The South Dakota Board of Economic Development is giving up to $2.78 million in tax kickbacks to help build a solar power project in McCook County:
Grant Solar will get a reinvestment payment of up to $2,775,673, but not to exceed 50% of the amount of the actual state sales and use tax paid on eligible project costs not to exceed $179,579,081. The reinvestment payment program provides tax refunds for business projects costing at least $20 million.
The proposed project south of Canistota and east of Bridgewater along SD 42 has been opposed by some people in McCook County. The McCook County Planning Commission revised a conditional use permit for the project after the developer took the commission to court.
At 99 megawatts, the Grant Solar project falls below the 100-megawatt threshold requiring an application to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission for a state permit [Bob Mercer, “Solar Project, Cheese Plant Get State Financial Boosts,” KELO-TV, 2025.09.10].
It’s good that Governor Rhoden isn’t taking the anti-solar approach of his predecessor and letting fossil-fueld misinformation kill solar projects as happened in Walworth County:
“Unless you’re a farmer, a hunter or a fisher, there’s really nothing to do in this area,” said Colton Berens, a 33-year-old US army veteran and fourth-generation farmer. As a result, not many people his age stick around. However, when Doral Renewables, an Israeli-owned energy company, contacted his family in 2022 with a proposal to build a 3,200-acre (1,295-hectare) solar array on the Berens’ property, Colton saw a chance for his family to benefit – as well as an opportunity to breathe life into his “dying” community.
The Berens’ solar project would have generated about $1m in annual tax revenue that would have been split between the county and its school for 35 years – money that could have gone a long way toward solving some of these challenges. During negotiations with his family over the use of its land, Berens said, Doral also agreed to upgrade the rugged gravel roads its crews would use during construction and to plant native grasses under the panels that could provide fodder for sheep.
…the Berens’ project was delayed while county commissioners drafted a law to determine how and where an installation could be built. Dozens of farmers, teachers, fishing guides, moms and grandparents turned out to public hearings to voice their opinions. While some supported the project, a vocal opposition won out – complaining that such a large installation would visually mar the agrarian landscape and relying heavily on alarming misinformation and talking points spread by rightwing activists with roots in the oil and gas industry.
In late [2023], the county adopted an ordinance that requires solar panels be at least 1 mile from any occupied dwelling and 1,000 ft from a property line. These restrictions, which are stricter than the state’s regulations, not only quashed the Berens’ project, but stamped out almost any hope that utility-scale solar could bring this economically depressed community in the future.
…Three years ago, utility-scale solar was negligible in South Dakota. Then, new interest driven by falling prices and lucrative federal tax incentives like those in the Inflation Reduction Act, helped spur the addition of two solar parks, which bumped production to nearly 300MW, about enough to power 50,000 average US homes.
In 2023, however, just as the solar industry was getting rolling, then governor Kristi Noem chose not to take advantage of funding through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar For All program, which offered $7bn for solar projects in low-income communities. She also opted out of the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, which would have given the state $3m toward reducing emissions after filling out a form less than a page long. Noem’s spokesperson called these Biden administration programs “wasteful spending” and “the single largest cause of the inflation crisis that our nation finds itself in” [date corrected and link added by CAH/DFP; Stephen Robert Miller, “Misinformation, Fear and Politics—How a South Dakota County Drove Away Millions in Solar Energy,” The Guardian, 2025.09.10].
We might view McCook County’s gain versus Walworth County’s loss as epitomizing the surprising battle over economic development in the South Dakota Republican Party. But the yahoos who buck solar power are just dupes of another big corporate power, the fossil-fuel industry, that astroturfs locals into opposing the renewable energy projects that could revitalize their communities and make the planet a little healthier.