Cedartown Development Authority approves lease Inman Solar County commission approves, cities to vote on tax incentives for solar farms

Inman Solar will soon be expanding once again in Cedartown, taking over four more acres at the Northside Industrial Park in coming months to add more panel coverage at the site.

The company is also getting local tax incentives approved for partnering with local companies to provide electricity as part of a second phase of energy strategy to move the United States away from fossil fuels.

The Cedartown Development Authority approved unanimously in a Dec. 6 meeting to a new lease with Inman Solar that almost mirrors the one already in place for Cedartown's half-megawatt solar farm.

Construction on the project isn't likely to start all that soon, but the lease agreement allows Inman to move forward on the project.

The Cedartown Development Authority will get $15,000 for the first year, then will receive $20,000 a year for the first 20 years of the lease, then another $25,000 a year for the final five years of the lease.

City manager Bill Fann said the opening $15,000 payment

comes in for the Development Authority when Inman Solar gets a building permit.

Along with approval for the solar farm's expansion in Cedartown is also a deal that was approved by the Polk County Commission and now has to go before the cities of Cedartown and Rockmart approving tax incentives for Inman Solar's projects.

The county commis- sion voted unanimously to give the company decreased rates on the solar panels and other equipment on the two sites. A deal was already in place for Cedartown's current solar farm, Fann said, and that the city commission's vote scheduled for Monday following press time would confirm incentives for the additional panels.

Rockmart city manager Jeff Ellis said that the city could be approving the tax incentives on their current field of solar panels next to the industrial site.

The intergovernmental agreement calls for a 100 percent abatement for the first year on the land and improvements, followed by 20 percent reductions in the abatement over the four years after, dropping to 20 percent by Year 5 of the agreement.

New panels in Cedartown set to go up in 2017 will increase Inman Solar's presence in Polk County, with sites now at GEO Specialty Chemical, the two industrial sites in Rockmart and Cedartown, and one off Highway 101 in Aragon.