Tomorrow (Thursday) at 6 PM at the Brooks County Courthouse is a Town Hall for the county to hear from citizens about solar power.

According to a Brooks County Attorney, “At this time there are no active applications for solar in Brooks County. There is a moratorium on solar applications until February of 2025 (unless extended).”

Which of course does not mean there are no applications ready to go in February 2025.

Solar in Brooks County, Town Hall 6 PM 2024-09-12, Brooks County Courthouse, 100 E. Screven St., Quitman, GA

Jason Kemp sent two responses yesterday to our open records request for presentation materials for the town hall and any board packet materials for preceding solar proposals in Brooks County.

My name is Jason Kemp, and I am one of the County Attorneys for Brooks County. At this time there are no active applications for solar in Brooks County. There is a moratorium on solar applications until February of 2025 (unless extended).

There are no presentation materials to disclose at this time concerning the Solar Town Hall. That event’s purpose is to hear from the citizens. I will have one power point slide which shows, in very basic terms, the current key provisions of the Solar Ordinance (e.g. setback requirements, buffers, and zoning). I’d be glad to share that slide with you when it is completed this afternoon. That said, the County will not be presenting to the public, rather the public will be encouraged to provide comments to the Commission for potential changes to the ordinance in the future. We hope to hear from you at the Town Hall. Thank you.

Public Notice, Town Hall, Solar in Brooks County, September 12th, 2024
PDF

This is the second response he sent:

Attached is the informational slide that will appear at the town hall on the screens. This is by no means a comprehensive summary of the ordinance. It is designed to help citizens understand some of the key provisions of the current ordinance. Have a great evening.

Solar Powerpoint
PDF

Both messages had a “privileged and confidential” boilerplate note attached to them, but they were sent in an official capacity in response to a Georgia Open Records (GORA) request, so they are public record and I am publishing them.

I already have questions:

1. Why is most of Quitman Solar I and all of Quitman Solar II owned by the Brooks County Development Authority and not NextEra?
2. Why has Quitman Solar II not been built? (WWALS is against that one; I just want to know.)
3. When was the moratorium passed, and why?

No doubt many more questions will be heard.

And probably many baseless assertions, such as “solar panels leak toxic chemicals.” If you’ve got any evidence of that, I’d like to see it.

Or that Amazon removed all its solar panels because they caught fire. Actually, faulty installation caused some fires at related electrical equipment in 2020 and 2021, causing Amazon to briefly take its solar rooftops offline. Those panels and more are back in use now.

Map: Quitman Solar I and II in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)

Solar power can be done right, but NextEra of Juno Beach, Florida, demonstrated how to do it wrong with Quitman Solar II back in 2019, proposing that 150-megawatt facility on wooded wetlands on tributaries of Pride Branch to Piscola Creek, Okapilco Creek, and the Withlacoochee River.

The Brooks County Commission approved Quitman Solar II, despite massive citizen opposition. So it’s curious that one has not yet been built, unless it is somehow invisible to satellites.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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