Solar permitting — Aiken County, South Carolina

⛔ ACTIVE MORATORIUM — Active Moratorium; moratorium expires —confirm expiration with county planning. Permitting: CUP via Aiken County Planning Commission; 150-ft max / 75-ft min setbacks. Track record: Barnwell-Aiken Solar (~50 MW, 2021); Three Rivers Solar (~35 MW, 2022); Flat Branch Solar (~80 MW

Key driver: Major SC midlands county adjacent to Savannah River Site; industrial energy culture; flat farmland available despite suburban growth near Aiken city; moderate compliance burden reflects developed UDC but historically accommodating process; solid solar track record

Permitting process

Local permitting pathway

CUP via Aiken County Planning Commission; County Council final approval for projects >10 MW

Setbacks & buffers

150 ft from residential; 75 ft from road ROW; SRS buffer zones per DOE (varies by zone)

Spacing requirements

Not specified

Size restrictions

None codified; managed via CUP/SUP conditions

Penalties & bonding

Total penalty: +28 | Active moratorium: +28

State-level permits & approvals

County zoning authority; no state solar preemption; special exception or conditional use permit typically required for utility-scale (>1 MW); decommissioning bond increasingly required

State policy & grid context

State RPS & clean energy policy

No binding RPS | None | Energy Freedom Act (2019) addresses solar but no state RPS

State incentive programs

Federal ITC eligible; SC state income tax credit for solar (25% up to $35,000 for commercial); SC Energy Freedom Act net metering provisions

Grid & interconnection

SERC-SE; Duke Energy Progress; Dominion Energy SC

Subscriber intel Subscribers

Researched for this county and available with a subscription:

• 🔒Project track record
• 🔒Developer intelligence
• 🔒Community & board sentiment
• 🔒Governing board
• 🔒Sentiment & opposition

Energy-related meetings & dockets P1

Halo color = sentiment of the relevant agenda excerpt: green positive, yellow neutral, red negative.

• Other

  Data Center

  Approved $5,000,000 for new Aiken County Sheriff's Office headquarters

  agenda

State PSC dockets P1

No PSC dockets matched to this county yet.

Local news P3

News ingestion not yet active for this county (GDELT/RSS pipeline pending).