Developer outlines Dan’s Mountain Wind PILOT proposal, county staff backs draft agreement

Nick Benjamin of Clearway Energy Group told Allegany County commissioners the Dan’s Mountain Wind Project has been in development for two decades and is now under construction. He described the company’s proposal for a pilot payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) that would apply to the project’s personal-property portion and create a predictable, prescribed stream of payments to the county rather than the traditional assessment-and-distribution approach.

Benjamin said the company is requesting a 15% discount relative to business-as-usual tax flows — about half of the discount Washington County previously offered in two solar-project pilots and higher than a recent Garrett County discount — in exchange for a long-term, steady payment schedule. He described local economic impacts during construction and operation and said the pilot would produce about $860,000 a year under the proposed schedule.

County staff and finance officials said they had worked with Clearway on multiple drafts and were comfortable with the language in the pilot agreement; they reported sharing the draft with the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT), which offered no comments. A county official said the proposal is more favorable than similar arrangements in neighboring counties and highlighted that it would provide a steady revenue stream to help with the county's budget pressures.

Commissioners voted to proceed with the pilot agreement as presented and thanked project representatives for their engagement.