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About Francis Hodsoll

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So far Francis Hodsoll has created 13 blog entries.

Building a Stronger South-Central Virginia

By |2025-05-29T16:00:58-04:00May 29th, 2025|Virginia Solar, Workforce Development|

The Story of the South-Central Virginia Business Alliance  By Francis Hodsoll  The South-Central Virginia Business Alliance (SCVBA) is a network of local businesses dedicated to meeting goods, services, and labor needs for major infrastructure projects and other economic development initiatives in South-Central Virginia.   Too often, major infrastructure projects roll into rural areas without real connection to the communities they impact. There can be a disconnect—between developers and local workers, between opportunity and access. SCVBA is designed to bridge that gap

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Join SolUnesco in Supporting the Boys and Girls of Greensville County

By |2025-06-18T16:17:17-04:00September 27th, 2018|Charitable Giving, Company Update, Industry, Virginia Solar|

Charitable Giving Program - Greensville County Partner As we describe on our Charitable Giving page, SolUnesco is committed to supporting the communities in which we operate. Our Meherrin Solar project is located in Greensville County, on the outskirts of Emporia, Virginia. We have chosen to support the Boys and Girls Club of Emporia, which is currently raising money to re-establish its presence in the County. Changes in Emporia and Greensville, Virginia When small family-owned businesses were prevalent in the Emporia/Greensville

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Helping Middle School Students Explore Solar Technology at Locust Grove Middle School

By |2025-06-18T16:00:53-04:00June 7th, 2018|Charitable Giving, Company Update, News, Virginia Solar|

Giving Back At SolUnesco, “community” is one of our core values, and we make it a goal to give back to the communities in which we operate. As such, we were thrilled to recently support the learning of solar concepts at Locust Grove Middle School. The school is located just down the street from the Madison Solar Farm, a proposed 400-acre, 60-MW solar farm, on which SolUnesco worked to get zoning approval from the County last year. On May 29,

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Local Permitting: Impact on Solar

By |2025-06-18T16:16:03-04:00January 29th, 2018|Land Use, Virginia Solar|

Solar Sprawl? For nearly a decade, my business partner and I have devoted our hearts and considerable time to developing a sustainable solar energy market in Virginia. However, the local permitting process poses a significant risk to the long-term viability of the market. In this companion piece to the previous blog post on our successful permitting experience in Orange County, Virginia, we offer our perspectives on local permitting and the concerns typically raised by local communities. We hope we can

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Community Engagement Wins Board Approval for SolUnesco’s Orange County Solar Project

By |2025-06-18T15:04:08-04:00December 20th, 2017|Company Update, Virginia Solar|

Why Community Building? As solar developers, we believe in our mission and the positive impacts of our work. Even so, we should never assume that a community will embrace a new solar energy generating plant. Local permitting can be the most precarious stage of utility-scale solar development. It’s the only stage where the people who decide your project’s fate don’t follow a uniform rubric. A county official may be able to deny your project for any reason. As a result,

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HODSOLL: Solar Power Southeast: Does Passion + Wisdom = Resilience?

By |2025-06-18T14:48:13-04:00May 31st, 2017|Company Update, Industry, Southeast, Virginia Solar|

Despite scary challenges: strength and optimism While the Suniva trade case—potentially a devastating price increase especially for utility-scale loomed largely, attendees eagerly packed presentations. The audience’s questions provided an interesting barometer to the psyche in the room.  Participants focused on where we are going and how to get there. Further, the evolving business models continue to pry open market segments. We are tenacious! Even in markets dominated by utilities such as Florida Power & Light, some competitors have created interesting

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U.S. Solar Jobs Outnumber U.S. Coal Jobs…By A Lot!

By |2025-06-18T14:35:24-04:00January 18th, 2017|Virginia Solar|

This month, the Department of Energy released the “U.S. Energy and Employment Report”, an annual report that highlights employment data and trends for each of the energy sectors. While the report concedes that the solar industry employment data is difficult to measure, it suggests that the solar industry may have added 73,000 jobs in the past year, bringing total solar jobs to 373,000. To put this into perspective; the same DOE report puts U.S. coal jobs at roughly 86,000, total.

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SolUnesco Talks Solar Policy and Growth in Virginia

By |2025-06-18T14:24:44-04:00July 18th, 2016|Company Update, Policy, Virginia Solar|

On Wednesday. July 13th, 2016, we presented at the Virginia Association of Assessing Officers (VAAO) Property Assessment Conference (Click here to download presentation). The association and their conferences provide continuing education to the Virginia community of assessors. We believe that maintaining a healthy dialogue with the professionals who determine land values for the purpose of tax assessments serves the solar industry well. Francis Hodsoll, CEO, presented on policies driving national solar markets and their application to the Virginia framework. He

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Power In Numbers With Community Solar

By |2025-06-18T14:17:48-04:00July 7th, 2016|Industry|

Community Solar Advancing States in every corner of the United States are rapidly advancing the community solar market. GreenTech Media has projected that Community Solar will grow faster than any other solar market segment. The NC Clean Energy Technology Center reported in their 2016 50 States of Solar Quarterly Report that seven states adopted, amended, or reviewed rules governing community solar programs within the past year. For example, Minnesota and Maryland have implemented pilot projects that would demonstrate the benefits of community

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Innovation in Response to Solar Demand

By |2025-06-18T14:12:18-04:00May 30th, 2016|Industry|

After Supreme Court’s Stay on The Clean Power Plan Last week SolUnesco presented on a panel at Solar Power Southeast in Atlanta, Georgia (Click here to download presentation).  The panel focused on the trajectory for solar after the Supreme Court’s Stay on the Clean Power Plan (CPP) including the legal merits of the suit, and the impact on the economics, policy, and market trends. Does the Supreme Court’s Stay mean a slower pace for the development of renewables going forward?

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