Second time’s the charm? Horry to debate 500-acre solar farm after last project died
After letting a similar project die last year, county leaders are once again debating whether to approve a 500-acre solar farm in rural Horry County.
Is the second time the charm?
Asheville, N.C.-based Pine Gate Renewables has proposed building and running a solar farm project along S.C. 701 — near Bucksport — that would operate for 40 years.
The farm could generate up to 127 megawatts of power a year — 72 megawatts of DC electricity and 55 megawatts of AC electricity — enough to power thousands of homes.
Pine Gate Renewables is seeking a fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement that would have the company pay Horry County $231,000 a year instead of local taxes. Over the 40-year life of the project, that could net nearly $7 million for county coffers.
A Horry County Council committee heard a presentation by Pine Gate Wednesday and voted to send the proposal to the full council for debate. The committee, however, sent the plan forward without recommending council approve it.
Council member Harold Worley, who chairs the council’s administration committee, said he’s not taking a position on the solar farm because we wants his colleagues to have a full debate on it.
“I think there’s going to be some spirited debate on this issue. That’s why I sent it over there with no recommendations,” Worley said. “I’m going to talk with the rest of the council members and I’m going to encourage them to do your homework on this issue.”
Between late 2020 and early 2021, countyleaders heard a separate proposal for a large solar farm by Charleston-based Southern Current. Council, though, raised environmental concerns about what would happen to the solar panels once they were worn out.
Older panels can contain the chemical compound cadmium telluride, which can be used as a semiconducter.
Council members worried the compound could leech into the soil and water, though Southern Current representatives said that was highly unlikely.
Scientists agree.
In a series of reports from October 2018 to May 2020, for example, researchers studied how solar panels catching fire, breaking, and sitting in a landfill could affect human health. The reports found minimal risks.
Still, those concerns ground Southern Current’s proposal to a halt and it eventually died.
“It just kind of fizzled out,” Worley said.
Knowing that history, Pine Gate attempted to assuage council concerns.
“We know this council also has some concerns around decommisioning and cadmium telluride so we made a commitment in this agreement to exclude that in any panels that we use,” company project manager Charlene Mortyn said.
Sean Anderson, the company’s director of project management, assured council the company would be responsible for the solar farm throughout its life.
“We are a soup-to-nuts developer,” Anderson said. “Our company starts the first conversation with the landowner and ultimately it sticks with us for the potential 40-year life of the project.”
The solar farm would be built over four tracts of land totaling more than 800 acres, though the project would occupy only 500 acres. The company would lease the land over several decades and sell the electricity to Santee Cooper.
Mortyn said the solar farm could be operating by the end of the year.
She noted that Pine Gate had already won zoning approval for the project, leased the land and signed a deal with Santee Cooper to buy the power.
County leaders, though, will have to grant approval first.
And that could be an uphill battle.
Worley, for example, said he plans to play a video in Council Chambers when the issue comes that he described as “spicy, in a negative way.”
“But it doesn’t mean I’m a negative,” Worley said. “I just want to make sure our council understands the pros and cons, 5 years out, 10 years out, 20 years out, 30 years out, 40 years out.”
“This is a 40-year project,” he said. ”Our council, as a rule, is very environmentally sensitive.”
The full Council is expected to debate the proposal at it’s meeting April 5.
