Dulles Solar Farm Overlaid over Historical Maps

These screenshots depict the footprint of the nearly-completed Dulles Solar Array over top of maps from now, 1957 and 1870. From the time of the airports' completion to last year, these areas have consisted of largely wooded land. Prior to that, farms that often originated in the late-18th and early-19th centuries operated where the solar farm is now being built, including at least one family cemetery.

111 points devman0

If you're upset about this, you're not gonna like where they plan on putting the fifth runway.

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52 points One_dank_orange

Traffic on 28 is bad enough. Gonna be a real drag to merge around an A380

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8 points __whitecheddar__

I thought it was supposed to go where they put these farms…parallel to 12/30

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5 points Menotomy

It is, you can see the open area between the solar panels parallel to 12/30 where there is space for a runway and the same overshoot area.

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2 points __whitecheddar__

You’re so right. I completely missed that

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2 points Menotomy

It's kind of surprising because it's fairly close to Rt. 50. Not sure if they can ever use the second diagonal for landing during windy days because the flight path would be very close to residential that existed before the runway. I don't know if noise studies and zoning accounted for a potential 5th runway there.

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54 points gioraffe32

Am I missing something here? This just seems informational, but other commenters are talking about people, potentially OP, being mad about this. But I'm not getting that vibe. Even OP's posting history is just about area history.

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28 points Uppgreyedd

It's just people making everything on the internet confrontational

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12 points Sneaux96

No people don't! Stop spreading these lies!

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6 points gioraffe32

Am I missing something here? This just seems informational...

(sorry, couldn't resist! ;D )

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1 points wbruce098

I can’t believe you’d have the gall to joke about something this serious!

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4 points Willie9

invoking an old cemetery gives me a rage bait vibe tbh

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76 points prex10

Far from the first airport built over a cemetery.

A McDonald's in Chantilly has marked Union soldier graves in the parking lot.

Savannah Georgia airport has marked graves... on the runway.

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29 points Dachannien

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6 points looktowindward

The Mobile Lounges are haunted

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6 points kellyzdude

A McDonald's in Chantilly has marked Union soldier graves in the parking lot.

Which one? I know the one in Centreville has a marker indicating where soldiers had previously been buried in the parking lot, but the bodies were exhumed and moved south closer to Bull Run.

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8 points prex10

I might have gotten my towns starting with with a C mixed up.

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2 points kellyzdude

No worries, you got me excited that there might be another one!

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2 points BlueLikeCat

Been to the McDonald’s and it was disappointingly only haunted by small import tuner cars with loud pipes, but no civil war ghosts.

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51 points jdmb0y

Pretty cool to see such a huge solar farm spring up in a just a year or two

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10 points Suwannee_Gator

They are really boring and easy to build.

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5 points Tetracanopy

Better than bitcoin miners.

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1 points JerryWagz

It’s been in development since 2020

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5 points AcanthaceaeOk3738

Why does it look like the rights of way from the old roads and railroad are being preserved? I know one or two roads from before the airport are still there as service roads, but this looks like more than that.

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6 points Uppgreyedd

Wouldn't surprise me if the railroad land was leased to the airport, even though the entire town of Willard was eminent domained and razed. That's an ugly history to read.

They probably kept the roads for ease of access to those parts of the airport since they were already there. You can see a radar at the south side in the satellite imagery, and theres also security operations.

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1 points BlueLikeCat

We don’t talk about Willard in these parts. Unless you’re looking for a fight.

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1 points Uppgreyedd

I welcome it

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10 points WinWeak6191

Cool.

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7 points chris_wiz

Good.

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12 points BallParkFranks

Methinks you’re barking up the wrong tree on this one, bud

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4 points Impossible_Welder159

Who is barking?...

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35 points optimiism

Only in NoVA can people be 1) upset about massive tax revenue generators (data centers), AND 2) green energy.

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1 points The_Lonely_Marth

Only in ~~NoVA~~ Virginia can people be 1) upset about massive tax revenue generators (data centers), AND 2) green energy.

They're complaining about solar in Halifax County, a county with literally nothing in it

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1 points NotOSIsdormmole

Data centers got tax incentives, they’re not generating shit

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8 points looktowindward

That is a complete falsehood. This year, DCs in Loudoun generated about $1b in property taxes. the only tax rebate is sales tax, which was probably $100 to $125m

Math is hard, I do understand, but the net tax revenue is massive.

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29 points GrantLee123

Absolutely false. They generate an insane amount of property tax. Loudoun general fund balance has DOUBLED in the last 5 years and is now like $716 million of the top of my head. Loudoun residents have seen a like 20% decrease in property tax in the last few years.

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3 points looktowindward

That's the personal property tax. In total, it was $1b this year for Loudoun.

And the property tax rate has actually fallen even more. We're 40% less than Fairfax

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6 points pandadragon57

They also generate most of the personal property taxes.

