The Peach State’s environmental progressives are demanding Georgia make use of the sun’s rays showering down each day, and companies and schools alike are making first steps for solar power usage.
In February 2015, Georgia State’s Student Government Association (SGA) met with the Office of Sustainability, and voted the installation of solar panel-powered “Big Belly” recycling bins.
The bins would use the energy coming from solar panels to decompose the trash into recyclable waste that are disposed in the machine. After members voted to allocate $40,000, the bins started popping up all around campus.
“These bins, as expensive as they are, were worth voting for given their sustainable energy source, and how they impact the campus,” Anthony Nguyen, SGA VP for Public Relations, said.
President of Georgia State’s Sustainable Energy Tribe (SET) Justin Brightharp said there have also been some solar panels installed on the roof of Library South. He said there have been attempts in the past by both the Student Government Association (SGA) and SET for Georgia State to utilize solar power.
Brightharp told The Signal that SET sent out a survey three years ago asking students what the sustainability fee should pay for. The overwhelming, he said, called for solar power.
In November 2015 Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s announced a city initiative to install solar panels on 28 municipal buildings – fire stations, recreation centers and a police station. This plan , dubbed “Solar Atlanta,” marked the city’s first major sun energy effort.
In January Georgia Power (GP), a major electric utility in the state, submitted an Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) for 2016, which outlined the company’s goals to meet their energy needs for the next twenty years. Georgia Power updates their plans every three years, and in the 2013 IRP a proposed amount of 525 MW was suggested to come online.
John Kraft, spokesman of Georgia Power said even though they haven’t met that amount yet, the renewable energy plants are still under construction and are expected to be finished by the end of 2016, adding what is left for the 525 MW goal.
The 2016 IRP proposal includes an increase of renewable energy of once again 525 MW, but while the 2013 increase was focused mostly on solar power, this one includes wind, solar and biomass. The electric company asked clean energy interest groups in the market to to bid on how much energy they can supply, to meet the goals of the 2016 IRP. New renewable energy sources will go online in 2018 and 2019, yet none in 2017.
“By the time our IRP renewable energy proposals are approved by the Public Service Commission, it will be mid-2016.Then we have to implement it, put it out on the market, developers must analyze our requests, and then we must evaluate and approve their proposals,” Kraft said, as to why 2017 won’t see any renewables come online. “And all that, takes time.”
State-wide environmental agencies protested the plan, claiming that the company focused too much on old, run-down plants instead of shifting to renewable energy, according to Environment Georgia.
One of the proposals in Georgia Power’s IRP requested to expand the Waynesboro, Georgia’s Vogtle Nuclear plant, which is three years behind schedule and $3 million over budget.
Solar pays back
Colleen McLoughlin, an organizer for Environment Georgia, is part of the Athens “Solarize” project, which aims to reduce residential and commercial solar costs in Athens by 30 percent through bulk customer purchases; the more customers make a solar purchase, the lower the power bill. McLoughlin said the project is the second in Georgia, after one in Tybee Island and Chatham County.
Environment Georgia teamed up with electric contractor Alternative Energy Southeast and solar developer Turnsol Energy, which will work together for the completion of over one fourth of the installations in Solarize Athens.
For residents using solar power, a system of net metering is usually adopted by the utility provider, a system which feeds back the unused customer’s energy back into the provider’s power grid.
“Since that resident is contributing to the [provider’s] energy supply with a system they paid for, it is only fair that they get paid back the amount they originally paid for it, which is anywhere between $0.096/kWh- $0.167/kWh,” McLoughlin said. “However, Georgia Power pays you about $0.44 for the power you send back to the grid, about a quarter of what that energy is worth.”
According to Southern View Energy, solar panel prices have decreased dramatically, and are now at $1.50 to $3 dollars per watt. And while the number of panels varies according to roof size, most home installations are between 2,000-7,000 watts, or between $8,000 and $42,000.
Brightharp said seeing a return from an investment in solar technology can take anywhere from five to 50 years. But the right solar panels can produce enough energy for more than just the building they’re installed on.
“Sometimes [solar power] can produce enough energy to sell back to a company or a municipality. D.H. Stanton Park in South Atlanta is powered by solar panels and it sells excess energy back for the city of Atlanta,” he said.
The problem, according to Environment Georgia, is that Georgians needs more incentive to install solar hardware and better initiatives for businesses and residents.
Anne Blair, clean fuels director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said Georgia Power doesn’t pay customers of solar power a good amount for the energy they put back to GP’s grid.
“Running renewable energy sources would require Georgia Power to transition to an entirely different business model,” she said. “And right now, they’re not putting nearly enough renewable energy resources into their plans but instead in existing coal and natural gas plants.”
In February 2015 supermarket chain Target promised to cover a quarter of its American store rooftops with solar panels during the next five years, an equivalent, McLoughlin said, to four thousand football fields. Walmart has taken the lead in solar initiatives over the past years, with over 100 MW of solar capacity, followed by Kohl’s and IKEA.
“After all, [Target’s] ads tell us we should ‘expect more.’ With solar on all of its viable rooftops by 2030, Target could create enough energy to power over a quarter-million homes,” she said.
Out with the old
Attorney Robert Jackson from GreenLaw, a non-profit legal group, and Erin Glynn, incoming IRP organizer for Georgia’s Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental organization, claims Georgia Power is sticking to their old ways because that’s simply cheaper, and more convenient.
“For the few years that Georgia Power has utilized renewable energy sources, they have proved to be cheaper and more efficient than coal,” Jackson said. “But the costs [of implementation] stand as the greatest barrier, as GP would have to change infrastructure to match solar power needs.”
“It’s like having an old ‘65 Corolla, all rusted out, sunroof leaking, windows cracked,” Glynn said. “But do you keep sinking money into it because you’re scared of buying something new?”
Julie Hairston, communications director of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, said Georgia Power has seen a great increase in the use of solar power, and that’s mainly due to recent declines in production costs.
“In 2011, Georgia had a total of less than 10 MW of solar energy, and now, by the end of the year we’re projected to have 1.2 GW,” she said. “That’s a giant stride, and it’s because production materials are cheaper, and panels are more efficient, which means less can be installed for the same output.”
According to Hairston, in the past five years, Georgia has increased its solar energy MW output by 120 times, and even though the state isn’t where it’s supposed to be in the solar energy market, it’s merely young in the solar field.
But, McLoughlin said, the state should have dotted up the map with solar panels a while ago, as the sunshine it receives could power the state over 40 times.
“Many people are boasting that Georgia has the fastest-growing solar industry in the U.S., but we have to consider that Georgia is growing so rapidly because we were at zero not too long ago,” McLoughlin said.
Colleen Kiernan with the Sierra Club said, despite some growth in the past years, Georgia isn’t using renewable resources as much anymore and is “holding tight to some of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants, such as Plant Hammond and Plant McIntosh, rather than putting them on a retirement schedule.”
