How Does Solar Benefit My Community?
Solar projects contribute to local property tax revenues, benefiting the taxing jurisdictions where the project is located such as the school district, township, road and bridge, etc. Many projects seek what is called a PILOT agreement, which results in the Project paying a fixed annual rate instead of traditional taxation based on the assessed value. Counties agree to do this for several important reasons:
A project with a PILOT pays $9,000/MW/Year, which means that a 100 MW project would pay $900,000/Year for the duration of the project. This means that the revenue to local taxing jurisdictions is independent of annual electricity production. In the absence of a PILOT, the project would pay less in taxes every single year due to depreciation of the solar equipment.
With a PILOT the school district is “held harmless” under the state aid formula, which means that the additional funds from a solar project do not reduce funding the district receives from the state. Without a PILOT, state aid can be offset resulting in less benefit to the school.
Regardless of PILOT or non-PILOT, the project contributes over 20x in revenue to local taxing jurisdictions compared to what the same property currently pays.
While the US is essentially energy-independent for the production of electricity, Ohio is a net importer of electricity from neighboring states. This means that a portion of every dollar you pay for electricity is going to out-of-state suppliers. Apart from the comfort of your lights and AC being on, there are currently no benefits locally from the use or generation of electricity in your area.
