The Legislature finds and declares:

(1) The purpose of the nameplate capacity tax levied under section 77-6203 is to replace property taxes currently imposed on renewable energy infrastructure and depreciated over a short period of time in a way that causes local budgeting challenges and increases upfront costs for renewable energy developers;

(2) The nameplate capacity tax should be competitive with taxes imposed directly and indirectly on renewable energy generation and development in other states;

(3) The nameplate capacity tax should be fair and nondiscriminatory when compared with other taxes imposed on other industries in the state; and

(4) The nameplate capacity tax should not be singled out as a source of General Fund revenue during times of economic hardship.

For purposes of sections 77-6201 to 77-6204:

(1) Commissioned means the renewable energy generation facility has been in commercial operation for at least twenty-four hours. A renewable energy generation facility is not in commercial operation unless the renewable energy generation facility is connected to the electrical grid or to the end user if the renewable energy generation facility is a customer-generator as defined in section 70-2002;

(2) Nameplate capacity means the capacity of a renewable energy generation facility to generate electricity as measured in megawatts, including fractions of a megawatt. Nameplate capacity shall be determined based on the facility's alternating current capacity; and

(3) Renewable energy generation facility means (a) a facility that generates electricity using wind as the fuel source or (b) a facility that generates electricity using solar, biomass, or landfill gas as the fuel source if such facility was installed on or after January 1, 2016, and has a nameplate capacity of one hundred kilowatts or more.

(1) The owner of a renewable energy generation facility annually shall pay a nameplate capacity tax equal to the total nameplate capacity of the commissioned renewable energy generation facility multiplied by a tax rate of three thousand five hundred eighteen dollars per megawatt.

(2) No tax shall be imposed on a renewable energy generation facility:

(a) Owned or operated by the federal government, the State of Nebraska, a public power district, a public power and irrigation district, an individual municipality, a registered group of municipalities, an electric membership association, or a cooperative; or

(b) That is a customer-generator as defined in section 70-2002.

(3) No tax levied pursuant to this section shall be construed to constitute restricted funds as defined in section 13-518 for the first five years after the renewable energy generation facility is commissioned.

(4) The presence of one or more renewable energy generation facilities or supporting infrastructure shall not be a factor in the assessment, determination of actual value, or classification under section 77-201 of the real property underlying or adjacent to such facilities or infrastructure.

(5)(a) The Department of Revenue shall collect the tax due under this section.

(b) The tax shall be imposed beginning the first calendar year the renewable energy generation facility is commissioned. A renewable energy generation facility that uses wind as the fuel source which was commissioned prior to July 15, 2010, shall be subject to the tax levied pursuant to sections 77-6201 to 77-6204 on and after January 1, 2010. The amount of property tax on depreciable tangible personal property previously paid on a renewable energy generation facility that uses wind as the fuel source which was commissioned prior to July 15, 2010, which is greater than the amount that would have been paid pursuant to sections 77-6201 to 77-6204 from the date of commissioning until January 1, 2010, shall be credited against any tax due under Chapter 77, and any amount so credited that is unused in any tax year shall be carried over to subsequent tax years until fully utilized.

(c)(i) The tax for the first calendar year shall be prorated based upon the number of days remaining in the calendar year after the renewable energy generation facility is commissioned.

(ii) In the first year in which a renewable energy generation facility is taxed or in any year in which additional commissioned nameplate capacity is added to a renewable energy generation facility, the taxes on the initial or additional nameplate capacity shall be prorated for the number of days remaining in the calendar year.

(iii) When a renewable energy generation facility is decommissioned or made nonoperational by a change in law during a tax year, the taxes shall be prorated for the number of days during which the renewable energy generation facility was not decommissioned or was operational.

(iv) When the capacity of a renewable energy generation facility to produce electricity is reduced but the renewable energy generation facility is not decommissioned, the nameplate capacity of the renewable energy generation facility is deemed to be unchanged.

(6)(a) On March 1 of each year, the owner of a renewable energy generation facility shall file with the Department of Revenue a report on the nameplate capacity of the facility for the previous year from January 1 through December 31. All taxes shall be due on April 1 and shall be delinquent if not paid on a quarterly basis on April 1 and each quarter thereafter. Delinquent quarterly payments shall draw interest at the rate provided for in section 45-104.02, as such rate may from time to time be adjusted.

(b) The owner of a renewable energy generation facility is liable for the taxes under this section with respect to the facility, whether or not the owner of the facility is the owner of the land on which the facility is situated.

(7) Failure to file a report required by subsection (6) of this section, filing such report late, failure to pay taxes due, or underpayment of such taxes shall result in a penalty of five percent of the amount due being imposed for each quarter the report is overdue or the payment is delinquent, except that the penalty shall not exceed ten thousand dollars.

(8) The Department of Revenue shall enforce the provisions of this section. The department may adopt and promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the implementation and enforcement of this section.

(9) The Department of Revenue shall separately identify the proceeds from the tax imposed by this section and shall pay all such proceeds over to the county treasurer of the county where the renewable energy generation facility is located within thirty days after receipt of such proceeds.

(1) The county treasurer shall distribute all revenue received from the Department of Revenue pursuant to section 77-6203 to local taxing entities which, but for such personal property tax exemption, would have received distribution of personal property tax revenue from depreciable personal property used directly in the generation of electricity using wind, solar, biomass, or landfill gas as the fuel source.

(2) A local taxing entity's status as eligible for distribution under subsection (1) of this section shall not be affected when and if the net book value of personal property used directly in the generation of electricity using wind, solar, biomass, or landfill gas as the fuel source becomes zero. A local taxing entity's status as eligible for distribution under such subsection shall be affected by the disposal of all of the exempt depreciable personal property used directly in the generation of electricity using wind, solar, biomass, or landfill gas as the fuel source.

(3) The distribution to each eligible local taxing entity shall be calculated by determining the amount of taxes that the eligible local taxing entity levied during the taxable year and dividing this amount by the total tax levied by all of the eligible local taxing entities during the year. Each eligible entity's resulting fraction shall then be multiplied by the revenue distributed to the county treasurer by the department to determine the portion of such revenue due each local taxing entity.

(4) The Department of Revenue shall not retain any revenue collected pursuant to sections 77-6201 to 77-6204 for distribution, use, transfer, pledge, or allocation to or from the General Fund.