WC Texas News

A San Francisco company is seeking support from Brown County officials and the Brookesmith Independent School District Board of Education for tax abatements for a large solar power operation.

Intersect Power said the plant would generate 300 megawatts of power, enough to serve nearly 60,000 homes annually. It seeks tax abatements through the Texas Chapter 313 Appraised Value Limitation.

In August 2019, the school district applied with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts for an appraised value limitation for IP Radian LLC. It has been granted, putting the matter in the hands of local jurisdictions.

Chapter 313 is designed to encourage economic development, with school districts offering a 10-year reduction in the assessed value of equipment, not land, for the districts' maintenance and operations lax levy.

Intersect agreed to a $2.3 million upfront payment to BISD and annual payments of $50,000 for the term of the agreement. The district waived a requirement of 10 new jobs, since the plant will need just two employees to operate it, the school board was told. There will be many more temporary positions during construction.

On Dec. 7, Dale Cummings and Christian Fiene of Intersect Power made a presentation to the Brown County Commissioner’s Court on a proposed 3,000-acre solar power project near Brookesmith.

On Feb. 8, all four commissioners — Precinct 1’s Gary Worley of Precinct 1, Joel Kelton representing Precinct 2, Precinct 3’s Wayne Shaw and Larry Traweek of Precinct 4 — voted to move forward on granting tax abatements. They did so after nine people spoke in favor and five expressed their opposition, as did County Judge Paul Lilly, who represents the entire county.

Steven Wilson of Brownwood was among the speakers opposing the tax abatement concept, especially for renewable energy. Wilson said the county board will make a final decision on the solar plant request within 30 days.

“I would hope they would all go against it,” he told WC Texas News.

Wilson, 48, an electrician, has worked in the field his entire life, as his father also was an electrician. Wilson said solar and wind power companies must show they can stand on their own.

“I think they need more research on how to implement them into the grid,” he said.

The Brookesmith Independent School District Board of Education has submitted another Chapter 313 request with the state comptroller for a second solar project, Mustang Mountain Solar.

TLOW, a group that opposes the solar plants, lists its arguments on its website. It says land values, which have been rising for decades as people seek rural areas for recreation and retirement, could be damaged by large expanses of land covered by hundreds of thousands of solar panels.

Land values could drop 25-40%, they claim, with a report that 80% of potential purchasers are not interested in even considering land with wind or solar projects located on or near them.

“We are opposed to solar tax abatements that would not improve our county or its residents’ lives,” the website states. “We also believe that approval of a tax abatement would result in Brown County becoming a target for wind and solar. We don’t want to see our home turned into a vast landscape of solar panels and wind turbines.”

TLOW said the solar project will require “clear-cutting and minimization of all vegetation on all of the land where panels will be placed. All native trees, plants and grasses will be destroyed and for at least the next 35 years the ground will be maintained to keep plant life to a minimum.”

This will chase away wildlife in the area, according to the group. It also raises questions about damaged solar panels leaching chemicals into the ground.

“This, along with potentially modifying our creeks and ponds to accommodate solar panel installation, will change our groundwater and potentially impact our wells,” TLOW states. “We also are concerned with how 8 miles of contiguous solar panels will affect migratory birds, monarch butterfly migration and other species.”

Wilson, a TLOW member, said he strongly believes wind and solar are over-subsidized by the federal and state governments, and is concerned that the local school district is planning to support it as well.

On its website, Intersect Power said its members are experienced in “all phases of development across 60-plus projects and 3.7 GWDC (Gigawatts in direct current produced by solar panels) of solar assets with a total value of more than $8 billion.”

The company said it has developed and sold five large sites in California and Texas that began construction in early 2020. It says it has “solar assets” across California and Texas in various stages of development and power marketing.