealth of Virginia, and has been generating electricity since late 2017 – enough to power 4,400 homes during peak power generation.

All told, it’s a 93-acre, 18-megawatt site that includes almost 179,000 ground mounted solar panels. We knew there were a lot, but WOW, that’s impressive.

And those ditch channels running alongside the panels? They’re there to collect stormwater runoff and keep pollution from spilling into area bays, waterways and estuaries.

Meanwhile, the ground under the planters is covered in a special mix of native vegetation to control surface runoff even further, including Virginia Wild Rye, Beaked PanicGrass, Florida Paspalum, Purple Top and Little Bluestem.

Congrats to NAS Oceana for driving Virginia’s clean energy economy forward and doing its part to combat climate change. Happy Earth Day, everyone.