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10 points optimiism

Here’s your sign.

https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/216033/FY-2026-Adopted-Budget

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2 points MajesticBread9147

Data centers get tax incentives in shitty areas with nothing else going for them.

Datacenters here don't, because they don't need to.

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-7 points DrJ0911

We got a shallow thinker here.

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5 points optimiism

What are you upset about?

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-5 points One_dank_orange

I mean yeah sure but think of all the housing and other shit that could go where the data centers went instead.

I personally think the solar farm is a great use of that land.

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5 points optimiism

I’m not well versed on all of the land use, but there’s a number of data center sites that could never be zoned residential, namely around the airport.

That’s just zoning, then you have the economics of the land use. 100 doors and a generic strip mall isn’t much better of a land use either in my view.

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2 points One_dank_orange

Around the airport, like encircled by 28/606/lcpw/50 I totally understand. But I was thinking more like the other data center locations that have popped up in recent years. I didnt grow up here so am oblivious to whats been in those locations in the past.

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2 points optimiism

For the most part, the land has been entirely undeveloped. Not farmland, not re-development, but undeveloped trees and grass.

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2 points looktowindward

A lot of it was ex-farmland. Like farmland that was fallow for a few decades

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1 points looktowindward

The airport noise zone grew over time.

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3 points optimiism

The noise zone grew for 3 reasons. Planes got larger and required longer approaches, the runway expansion, and dumbasses that bought houses in flight paths and then complained about noise.

The third point is the funniest. That’s like buying a house next to a train track and complaining about train horns.

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3 points looktowindward

I live in the area. Some of my neighbors are in that category. Its like, fuckers, did you not NOTICE THE HUGE AIRPLANES?

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3 points Even_Candidate5678

You think people should live in the take off/landing pattern of an international airport? Really?

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2 points looktowindward

People in Loudoun hate housing. The data centers are only like 4% of the land. I'd be in favor of more housing, but I'm like the only person here who thinks so. traffic, etc

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3 points IDYetiman

Yes please add solar everywhere possible. So much wasted space and roof space and also need for energy . Bring on panels and batteries

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2 points MajesticBread9147

Cool! We need more solar in nova!

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2 points sent1nel

Based.

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3 points FredSchwartz

https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/dulles-airport-history/

Dulles Airport Has Its Roots in Rural Black Community of Willard

by Eugene Scheel

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2 points BoredAlwys

I was just doing another dive into the history of Dulles while watching Die Hard 2, so thank you

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1 points i_am_voldemort

Justice 4 Manassas Railway

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1 points Even_Candidate5678

Great use of the space.

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1 points acme65

who are these panels for? the airport?

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1 points Bluazul

What website did you use for this? Looks neat!

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1 points bingbangbing1

heritagedulles.com and enabled the "Western Solar Array" special layer from the top-right dropdown. You may need to toggle it when changing years.

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1 points New-Rip3329

So what are you mad about exactly? /s

Sorry had to

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1 points JerryWagz

Op clutching pearls lmao

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1 points YourRoaring20s

Ok

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1 points august_westerly

God save the Piedmont

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-1 points _flyingmonkeys_

Isn't glare going to be a factor for pilots

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-32 points Jealous-Report4286

Bulldoze this whole place who cares???? Nobody actually cares about the environment….seriously I’m left but…recycling is a scam!!! You sort things for nothing!!!! (Side note the history we can’t bulldoze for roads….is so insignificant to literally architecture culture or history…manassas battlefield should be a strip mall or a better road)

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15 points Mr_Bluebird_VA

You alright over there?

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8 points looktowindward

Bulldozed? That land was cleared two centuries ago. You realize the centuries of farming were horrible for the environment and a solar farm is good? Or do you think the airport is bad? If so, you're a touch late

or is this just rage?

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-2 points Jealous-Report4286

Im saying…who cares???? Like great we have a solar farm… and if Jimmy Carter won in 1980…maybe it would matter???? Let’s knock these relatively inefficient patches of “environment” down and build nuclear plants…the airport itself is what a year ago finally connected to rail???? This area for all the smart people doing their civic duties…it sucks just saying…I am annoyed with all that is going on in 2025……we would quit acting like the solar panels matter.

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1 points looktowindward

SMRs prototypes are under constructions in Idaho. We'll see them in southwestern VA in the 2030s.

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1 points wherervo

Virginia is rich with history, so no bulldozing pls

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-1 points Jealous-Report4286

Yeah, I’m sure George Washington cared about the rich history as he advocated for killing all natives…and plowing down any trace they existed.

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-1 points wherervo

Can’t learn from history if you bulldoze it down

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2 points Jealous-Report4286

We could literally give you a VR tour of the battlefield as it was on that day.

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1 points wherervo

Nah I can drive to it and walk around and enjoy the outdoors reading about what happened

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Dulles Airport Has Its Roots in Rural Black Community of Willard