ON MARCH 7, 2022, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 1925, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill and requires that all solar power facility agreements:
(1) Provide, at a minimum, that the grantee must, upon or prior to the expiration or termination of the solar power facility agreement, safely remove or cause the removal of all components of the solar power facility located on the premises, except for any electrical or communications lines buried more than three feet below the surface grade of the land, and restore the land comprising the premises to, as near as reasonably possible, its condition as of the date of the commencement of construction of the solar power facility; and
(2) Either contain or provide that the grantee must deliver to the landowner a decommissioning plan detailing the grantee's plan for performing or causing the performance of the obligations in item (1) above.
This amendment also requires that a solar power facility agreement require the grantee to obtain and deliver to the landowner financial assurance in the following amounts to secure the performance of the grantee's removal and restoration obligations:
(A) No less than 5 percent of the decommissioning cost on the date the solar power facility commences commercial operation;
(B) No less than 50 percent of the decommissioning cost on the tenth anniversary of the date the solar power facility commences commercial operation; and
(C) No less than the decommissioning cost on the fifteenth anniversary of the date the solar power facility commences commercial operation.
This amendment requires that acceptable forms of financial assurance be set forth in the solar power facility agreement and sets out in detail the acceptable forms of such financial assurance, which includes cash and surety bonds.
This amendment specifies that a landowner has the right to expressly extend the date the financial assurance required by this amendment is first delivered to the landowner to no later than the fifteenth anniversary of the date the solar power facility commences commercial operation. This amendment further specifies that it does not prohibit a local government from regulating solar power facilities pursuant to its zoning authority, except that a local government may not impose removal or restoration obligations or require financial assurance securing such obligations that are more stringent than or additional to those provided for in this amendment.
Under this amendment, a provision of a solar power facility agreement that purports to waive a right or exempt a grantee from a liability or duty established by this amendment will be void unless the landowner and the grantee are affiliated entities. A person who is harmed by a violation of this amendment will be entitled to relief pursuant to a declaratory judgment.
This amendment specifies that it only applies to solar power facility agreements initially entered into on or after the effective date of this bill as amended. If a grantee and landowner agree to amend a solar power facility agreement initially entered into before the effective date of this bill as amended, the parties may include the rights and obligations established by this amendment, and this amendment will govern such amended agreements.
This bill as amended will take effect on June 1, 2022.
As used in this amendment, "solar power facility agreement" means a lease or easement agreement for real property between a grantee and a landowner for the construction, installation and operation of all or a part of a solar power facility on such real property that generates electricity primarily for use and consumption off the premises.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 66-9-204(b), 66-9-204
Amended with SA0558 -- 03/07/2022: 66-9-204(b), 66-9-204
Current Version: 66-9-204(b), 66-9-204