Another solar farm for Horry County? Here’s the status of the Southern Current deal
Southern Current, a Charleston-based solar farm developer, is one step closer to landing a deal to build a utility-size solar farm in western Horry County, near Gallivants Ferry.
At a meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Transportation and Economic Development Committee of Horry County Council heard from both a Southern Current representative and outside engineers about the potential environmental impact of decommissioning a large solar farm, a sticking point that has previously held up the deal.
Though several of the council members present still have questions about the deal, the committee voted to have the full County Council debate the deal, of which members will be able to have an initial discussion at their Nov. 17 meeting. The public will be able to weigh in on the potential deal at the second reading, likely on Dec. 8.
“We’d like to move forward if it all works out and everything is good, if it doesn’t contaminate or hurt our county,” said Councilman Bill Howard, who represents parts of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach. “It looks like everyone else is doing it but we just want to make sure we’re doing it the right way.”
The potential deal would be a fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement between Horry County and Southern Current that would stipulate Southern Current pay the county a fee each year, and follow certain regulatory provisions, in exchange for a tax break. The deal could net the county up to $16.6 million over 30 years, money that some council members want to put towards a large, rural civic arena along Highway 22.
That project, discussed at another recent county council meeting, calls for an indoor event space that could host everything from farm shows to graduations to large public meetings, and complete with a campground, shooting range, horse trails and enough parking for big events. Modeled after the T. Ed Garrison Arena at Clemson University in Pendleton, county council members are looking into funding it with rural infrastructure funding from Horry Electric Cooperative and hope to see it built by 2024 or 2025.
The solar farm deal would allow Southern Current to build three solar farms across five properties out near Gallivants Ferry that could generate up to 138 megawatts annually, and amount of electricity able to power more than 20,000 homes. Southern Current would work out a deal with a private landowner and sell the electricity generated to a provider, likely Santee Cooper. Southern Current would agree to pay the county $552,000 each year and pay future clean-up costs in exchange for a tax break on the development.
Environmental concerns gone?
Prior to Tuesday, several council members raised concerns that allowing Southern Current to build a utility-scale solar farm would cause headaches in the future, namely when it came time to decommission, or deconstruct, the solar farm. What happens to the solar panels then, several members asked?
Last month, when County Council first began discussing the potential solar farm deal in earnest, councilors were skeptical.
“There’s not a landfill in the country that will take these things,” County Council member Johnny Vaught said then. “The financial thing looks really good, it looks really nice, but I’m thinking about my grandchildren and children down the road, where are these materials going to go when they’re done with them?”
Ben Ludwig, Southern Current’s director of community relations and economic development, Joel Cipcic, a renewable energy consultant, and Ted McGavran, a solar engineer, all spoke before council members Tuesday in attempt to ease their concerns. The most significant, and one that caused council to pause on the deal last month, was the fear that, if a solar panel breaks or breaks down over time, the chemicals within the panel could escape and poison the earth. One of those chemicals, Cadmium Telluride, is considered a pollutant, but isn’t used in newer solar panels. Besides, said McGavran, the engineer, leaching wasn’t likely to happen.
“You may hear this term, they’ll ‘leach into the environment,’” he said. “That doesn’t happen, they’re all inside the glass itself. So, unless there was something that could crack that glass ... they’re not going to get out.”
Councilman Gary Loftus, who represents part of Myrtle Beach, was quick with a retort: “How many hurricanes have you been through?” he asked.
“Quite a few,” McGavran responded.
“And you’ve never seen a stone crack or anything?” Loftus asked.
“I’ve never seen a stone crack a solar panel,” McGavran replied.
Loftus said he was satisfied, and he and other council members at the meeting discussed prohibiting any solar panels installed as part of the deal from using the chemical compound.
Panels wouldn’t have Cadmium Telluride
“If they’re saying the most dangerous component we’re looking at is Cadmium Telluride, we have an ability to prohibit the use of Cadmium Telluride,” said Dennis DiSabato, who represents part of Myrtle Beach. “And if the landowner is willing to comply with that restriction, then I don’t know that there’s as much concern about the decommissioning as there would be if we were using these Cadmium Telluride components.”
Howard echoed that the county would likely stipulate in its agreement with Southern Current that any solar panels used wouldn’t be allowed to use Cadmium Telluride.
With concerns of pollution put to rest, council members must now hammer out the rest of the details of the agreement. Loftus said he’d like to take a closer look at the financial aspects of the deal, including who is backing the clean-up bond, and the details of recycling the solar panels once they’re no longer usable.
“Now it’s just going to come down to an analysis of what makes sense from a financial standpoint for the county,” DiSabato said.
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 6:34 PM.
