As solar and other renewables explode in Riverside County, Calif., the county is working to make sure that its not negatively impacted by the state’s substantial tax breaks and incentives.

The county will be home to large-scale solar developments including the 1,000 megawatt Blythe Solar Power Project, the 500 MW Palen Solar Power Project, the 250 MW Genesis Solar Energy Project and the 150 MW Rice Solar Energy Project.

“We’ve recognized the potential problem. It’s wonderful to have here, but we need to get ahead of it,” said Riverside County Energy Manger Janet Purchase. “Everything seems to be snowballing—running at quite an aggressive pace, and we need to figure out what we need to do to get ahead of this and protect the county’s budget.”

County supervisors are concerned that unless the county is prepared, it could bear the brunt of state exemptions. To make sure the county has enough money to pay for roads and other necessary services, it is pushing for certain energy fees and wants to make sure it can collect property taxes on solar power plants in its jurisdiction, according to The Press Enterprise. To achieve its goals, the county board is beginning to lobby state officials and is working with project developers to implement revenue generating agreements.

“What they [i.e., county supervisors] are trying to do is start a process for doing that,” she said. “We’re expecting job creation and the ability to attract more projects to the county. And there’s some worries that we’d get the projects, but none of the benefits."

Still, the county is encouraging such projects on its closed landfills, Purchase said.

“We have a lease agreement where they would be able to use closed county land to install solar farms,” she said. “We’d do a profit-sharing arrangement and are hoping to establish a revenue stream. We have three of those.”

In addition, the county is pre-identifying sites in the county for future renewable development.

She would not disclose what percentage of revenue the county was seeking to help pay the impact of the projects on the county.

“They were projecting that when the first one is complete there would be a $5 million revenue stream from that project,” she said.

Pictured: Parabolic troughs similar to those used at the Genesis Solar Energy Project. Image courtesy of NextExa Energy.