GROWING SUNSHINE
A LEASE AGREEMENT BETWEEN SOLAR ENERGY COMPANY ORIGIS AND EIGHT LOWNDES COUNTY FARM OWNERS WAS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS REVOLUTIONIZING ENERGY IN LOWNDES COUNTY
According to BloombergNEF, which collects and analyzes technology throughout the world, a third of all of the world's electricity will be generated by solar power by 2050. If that estimate is accurate, the future of energy first arrived in the Golden Triangle on February 12, 2020, when the Tennessee Valley Authority approved a contract with solar-energy provider Origis Energy to construct the area's first large-scale solar power plant on farmland located in west Lowndes County.
Plans for the solar plant will produce 200 megawatts of solar energy – enough to power more than 42,000 homes. To put that figure in perspective, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the total number of housing units in Lowndes County at 24,789 as of 2018. The project has potential to increase production to 350 megawatts (to provide electricity to every home in the Golden Triangle) on roughly 4,000 acres of land leased to Origis by a group of eight land-owners. The lease runs for 35 years. By that time, the role of solar energy will have been established and if the reality is anywhere near the estimates, the agreement between TVA and Origis will be a significant milestone in the area's history.
Solar power production actually arrived in the Golden Triangle in 2012 when a company called Synergetics first began producing solar power from 1,000 small solar panels located on the roof of its building in Oktibbeha County. There are currently five “solar farms” in the Golden Triangle, including two owned by Tennessee-based Silicon Ranch Energy in Lowndes County. All are small operations, less than an acre, and none produce more than 1 megawatt of electricity. All together, the five farms produce enough electricity to power about 350 homes.
So the story of solar energy in the Golden Triangle will begin with The TVA/Origis project. The facts will likely establish the starting point last summer, when TVA completed construction on a 350 megawatt substation at Lowndes County's Infinity Mega-site. TVA officials by then had been turning an eye toward increasing its solar production, but the folklore of solar energy's arrival in the Golden Triangle will mark the beginning to a spring day in 2018, to a long-time Lowndes County farmer's casual conversation with a friend during a round of golf.
For 43 years both properties owned by his family, going back to the early 1800s and property he acquired over the years, Charlie Pilkinton made his living mostly through soybeans and corn, but during that round of golf, a new use of his land first emerged.
“I was playing golf with a friend of mine, Richard Reed,” Pilkinton recalled. “It turns out he had a friend who was the attorney for Origis and had worked with them on a solar project down in Hattiesburg. He asked me where there was some land in Lowndes County. (Origis) had found out that TVA was interested in doing some solar energy in the area. As it turned out, my farm was right there in a prime location because it was next to TVA's new substation.”
Pilkinton said he began talking with Origis executive Johan Vanhee and began discussing the possible use of his land. Those talks included a visit to Sumrall, near Hattiesburg, where Origis had two solar plants in operation.
“I had seen the smaller ones we have here in Lowndes County, but nothing like what I saw there,” Pilkinton said. “The ones in Hattiesburg were really big by comparison, 600 to 800 acres. I got really excited about it. Seeing what they were doing there, it gave me a lot of confidence.”
Later, Vanhee contacted Pilkinton, adding a new wrinkle.
“Johann came back with a bigger project in mind,” Pilkinton said. “To do it, he would need more land. He asked if I would talk to other property owners in the area.”
Vanhee's plan called for a solar plant capable of producing 350 megawatts on 4,000-acres of land owned by Pilkinton and seven others. Pilkinton went to work, talking to his neighboring land-owner, who Pilkinton said were neither overly optimistic nor prohibitively skeptical of what Vanhee was proposing.
“They are all pretty good business people and interested in the opportunity if it would mean putting them in a better situation,” Pilkinton said. “I know they all looked at it pretty hard to make sure it was something they wanted to do.”
Securing the land was the first essential step.
“I asked them to step with me onto a journey that must have seemed like a futuristic project,” Vanhee recalled, that at the beginning it was designed specifically for TVA with no guarantee that TVA would ever be interested.
After months talking to TVA and engineering work, TVA announced on February 11 that Origis’ project would be one of five solar energy projects approved for construction, but the negotiations altered the plan, at least for the time being.TVA's contract allows for only a 200 megawatt facility. Vanhee said he still hopes to someday expand the facility to the full 350 megawatts.
"What I said to TVA was, 'If you are ever interested in the additional 150 (megawatts) let me know,'" Vanhee said. "They were very frank and said, 'Yes, we are interested.' Again, there was no guarantee, but TVA did express interest, so we will continue to develop plans for the remaining 150 megawatts."
For Pilkinton the idea of converting farmland into a solar plant isn't as big a departure as you might think. After all, he said, all farmers are in the “sunshine business.”
“Whatever you grow, you have to have sunshine,” he said. “We'll see where it all goes. Technology changes so fast, I would even guess where it all will be in 35 years when our leases end. But I think it's going to turn out being a good investment and a good use of the land.”
STORY BY SLIM SMITH
PHOTO COURTESY ORIGIS ENERGY & CHARLIE PILKINTON
