Solar farm planned for 2021 can power 26,000 homes — and fund Horry’s rural civic arena

Western Horry County, near Galivants Ferry and the Marion County line, could be home to a massive, 1,500 acre solar farm as soon as 2021, and possibly pay for a civic center.

The project is still in the works, and needs Horry County Council to sign off on the structure of a fee-in-lieu-of-taxes (FILOT) agreement before Southern Current, the solar panel company expected to develop the project, can get needed permits and break ground on the installation.

Horry County Council is likely to approve the part of the deal concerning the 1,549 acres in early January, and will continue debating the FILOT part of the deal later in the month. A FILOT agreement typically means a developer agrees to pay an agreed-upon fee to a government body instead of that government collecting property taxes.

The soonest County Council could approve that part of the deal would be February, and construction wouldn’t begin for several months after that.

How the payments could work

The project, though, is complicated and has many moving parts, any of which could falter and further delay — or even entirely kill — the endeavor. The utility-scale solar farm and civic arena project together involves no less than two county governments, five holding companies for the land, a solar panel developer and two electric power companies.

Horry County Council, for its part, has delayed the project in recent months due to concerns among some members that the chemicals contained in solar panels — primarily Cadmium telluride — could damage the soil or groundwater as the panels deteriorate over time, or possibly break.

But after assurances from solar panel experts that such chemical leeching wasn’t likely to occur, council began moving the project forward. As it stands now, the project, which is split up into five pieces, breaks down like this:

• Wayfair Solar LLC is leasing 21 acres of land to Southern Current for $700 to $1,000 per acre, and will pay Horry County $8,000 per year under the FILOT agreement. That segment of the solar farm is expected to generate 2 megawatts of electricity per year, and Wayfair Solar will owe Horry County more money if that wattage is exceeded.

• Battle Solar LLC is leasing 23 acres of land to Southern Current, also for $700 to $1,000 per acre, and will pay Horry County $8,000 per year under the FILOT agreement. Like the Wayfair Solar segment, that segment of the solar farm is expected to generate 2 megawatts of electricity per year, and Battle Solar will owe Horry County more money if that wattage is exceeded.
• Holliday Solar III LLC is leasing 280 acres of land, likely to Southern Current, and will pay Horry County $88,000 per year. That segment of the project is expected to generate 22 megawatts of electricity per year and Holliday Solar III will pay the county more money if that wattage is exceeded.
• Holliday Solar II LLC is leasing 327 acres of land, likely to Southern Current, and will pay Horry County $152,000 per year. That segment of the project is expected to generate 38 megawatts of electricity per year and Holliday Solar II will pay the county more if that’s exceeded.
• Holliday Solar I LLC is leasing 898 acres of land, likely to Southern Current, and will pay Horry County $296,000 per year. That segment of the project is expected to generate 74 megawatts of electricity per year and Holliday Solar will pay the county more if that’s exceeded.

Land owned by Jim Battle, Christian M. Holliday Douglas and M. Russell Holliday Jr. is all part of the various holding companies, as well as land owned by others. The FILOT agreement would allow Horry County to receive more revenue than it could from collecting property taxes, county spokesperson Kelly Moore said.

Some details of the project remain unclear.

Despite a Southern Current representative presenting at a County Council meeting and two land owners confirming they are working with the company as part of the project, a Southern Current representative declined to comment for this story, saying it was too soon for the company to speak publicly about the project. Because of that, the company has not confirmed that its seeking long-term leases with the landowners nor has it confirmed that it will pay the fees in lieu of property taxes. County records, and interviews with other sources, do confirm both, though.

However, Ryan Mosier, a spokesperson for Duke Energy, confirmed that the power company was looking to purchase solar energy from a Southern Current project in Horry County, though it didn’t yet have a purchase agreement in place yet. In total, the solar farm is expected to generate at least 138 megawatts annually, an amount Mosier said could power between 24,800 and 27,600 homes per year. Mosier said Duke Energy has about 1,600 customers in western Horry County. If Duke purchases all of the electricity from the solar farm, the power would go into its general grid, which services large parts of North and South Carolina, as well as Florida and Indiana, and parts of Kentucky and Ohio.

