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(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) The Young County Commissioners Court will meet at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 26 at the Young County Courthouse to discuss and consider entering into a tax abatement agreement and granting a 100% abatement with Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to be made annually.
After over a year of discussion, the Young County Commissioners Court will consider granting a tax abatement for a solar and battery storage project next week.
The Tapaderos project from Titus LCV includes a solar power generation facility with capacity generation of approximately 300 MW along with a battery storage component with capacity of 200 MW.
The commissioners will meet at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 26 at the Young County Courthouse to discuss and consider entering into a tax abatement agreement and granting a 100% abatement with Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to be made annually.
An abatement is the full or partial exemption of taxes of certain property in a reinvestment zone designated by the county for economic development purposes.
Before a tax abatement can be granted, local taxing entities must adopt a resolution designating an area as a reinvestment zone.
During the commissioners meeting Monday, Jan. 12, a reinvestment zone was passed with three votes for and two votes abstaining from Young County Judge Win Graham and Precinct 1 Commissioner Stacy Creswell.
The county judge has stated in previous meetings of the commissioners court that he has a conflict of interest with the project which would prevent him from voting on items relating to the project.
“The Allar company signed a surface waiver where we basically have agreed to forego any use of the surface in regards to the exploitation of our minerals. We are being paid,” Graham said. “...It prevents us from using the surface for pipelines, roads, electric easements and basically any form of use of the surface.”
During the 10-year abatement period, 100% of county property tax on the certified appraised value of the property will be abated.
The company will make PILOT payments to the county each year along with a one-time payment of $300,000 for the county volunteer fire departments and the Young County Sheriff’s Office within 30 days of commencement of construction.
The PILOT for the solar component is based on megawatts of nameplate capacity of generation (or $2,439 per MW) and for the battery storage is for nameplate capacity of two-hour storage (or $1,028 per MWH).
For the solar that comes out to $2,439 times 300 MW of solar capacity, or an annual PILOT of $731,713 paid to the county. For the battery storage that comes out to $1,028 times 400 MWH of two-hour storage, or an annual PILOT of $411,200.
Together that PILOT is an annual county payment of $1,142,913 and over a period of 10 years would be $11,429,130.
The project is anticipated to be in operation no later than Dec. 31, 2028 and within a draft abatement agreement it is stated that if commercial operation is not achieved before Jan. 1, 2029, the county will cancel the agreement.
The project is planning to have a 75-foot vegetative buffer zone at the border of every property within the reinvestment zone.
Landowners and local residents have voiced concerns to the commissioners about granting an abatement since the project was presented in a public meeting.
As a way to provide information and a venue to address community questions, Titus LCV held a town hall meeting Nov. 5, 2025 at the Eliasville Volunteer Fire Department.
Attending were members of the Young County Commissioners Court as well as Texas Energy Consultants President Robert Peña and Titus LCV Senior Director of Engineering Micah Nichols.
The two representatives of the company were posed a number of questions from the community including those related to the county abatement, environmental impacts, construction and safety.
The solar panels are designed for a 20-25 year life cycle and in the case that the company went defunct or was abandoning the project, all materials would have to be removed and the land restored.
“The project has to be completely removed and the land returned to the landowner with nothing on there,” Peña said. “...The company has to set a bond as financial protection to the landowner. Should the company go bankrupt, the bond will remain in place to assure the landowner that the facilities would be removed by that bond. That is a mandate now also by the state of Texas.”
Removal of the equipment would have to happen within one year which would be included in the landowner lease agreement.
The battery storage will be in shipping containers and will be used to store energy from the solar farm and used on the grid when necessary.
“It helps with the resiliency of the grid for the local area, but it also helps put (power) onto ERCOT lines when it’s needed,” Nichols said.
The battery storage units have an internal fire suppression system with sensors to detect when things would be heating up. A foam and chemical agency would suppress any fires.
The batteries within these storage units will degrade and have a lifespan of 15 years and are replaced and recycled. The storage units are built to contain hazards.
The abatement is one of several on the table for the county, with multiple data centers reaching out that have or are in the process of acquiring properties and leases.
