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Effingham County’s first solar farm is up and running on Stillwell Clyo Road in the Springfield area.
The 5-acre farm has 4,500 solar panels, each 2.5 feet by 5 feet, and produces one megawatt of power — enough to operate 120 homes.
The power goes back into the grid and is distributed to customers throughout Georgia Power’s network.
“It’s being shared equally around the county,” said Steve Chiariello of Inman Solar in Atlanta, the company that built the farm.
The farm was built under a Georgia Power program that encourages the development of solar power. The utility plans to derive 900 MW from solar power in the state by the end of 2016, according to John Kraft, a spokesman for Georgia Power.
Georgia has “one of the fastest-growing voluntary (solar) programs in the nation, and among the largest overall,” Kraft said.
Inman Solar bought the property for the solar farm and installed the system. The company retains ownership of the land, but sold the equipment to an investor, who leases the property from Inman, Chiariello said.
Georgia Power’s programs acquire utility-scale solar through a competitive, market-based process.
The programs call for the utility to pay the same amount for solar that it would pay for power generated through other means, through 20-year contracts.
“By waiting until solar energy installations began dropping in price, and through the program design, this expansion has been fostered without putting additional
upward pressure on customers’ electric rates,” Kraft said.
“We don’t want to pay more than it would have cost to reliably get that same amount of power elsewhere,” Kraft said.
Inman, which is 6 years old, has installed solar systems all over the nation. The company built six solar farms in Georgia last year and is building three more this year, Chiariello said.
“The technology hasn’t changed much” in recent years, he said. “Prices are lower because manufacturers get more efficient with economies of scale.”
He said solar costs one-third of what it cost five years ago.
Chiariello said in another five years, he expects solar systems to be affordable to mainstream consumers who are building individual houses.
Solar farms are becoming a more common site in Georgia. Under the recent, formal Georgia Power programs, there are nearly 100 solar farms in Georgia.
“Hundreds more sites will be coming online through our current solar programs between now and the end of 2016,” Kraft said.
Tax Appraiser Janis Bevill said the value of the land used for a solar farm isn’t likely to change, but the county will make money because the owners will pay taxes based on the value of the solar equipment.
Just how much that equipment is worth won’t be known until the owners fill out paperwork on the first farm next year, Bevill said.
A second solar farm has been approved in Effingham County — on 288 acres at Lowground and McCall roads.
Gregory Electric, based in Columbia, S.C., plans to break ground later this year on a 16 MW facility that will generate enough power for 1,500 to 2,000 homes, according to Todd Delello, renewable energy division manager.
In that project, the solar panels will be on tracks and will rotate to follow the sun.
While the solar farms are an important provider of clean energy, they are an intermittent resource and will never replace the need for traditional power plants, Kraft said.
Kraft said fixed solar systems, such as the one on Stillwell Clyo Road, only produce near their full capability for a few hours each day, and steadily fall after 2 p.m.
“By the time our electric system hits its peak load from customer energy demand around 6 p.m. on summer afternoons, solar production has fallen dramatically,” he said.
Solar production also is affected by passing clouds, rain, high heat, haze and humidity. Its productive capacity is around 15 percent, compared to around 90 percent for coal or nuclear, which typically produce 24/7.
TO LEARN MORE
• Georgia Power has contact numbers, calculators, information and solar consultants in each region of the state for customers who want to explore adding solar to their homes or businesses, at www.georgiapower.com/solar.
• More information about the Advanced Solar Initiative is at www.georgiapower.com/about-energy/energy-sources/solar/asi/advanced-solar-initiative.cshtml.