WC Texas News

Many Erath County landowners are giving significant pushback to a proposed new solar farm. 

A recent gathering in the county brought together parties both opposed and in favor of the proposed farm. Also present at the meeting was Bill Peacock, a policy director at the Energy Alliance, who isn't new to the process of fighting solar farms in Texas. 

"I have been working with landowners in Texas concerned about the local impacts of renewable energy for more than four years," Peacock told WC Texas News. "I share with them what I have learned about renewables, the harm they cause to communities, the electric grid and taxpayers as well as how others in neighboring counties have successfully beat back efforts to build wind and solar farms."

The proposed solar farm in Erath County, located in north central Texas, is near the Bosque River, a waterway already strained by runoff challenges from local dairy operations.

Peacock said that there are other concerns as well. 

"Solar farms always pit neighbor against neighbor," he said. "This is mainly because solar farms are not willing to settle for earning from the electricity they sell. They want local counties and school districts to give them large tax breaks, tax breaks that other residents and property owners do not get. Only the solar farm operators and a few property owners benefit, at the expense of their neighbors. This is bad public policy."

Critics say problems with proposed solar farms extend far beyond Texas. Jessica Petersen, a farmer in Benton County, Iowa, recently wrote an article in Forbes about the effects of a proposed solar farm on agriculture and life in their community.

NextEra, along with Erath County Solar LLC, is the developer of the proposed solar farm. It would be situated on 2,400 acres near FM Road 914 and County Road 246 in the southern part of the county. The developers have applied for a Chapter 313 tax limitation from the local school district.

Local property tax abatements to wind and solar farms cost Texas counties and school districts an estimated $230 million in 2021, according to a report titled "Subsidies to Nowhere" written by Peacock. Overall, subsidies for renewable generation in Texas cost about $2.4 billion in 2021.