DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Darlington County Council is discussing options for dealing with solar farm projects.
Council met in executive session to discuss the issue with the county attorney on Monday night. Members reconvened in open session to make remarks on the "vigorous" discussion.
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Councilman Kirk Askins said council had a “very spirited, vigorous” conversation about the options.
“We got great legal advice from our county attorney, and what we could do, and what protects the county and keeps us from doing what other counties have done and gotten themselves in trouble,” he said.
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Askins said that discussions are ongoing and council members are still looking at options, including moratoriums.
No action was taken as a result of the discussions at the meeting.
Councilman David Coker said he received around 57 emails from concerned residents about utility-scale solar projects.
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Council members also heard citizen comments at the beginning of the meeting that were in support of solar projects.
Tracy Woodard, a Darlington County farmer in the Society Hill area, recently posted a video on Facebook calling for residents to email the county council to express concerns about utility-scale solar projects.
Her property borders the proposed Ross Solar project, which could be the largest in the county once it’s complete.
She said her neighbor told her he wanted to put the farm into solar. She never worried about that until she realized the size of the project. The first she heard about it was through a neighbor who asked whether she was going to attend a public hearing on the project.
"There's also substation that will be a part of this project, certainly outside of the scope of anything that I could have imagined, and then kind of started to understand the process of how the projects are brought into the county, and how honestly there's no avenue for citizens to voice concerns, because that public hearing, I was told by the planning staff, was a formality, that the project was already approved," Woodard said.
A substation in a solar project is the hub where the energy is collected and transferred to the broader grid.
Woodard said she had not heard of the project before her neighbor because the ordinance only requires notifying landowners who live within 1,320 feet, while she lives within 1,500 feet.
The family that has leased its property for the Ross project was present at the council meeting and spoke in favor of its decision to do so.
"Responsible development requires good planning and oversight, which this county council has done," Ross said. "History has taught us that fear of change alone is not a sound basis for rejecting progress. Many claims have been made by opponents of solar energy that lack evidence."
"Some will disagree with the decision we made. But this is private property that we have worked, cared for and paid taxes on for more than two centuries. We have the right and responsibility to make decisions that will preserve this farm for future generations."
The Ross Solar Project is proposed to be 1,430.36 acres, with 305.95 acres to contain the solar panels, according to county documentation.
"There are 18 projects in planning or construction, and for reference, we currently have small-scale solar projects in Darlington County," Woodard said in her video online. "The largest has solar panels on 47 acres. Together, those 14 currently operating solar projects account for 210 actual acres with solar panels. This project that borders where I live and make a living, that project itself will be twice the amount of those 210 acres that currently exist in the county."
She said the Ross project will be 10 times the size of the largest one in Darlington County today. She is concerned about how this can impact the microclimate in her area as well as wildlife disruption.
"There will be an impact," she said. "We just don't know to what extent, but once it's here and once it's done, what am I supposed to do?"
In a study by the American Farmland Trust, Darlington County is the 12th county nationwide with the highest conversions of farmland to solar farms. The other counties are in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada.
Woodard has appealed the planning commission's decision. This is one of two utility-scale solar projects for which residents have done so recently.
A group of residents has appealed the planning commission's decision on a project called Pit-Stop Solar, a 1,158.82-acre project in the Darlington area. The appeal was escalated to circuit court.
The case is progressing and has been scheduled for oral arguments on Sept. 9 at the Darlington County Courthouse.
Woodard has not decided yet if that is her next step.
In her post on social media, she called for Darlington residents to email county council to call for a moratorium on energy projects as well as data center developments.
Darlington County Administrator Charles Stewart said the county has received calls from interested companies about coming to the county, but it would not be fair to say there are data center plans in the works.
"We don't have a known data center at this point," he said. "Just like everybody, people call and ask, 'Can I do this, can I do that?"