Solar Farm Will Be Built In Trenton
By REBECCA HAZEN
News Editor
The Dade County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) authorized on Jan. 27 for Krog Solar, through its general partner Beltline Energy, LLC, to acquire approximately 19 acres owned by the IDA to construct a solar farm adjacent to Bull Moose Tube Co.
The purchase is $17,689 per acre, representing a $114,000 initial purchase price, plus $11,689 in payments in lieu of taxes on the purchaser’s capital investment.
IDA members heard from Ryan Sanders, a partner with Beltline Energy, during a meeting on Jan. 18.
Beltline Energy is a solar development company that is located and headquartered in Atlanta.
“We established Beltline nine years ago in direct response to the beginning of the Georgia solar market. I actually permitted the first solar farm that Georgia Power received energy from back in 2010,” Sanders said.
Sanders continued, “Over the last nine years, Georgia Power has integrated going on almost $4 billion worth of solar.”
Sanders noted that solar power is a matured market, and it is now dwindling down, but there is still a long way to go.
This solar farm will be a part of a specific program being offered by Georgia Power called the Georgia Power Customer-Connected Solar Program. According to Georgiapower.com, this program allows Georgia Power customers to partner with any solar developer to build a solar facility on or adjacent to a customer’s property. Georgia Power will purchase 100 percent of the energy generated and retire the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) associated with a participant’s solar facility on his/her behalf, allowing the customer to claim the renewable benefits of the local solar energy.
“The solar farm is sized based on the energy usage of the Bull Moose Tube facility,” Sanders said. “It has very little impact on their ongoing operations or energy usage. It is found money to the Bull Moose Tube company.”
Sanders noted that there will be about half a million dollars in total revenue for the life of the solar farm to the community.
“We are committing to Georgia Power to generate energy for 30 years. Our expected useful life is 40 years,” Sanders said of the solar farm. “Typical for our model, we have projected 35 years.”
Sanders noted that there would be activity during the construction phase, and afterwards they would be mostly out of sight, out of mind.
After the solar farm is no longer operational, the solar panels will be recycled.
“The ultimate objective here is an intersection of mutual interest. The project is delivering attractive revenues to the Development Authority and to the community, and also provides economics that hits our minimum thresholds for project development,” Sanders said.