Horry County Council grants key approval to 500-acre solar farm project
In a major shift from a year ago, Horry County Council members granted a key approval to a solar farm project, bringing it one step closer to reality.
The council held debate Tuesday night and granted unanimous approval to a 500-acre solar farm project in the Bucksport area of Horry County.
Last year, when the council considered a similar project, council members raised serious concerns about the environmental impact of a solar farm and eventually allowed the plan to “fizzle out,” as one council member put it.
On Tuesday, though, the proposal for a fee-in-lieu agreement between the county and solar developer Pine Gate Renewables sailed through council with little debate and unanimous approval.
That, council member Harold Worley said, was thanks to council member Orton Bellamy, whose district will host the project in the coming decades. Pine Gate representatives said after Tuesday’s meeting that they hope to begin construction by the end of the year.
Bellamy said Tuesday that he had researched the project deeply and walked 300 of the project’s acres with Bucksport residents and company representatives. After doing so, Bellamy said, he was convinced the project wouldn’t harm the environment. He then convinced his fellow council members to vote in favor of the project.
Bucksport residents, too, said they were on board with the project in their community.
“I immediately recognized and saw the benefits of this project,” said Kevin Mishoe, a community leader in Bucksport, Tuesday. “This project has also restored our hope in Santee Cooper in its commitment to pursue clean energy…instead of coal.”
The project
Pine Gate’s project could produce up to 55 megawatts of power a year, enough to power thousands of homes. The company would sell that power to Santee Cooper and already has a purchase agreement in place. The project would last for 40 years, when solar panels loose their effectiveness.
The company first pitched its proposal at a meeting in early March.
“We’re putting some of the cheapest electricity available onto the grid without the the headaches that come with managing a coal burning power plant,” Pine Gate’s Alan Hancock said in a March 15 interview.
In addition to zoning approvals, Pine Gate won 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.
According to the in fee-in-lieu agreement, Pine Gate estimated its project will bring an overall investment of $50 million to Horry County. The company plans to run its Horry County project under Landrace Holdings LLC. That LLC will be legally liable to pay the project’s decommissioning costs, according to the agreement.
Bellamy said he and the company discussed hiring local contractors to mow the grass and perform other maintenance at the solar farm.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, Charlene Mortyn, a project manager for Pine Gate Renewables, said the company worked with Bellamy and Bucksport community members to make sure their environmental concerns were addressed.
“Having an ear to the ground in the community,” she said, helped them win approval.
A deal for Bucksport
Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, council members signaled that they wouldn’t embrace the solar project with open arms.
For one, Worley sent the plan forward for debate without a positive or negative recommendation from the committee he chairs, an unusual step.
Worley also told reporters in March that he planned to play a video about solar farms at Tuesday’s meeting that he described as “spicy in a negative way.” But, he added, he wasn’t set on voting against the project.
“Our council as a rule is very environmentally sensitive,” he said. “I just want to make sure our council understands the pros and cons, five years out, 10 years out, 20 years out, 30 years out, 40 years out. This is a 40-year project.”
But Worley didn’t play the video Tuesday after he said Bellamy convinced him not to.
Environmental concerns
Council members previously expressed concern that metals and other elements of the solar panels could leech into the ground if they were disposed of in a landfill.
But scientific research has concluded that doesn’t happen, especially if the base of the landfill is lined with a protective material. South Carolina mandates such a lining in all of its landfills.
Pine Gate representatives assured council members that their solar panels would use non-toxic materials, like silicone. Santee Cooper, which already operates solar farms in Horry County, uses similar panels, Bellamy said.
Mortyn and Hancock, in a March 15 interview, also said the company’s agreement with the county puts structures in place to decommission and recycle the solar panels once its 40-year operation is done.
The steel from the solar panel frames is easily recyclable, Hancock said. Glass and aluminum used in the panels is recyclable, too, Mortyn said.
And the metals inside the panel can be sent to a specialized solar panel decommissioning facility, Mortyn noted, an industry that’s growing alongside the solar development industry. Pine Gate will also commit to not using Cadmium telluride in its panels, a compound used in older models.
“At the the end of life, it’s a simple matter of pulling the post out of the ground, setting them on a truck, removing them the solar panels, filling in the holes left by the panels, and then the field is like it was when we started,” Hancock said.
On Tuesday, Bellamy said the project helps diversify the county’s energy supply at a crucial time.
“We’re moving toward much cleaner energy,” he said. “We have to look at creative ideas.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect how much power the solar farm will produce.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 9:42 PM.
