Hundreds of solar panels occupy a field just off Buttermilk Alley in Colquitt County. Several more solar firms are looking at investments in the county. Solar farms are becoming much more common as the nation seeks viable alternate energy sources.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Whether the sun shines on solar panels in Colquitt County remains to be seen. The point of debate at the moment is abatements.

At least that was the sentiment expressed by a representative of Strata Solar after a nearly four-hour Tuesday meeting, the majority of which was spent in discussing siting of solar farms in the county. Specifically, Louis Iannone, a site developer for Strata, was seeking tax breaks which he said were necessary to make his Colquitt County proposal competitive.

Specifically Strata sought approval of an 18-year tax-abatement request that would have seen the company pay no taxes for the first year and 25 percent of the assessed value of the 250-acre site and $27.5 million worth of equipment over the ensuing 17 years of the agreement, including depreciation on equipment.

Iannnone told commissioners that even with the tax break the taxes it would collect on some $27 million worth of equipment that would be installed would be substantial.

With the 75 percent abatement requested, the county would still collect some $1.64 million over the 18 years of the agreement, the company estimated.

The land at Bill May Road and Peachtree Road currently is zoned agricultural and brings in no taxes as its is enrolled in the state’s Conservation Use Valuation Assessment program.

Some neighboring counties are offering tax abatements for solar projects. This includes Mitchell County to the west that is offering a 75-percent abatement over 15 years, John Carlton, attorney for the Colquitt County Economic Development Authority, told commissioners.

“If it doesn’t come here, it’s going to other places,” he said of solar energy. “It’s coming to Georgia.”

Georgia Power Co. is accepting bids from companies through Thursday afternoon for a major expansion of its solar capacity. In this phase of the company’s solar acquisition, it is seeking projects from developers who will sell electricity at a set price over the life of a lengthy contract.

Georgia Power is seeking to boost its renewable-energy capacity through solar, wind and/or biomass by some 1,200 megawatts, according to the company’s website. This will include awarding bids of up to 525 MW this year and an equal amount in 2019. Of that total of 1,050 MW, 300 are to generated by wind.

While a MW typically is defined as an amount that will power some 1,000 homes, solar MW hours are calculated somewhat differently. It can fall somewhere between 400 to 900 homes, depending on several factors that include the amount of sunlight available where panels are located. A MW is the maximum production capacity, so that a 1 MW plant powered with natural gas could over 24 hours produce 24 MW hours. Solar power output can vary based on, obviously, whether it’s a sunny or cloudy day.

Commissioners also heard from two other solar companies who have proposed projects coming before the body for approval at a later date. Strata’s proposed project was the first to come up for a vote for a zoning special use permit.

The commission unanimously approved Strata’s zoning request for its project, which if approved by Georgia Power would provide 20 MW. That project would be dwarfed by a project from another company, whose request for a special use permit with a capacity of 50 MW will be considered in June.

Core Energy, which is bringing the 50 MW request that month is one of nine zoning requests that commissioners will hear at that June meeting.

Zoning for one project, a tiny one by those standards at only 10 acres, was approved earlier this year.

Ionnone told commissioners that bids from counties where property tax abatements are not offered likely will not make the cut because the extra costs will make them prohibitively expensive than in counties where tax abatements have been approved. Previously he had worked in North Carolina, where the state sets a standard amount of tax breaks for each county.

Paying full property taxes on the property and equipment will mean about an extra $1.50 per MW hour on its bid, which is significant in a largescale expansion being undertaken in Georgia where many companies are seeking to win approval, he said.

“It’s about a 12 percent difference,” he said.

Concerns expressed by commissioners included the loss of farmland — which represents the county’s largest economic base — to why the question just came to them within the past three weeks at the 11th hour with the Thursday deadline looming.

As the discussion continued and threatened to send the meeting that began at 5 p.m. toward three and a half hours, Commissioner Paul Nagy suggested putting the question to a vote to settle it one way or another, even though the votes did not seem to be there to approve the abatements.

“I thought we owed the man an answer, yes or no,” he said after the meeting. “People were against roundabouts, now they love them. People were against the new high school (location), now they love it. People thought (controversial Colquitt County High football) coach Rush Propst was the devil incarnate.” Since coming to Colquitt County Propst has won back-to-back state championships, in 2014 and 2015, and taken the Packers deep into the playoffs during other seasons.

Doing the math on farm acres, Nagy told commissioners it was less than 1 percent of row-crop acreage.

That does not include the county’s extensive acreage of vegetables, nor its pastureland.

Nagy was joined in voting in support of granting abatements by Commissioner Marc DeMott, with Whittington, along with Commissioners Johnny Hardin and Chris Hunnicutt voting in opposition. Hunnicutt said that the constituents in his district overwhelmingly had expressed opposition to the proposal.

Farmer Clarence Lowe, a former member of the Colquitt County Development Authority, said that the agriculture community could be winners with solar. Often utility companies shut down power to farmers’ irrigation units during summer peak-demand hours — which also is the time that irrigation can be most crucial.

Having the capacity here to generate the power they need when they need it could be a boon, he said.

Two other solar projects have been brought to the development authority. While that body could on its own grant tax abaements on land and buildings it owns, to do so on private land would require approval of both the development authority and county commission.

Officials with two other solar companies — Eagle Solar via a conference call and Core Solar in the audience — also said that the tax abatements would play a major role in whether their projects can be competitive price-wise.