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Solar power in Georgia (U.S. state)

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Solar roof, Murray Elementary School, Fort Stewart

Solar power in Georgia on rooftops can provide 31% of all electricity used in Georgia.[1]

Net metering is limited to 100 kW for non-residential consumers and 10 kW for residential consumers, up to 0.2% of previous years peak demand. Georgia was given an F for net metering.[2][3] Georgia is not a Net Metering State.[4]

Old Midville solar project, Millen

The state's first solar community is located at Weatherford Place in Roswell.[5][6] All homes are LEED Certified Platinum and monitored. The solar generation is compared to GP totals each month. The past 6 years of data monitoring show that GP meter consistently records less produced power. GP does not pay "time of day rates" as do many other states and also requires the homeowner to sign over all "environmental attributes" [solar renewable energy credits or SRECs] if the homeowner chooses to sell back all solar energy. Similar results are being seen at a Zero Net Energy home [the architectural design and training was a pro-bono project of Cadmus Design-Build [7] and is being monitored by UGA] located in Tifton, GA. In other states such as California, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, etc.] the accumulated SRECs can be sold by the owner of the system. Georgia does not allow the sale of SRECs. Georgia Power is also charging the homeowner tax on the solar energy that is sold back to GP. According to the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy,[8] Renewable energy is not taxable.

Solar panels, Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Georgia Power has a solar purchase program, SP-1, for up to 100 kW systems which pays 17¢/kWh. A second meter is installed for the solar generation, all of which is purchased by Georgia Power. The consumer then purchases back any electricity consumed as if they did not have solar power. The program has an aggregate limit of 4.4 MW and is fully subscribed, but will be expanded as consumers purchase "Premium Green Energy", for an additional $5.00/100kWh. Once a consumer enters the program there is no reason to also purchase green energy, as doing so would reduce the 17 cent payment to 12 cents.[9][10] By comparison, Ontario paid 80¢Canadian/kWh, and Germany €34.05¢/kWh, both with 20 year contracts, vs. the 5-year contract from Georgia Power. Long term power agreements are essential to renewable energy projects, as you pay upfront for 25 years of electricity - the "fuel", the sun or wind, is free, and most of the cost of wind power or solar power is the installation cost.[11]

Approved by the state's Public Service Commission in 2012 and significantly expanded in the following year, Georgia Power's 'Advanced Solar Initiative' is expected to bring online 865 MW of solar capacity by the end of 2016.[12][13]

In 1982 the country's largest industrial solar installation was completed, the 400 kW Solar Total Energy Project, which operated until 1991.[14]

The $5 million 1 MW Spectro PowerCap on the Hickory Ridge Landfill near Atlanta was one of Georgia's largest solar arrays, when it was completed in October 2011.[15] Another 1MW solar farm in Blairsville was completed in January 2011.[16]

A 30 MW solar farm is being developed in Social Circle, and is expected to be completed in 2015.[17][18][19]

In 2011, Georgia was one of three states being considered for a 400 MW solar park, to consist of 20 20 MW sections. Other states being considered were Florida and North Carolina.[20] Gadsden County, Florida, was chosen. The company, National Solar, is planning 3,000 MW of solar farms in the Southeast.[21][22]

Statistics

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Source: NREL[23]
Grid-connected PV capacity (MWp)[24][25][26][27][28][29]
Year Capacity Installed % Change
2008 0.1
2009 0.2 0.1 100%
2010 1.8 1.6 800%
2011 6.9 5.1 283%
2012 21.4 8.2 210%
2013 109.9 88.5 414%
2014 160 50 46%
2015 370 209 131%
2016 1,470 1,100 297%
2017 1,555 85 5.7%
2018 1,568 13 0.8%
2019 2,448.1 880.1 56%
2020 2,757.9 309.8 12.7%
2021 4,268.5 1,510.6 %
2022 5,033 764.5 %
Utility-scale solar generation in Georgia (GWh)[30]
Year Total Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2013 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 6
2014 120 8 8 11 11 13 11 11 12 9 11 8 7
2015 129 8 9 9 10 13 12 13 12 9 9 8 17
2016 880 25 34 43 48 59 57 66 82 97 115 121 133
2017 1,988 134 148 160 198 225 183 214 188 179 141 131 87
2018 1,995 136 108 165 202 194 216 206 203 188 174 109 94
2019 2,162 131 98 194 205 242 209 217 200 198 150 155 163
2020 3,901 182 224 281 350 414 379 414 417 348 340 281 271
2021 3,451 254 267 408 497 582 489 491 463

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Witkin, Jim (30 October 2009). "Report Argues for a Decentralized System of Renewable Power Generation".
  2. ^ Freeing the Grid
  3. ^ "2019 Guide to Georgia Home Solar Incentives, Rebates, and Tax Credits".
  4. ^ https://twitter.com/timechols/status/333978655875280896 GA PCS member Tim Echols' Net Metering tweet
  5. ^ "Journal of Green Building -". pinnacle-secure.allenpress.com. doi:10.3992/1943-4618-9.2.3.
  6. ^ "Weatherford Place New LEED Platinum Solar home construction Roswell GA". Weatherford Place.
  7. ^ "CADMUS". www.cadmusconstruction.com.
  8. ^ "Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency®". DSIRE.
  9. ^ Georgia Power - Solar Buyback Program Archived 2013-04-14 at archive.today
  10. ^ Georgia Power Solar Buy Back Archived 2013-01-18 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Comparing Feed-In-Tariff Programs from Ontario and Germany - d-bits".
  12. ^ Kristi E. Swartz (2014-04-15). "Solar gains ground in Southeast as programs in Ga. and S.C. build momentum". Environment & Energy Publishing. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  13. ^ Mark Vanderhoek (2014-07-25). "Solar set to make big inroads across Middle Georgia". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  14. ^ Ap (11 May 1982). "Solar Plant Dedicated" – via NYTimes.com.
  15. ^ "Republic Services installs landfill cap system integrated with 1MW of solar PV near Atlanta". PV Tech.
  16. ^ "ESA Renewables Commissions Georgia's Largest Ground Mounted Solar Photovoltaic System". PRWeb. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  17. ^ "Projects".
  18. ^ "First big Ga. Power solar project comes online in Upson". macon.
  19. ^ "Home". Simon Solar.
  20. ^ GA in race for site of "world's largest solar farm."
  21. ^ National Solar Power to Establish a 200 MW Solar Farm in Hardee County Archived 2012-08-04 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Florida’s Gadsden County, “Big Bend” Region Win Southeast’s Largest Solar Farm Project Archived 2012-08-04 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ "PV Watts". NREL. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  24. ^ Sherwood, Larry (July 2014). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2013" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). p. 29. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
  25. ^ Sherwood, Larry (July 2012). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2012" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). p. 16. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  26. ^ Sherwood, Larry (August 2012). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2011" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  27. ^ Sherwood, Larry (June 2011). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2010" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). p. 20. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
  28. ^ Sherwood, Larry (July 2010). "U.S. Solar Market Trends 2009" (PDF). Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). p. 23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-09-25. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  29. ^ Georgia Solar Archived 2014-12-27 at the Wayback Machine
  30. ^ "Electricity Data Browser". U.S. Department of Energy. March 28, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
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