Hopkins County to approve BT Solterra Solar Chapter 381 deal on Monday
The Hopkins County Commissioners’ Court will meet on Monday morning, January 10, 2022 to discuss and approve the reinvestment area of ​​BT Solerra Solar, LLC, a planned $ 140 million solar project in the Saltillo area. Also on the agenda is the approval of a 381 agreement with the solar company that will stipulate the level of tax refund to the solar company as well as any PILOT payments to the county.
KSST News attempted to obtain details of the 381 deal ahead of the meeting scheduled for Monday, but those details were not available. If the agreement between Hopkins County and BT Solterra, LLC. Following on from previous similar agreements, it will include a 100% tax refund to the solar company each year, after the county receives an annual PILOT, or “Payment in Lieu of Taxes.” PILOT payments have generally been significantly less than the estimated tax burden. BT Solterra’s tax burden is estimated to be close to $ 500,000 for the first year of operation for Hopkins County taxes alone. The contract could also include a one-time upfront payment to the county for anticipated damage to county roads during construction of the project. Details of the contract will not be known until the contract is approved Monday morning by the Hopkins County Court.
Reinvestment zone
The Reinvestment Area as proposed in the Commissioners Tribunal Agreement is a contiguous geographic area that includes five properties owned by Delbert “Chip” Tully spanning just over 260 acres and 10 owned by Los Senderos Cattle and Ranch. Company for a total of just over 1,170 acres. Altogether this amounts to just over 1,430 acres, all located west of FM 900, starting south of FM 3536 and continuing to the property through FM 3532 and narrowing to the property at the West of FM 3536, shows the map of the proposed reinvestment area.
Austin Willis said Belltown Power Texas hopes to begin construction in the second half of 2022 and operations in the second half of 2023.
The resolution designates the area as a commercial-industrial or residential reinvestment area for a period of 5 years from December 2021, renewable for an additional 5 years at a time or earlier with an order for those parts if any article, paragraph, any clause or provision of the document is held to be invalid or unenforceable.
The company, as has been the case with the six other solar projects planned in Hopkins County (including Stampede Solar which is also planned in the Saltillo area), is seeking tax incentives from local tax entities (Hopkins County, Saltillo ISD and Hopkins County Hospital District) to build solar installations.
Chapter 313 Application
the Application of Section 313 accepted by Saltillo ISD on October 26, 2021 by Superintendent David Stickels and submitted for review by the Texas Comptroller’s Office is asking the school district for a 10-year tax exemption for the 10-year project, with operations to begin during the school year 2028-2029 and end in school year 2052-2053.
by the District on October 29, 2021. The request was then sent on November 16, 2021 and is in progress reviewed by the office of the comptroller of texas.
The application shows that a qualified employee would be employed to supervise the operations of the project at an annual salary of $ 47,221, which would require the approval of an employment exemption to meet Chapter 313.025 (F-1) of the Code. taxes, which stipulates the creation of 10 permanent jobs unless the jobs created exceed the industry standard.
“The solar industry standard for hired jobs is one job for 350 MW. In accordance with these industry standards for professional requirements of solar projects, BT Solterra Solar, LLC, as a 143 MW project, is committed to creating skilled employment, â€wrote Brandon Westlake, Senior Tax Advisor for Cummings Westlake tax advisers, in a letter to Stickels at the app.
The 143 MW facility will all be located in the ISD Saltillo. The location of the panels is subject to change, but for the purposes of this application the project plans to use approximately 321,617 PV modules or equivalent and 49 inverters.
The “qualified investment and qualified property†for the requested 313 agreement with Saltillo ISD would include “solar modules / panels, monitoring equipment, support and assembly structures, operation and maintenance building, substation, inverter boxes, combination boxes, weather equipment, foundations, roads, paving, fencing, collection system, production transmission lines, interconnection facilities, SCADA systems, transformers, fire extinguishing systems and all ancillary equipment necessary for the commercial production of electricity.
The map on TAB 11 shows the potential locations for improvements within the boundaries of the Saltillo ISD; however, the final number of panels and inverters and the location of each of these facilities is dependent on ongoing negotiations with electricity buyers and other factors. This request, however, indicated that the project “is expected to start in the first quarter of 2027 and end by December 31, 2027”.
The 313 application also notes that Belltown Power Texas plans to produce final proof of a reinvestment area or corporate area for the proposed solar power plant known as BT Solterra Solar, LLC, by April. 2022.
The company plans to apply for a tax incentive of 100% of Saltillo’s $ 0.8688 ISD maintenance and operation tax, a tax incentive of 100% of the Hopkins County tax rate, and a Hopkins County Hospital District 100% tax incentive tax rate of $ 0.22 per $ 100. BT Solterra Solar, LLC, under construction in Hopkins County, is dependent on tax incentives, “due to the extremely competitive power market in Texas.”
“The property tax obligations of a project without tax incentives in Texas reduce the return for investors and financiers to an unacceptable level at today’s contractual electricity rates under a PPA. A signed PPA in the Texas market is at a much lower rate than in other states due to competitive electricity prices. Both sides of the PPA have a safeguard clause if the terms of the PPA cannot be met. Without the tax incentives in Texas, a project with a PPA becomes unsupportable. Therefore, this limitation on the estimated value is critical to the ability of the proposed project to move forward as it currently stands, â€states the Chapter 313 request to Saltillo ISD and the Office of the Controller.
