Solar power plant in Virginia, United States of America. Approximate location 37.155, -76.904.
SolarVirginiaUnited States of America
Colonial Trail West is a 142 MW solar power station in Virginia, United States of America. It is operated by Dominion Renewable Energy. Based on reported annual generation of 6 GWh, it can supply roughly 1.9k homes. It ranks #2406 of 10,938 United States of America power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2020, it is around 6 years old — recently built. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, solar supplies about 8.6% of United States of America's electricity; the national grid averages 384 gCO₂/kWh (43.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id USA0061985.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000804344); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 142 MW, Colonial Trail West is well above the median solar plant in United States of America (3 MW). Solar PV converts sunlight directly into electricity with no moving parts or fuel; output varies by time of day and weather, so it pairs with storage or flexible backup.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Dominion Renewable Energy. All plants by this company →
This solar plant converts sunlight directly into electricity with photovoltaic panels. It sits in a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 37.2°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Climate zone & typical temperatures: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid).
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #44 largest solar power plant of 3283 in United States of America by capacity.
United States of America has 3283 solar power plants in this dataset, together about 38,093 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 37.155, -76.904 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Colonial Trail West is a 142 MW source-record solar power plant in Virginia, United States of America, commissioned in 2020.
Colonial Trail West generates about 6 GWh of electricity per year.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 1,857 homes.
Colonial Trail West is operated by Dominion Renewable Energy.