The project is slated to net Horry County at least $546,000 per year for up to 30 years, or about $16.4 million. And because the project is classified as a multi-county industrial park, Marion County stands to gain $5,520 per year, or $165,600 total. The counties are splitting the fee-in-lieu funds 99% to 1% as per state law.

Future of a rural civic arena

With the funds from the project, Horry County is expected to pursue a large-scale civic arena project in a rural part of the county. That project will be a collaboration between the county and Horry Electric Cooperative, funded in party by the solar farm and in part by annual $400,000 payments the cooperative makes as part of a state tax credit program. County officials have said those funds could allow the county to issue a bond to pay for the civic arena, which the county could pay back with the annual revenue.

At a November 2019 meeting, Barry Spivey, an assistant county administrator, said the $400,000 annual payments from Horry Electric alone could allow the county to issue a bond valued between $6 and $7.5 million.

At an October meeting, a special committee of County Council selected a site to potentially purchase for the arena.

As currently envisioned, the civic arena would be modeled after Clemson University’s T. Ed Garrison Arena in Pendleton and consist of a multi-building, multi-acre campus of event buildings, horse trails, an RV park, event parking and a shooting range.

Council member Al Allen, whose district the civic arena would likely be in, said Thursday that the rural parts of Horry County need a large, central event space for entertainment and economic development. Everything from rodeos to farm shows to Horry Electric Cooperative meetings could be held at the arena, he hopes.

“I think it will open up a lot more opportunities for the people out here and provide a much needed facility that’s been missing from the rural areas,” said Allen, who represents Aynor and a part of Western Horry County. “(It) will enhance the actual rural environment by bringing in activities and shows and whatnot that people will have a chance to attend or be a part of without having to travel outside of the area.”

Horry County Council’s concerns

One open question regarding the civic arena is who will work there. At the October meeting regarding the site, a Clemson University official noted that the university uses unpaid inmate labor from a state prison to set up and tear down events at the T. Ed Garrison Arena. It remains unclear if inmate labor could be used at Horry County’s arena, though a spokesperson for the South Carolina Dept. of Corrections said such a facility would be too far away from a state prison for the department to provide unpaid inmate labor.

To get both projects off the ground Horry County Council will first need to be convinced that the solar farm won’t damage the soil or groundwater in the acres where it will sit. At least some of that land is currently used to farm tobacco and soybeans, one land owner, Jim Battle, said. Council members have delayed the project in recent months out of concerns that the chemicals used in solar panels, like Cadmium telluride, could leech into the earth if a solar panel is damagaed. At an October committee meeting of council, several council members heard from solar panel experts, including engineer Ted McGavran and Southern Current representative Ben Ludwig. McGavran assured council members at that meeting that any FILOT agreement they approve could include language barring solar panels using Cadmium telluride from being used at the solar farm.

“Unless there was something that cracked that glass, and the only thing I know that really cracks glass is a direct lightening strike, they’re not going to get out,” McGavran assured council members at the October meeting. Some members were convinced.

Parts of plan still need approvals

The FILOT agreement before council bars any solar panels on the farm from using Cadmium telluride.

However, since the solar panel experts only presented to a small number of council members, the committee asked them to return to present before the full council November 17. That ended up not happening. While some solar panel experts attended the meeting, other agenda items, including a face mask mandate and council loosening its local mining regulations took precedent. Near the end of a nearly four-hour meeting, council declined to hear the experts’ presentation and instead asked them to present before another council committee in January.

After that committee meeting, the FILOT agreement will again go before full council for a debate, and then a final vote two weeks later. Council is expected to vote on the partner agreement, regarding the land, in early January.

Battle, one of the landowners associated with the solar farm development said after several years of working on this project, he’s excited to move forward.

“It should be really good for Horry County and it should be good for the property owners,” he said.

And, Allen added, he’s looking forward to pushing the civic arena project forward.

“There’s an urgent need to have a center out in that part of the county, that serves the rural needs of the county,” he said. “And hopefully we’ll bring in more revenue to the county.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 6:59 AM.