Assessor: solar project estimates based on submitted costs and local land-value models

Commissioners and members of the public spent an extended portion of the meeting questioning county valuation staff about how taxes would be calculated for large renewable projects. 'When they first when the sparks all started ... he did get in contact with me. Um, so I just use numbers I was given by them for parts of it such as the uh like the cost of the batteries, um, the panels and all that stuff,' a county valuation staffer said when explaining the source data used to produce tax estimates.

The staffer described using local land-value models and current system costs (for fencing, for example) to create estimates, while acknowledging many project-specific costs remain unknown until the developer provides final data. He warned that legislation could change exemptions in the future and that values produced now are still estimates because cost factors have shifted since the figures were first produced.