Harris is also the rare farmer in the area who believes agriculture, solar and sustainability can go hand in hand. Grazing in this way could prevent erosion and, down the road, potentially sequester carbon in the soil, as Harris has achieved on his own land. The company is building around existing ponds and wetlands and will keep a vegetative barrier so that the solar panels will not be visible from the road. In neighboring Clay County, Newberry's childhood friend Will Harris is convinced that turning farmland over to solar production doesn't mean you have to take it out of agriculture entirely. But Will It Slow Climate Change. Intrusion-Tolerant SCADA Demonstrated at Power Plant, D.C. ", We Insist: A Timeline Of Protest Music In 2020, a goal of reaching 100% renewable energy for all its operations in 2020, cost of installing solar has fallen by more than 70% in the past decade. It operates under a PPA with Southern California Edison. hide caption. "That's important for business. Ever cheaper and better solar technology, available land and lots of sunshine are driving demand for massive, utility-scale solar projects across the American Southeast. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says Georgia ranks ninth among U.S. states with just more than 1,500 MW of installed solar generation capacity. You can also view the average costs for installing solar in Georgia, based on real price data from installed systems and solar quotes. Not a subscriber or a registered user yet? When grass is allowed to grow on the pastures, it puts down deep roots, storing carbon in the soil that it draws out of the atmosphere. The animals would graze on grass and weeds and naturally fertilize the land with their manure. "We have to have access to 100% renewable energy for our facilities. Harris and Silicon Ranch are putting together a plan to rotate animal species around the solar farm, possibly cattle and sheep. The Hanwha Q Cells assembly plant in Dalton, Ga., assembles 10,000 solar panels a day. Nathan Deal announced the plant in May 2018, four months after President Trump imposed a 30% tariff on solar panel imports. Why not him, using regenerative farming techniques? June Merritt, chair of the Early County Board of Commissioners, estimates that $8 million will come into the county in the form of taxes over the next 25 years, which is a tremendous relief, she says. Defense Daily subscriber and registered users, please log in here to access the content. "You've got Silicon Ranch, who are wonderful technology people, who have figured out how to capture energy from the sun and put it through a wire. It wouldn't have swayed him anyway. The plant already has a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Georgia Power. The factory was announced at the end of May 2018 and production began in January 2019. Georgia is one of 21 states that has not adopted a renewable portfolio standard for electricity production, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. Looking for a local installer? Operating at capacity, the factory is now assembling 10,000 panels a day. (To be clear, "100% renewable" is measured on an annual basis, not an hourly basis; Facebook contracts for more renewable energy than it anticipates it will use in a year.). First Solar, a Tempe, Arizona-based global provider of photovoltaic (PV) systems, announced the project on February 21. And it's not for the reasons you might expect. In Georgia, the company that's providing Facebook's access to solar is Walton EMC, an electric cooperative based outside Monroe, Ga. As recently as 2010, Walton EMC relied on coal for almost half of its energy production. ", Will Harris stops to check on a herd of cattle on his farm, White Oak Pastures. Those engineers, by their own admission, are not good land stewards.". Like most states in the Southeast, Georgia doesn't have the kind of state-level mandates that have propelled the growth of renewable energy in other parts of the country. "The world's not coming to an end next week because of climate change," Singletary says. Headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, Hanwha showed up in Dalton in early 2018, says Mayor Dennis Mock. For the past two decades, Harris has been practicing regenerative land management on his farm, White Oak Pastures, which has been in his family since 1866. Georgia Power has said it will develop projects from a Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) for C&I customers, based on PPA contracts of 10 years to 30 years. As a result, the solar boom is reaching Early County in the state's farthest southwest corner — peanut, corn and cotton country. These days, a more accurate title would be floor covering capital of the world. "Above those panels is their expertise. A water truck makes the rounds, spraying the ground with water to keep clouds of dirt from enveloping the workers when construction equipment rolls by. The Solar Power Free Market Financing Act is considered an important victory for property rights supporters, as well as solar advocates – and represents a bellwether of change in Georgia. Solar companies had used historical data to pinpoint where they could get good sunlight on large tracts of land near transmission lines. Completed in 2015, this photovoltaic project has enough electric capacity to power more than 2,263 homes. Georgia Solar Farms. © 2020 Access Intelligence, LLC - All Rights Reserved. "We've found that when we go into new regions and are able to access renewable energy, that we typically are able to achieve lower electricity rates than we would through a normal nongreen energy solution," Clements says. A lot of land is needed for solar farms big enough to power a Facebook data center. But it could take years. The timing was right, he explains, since no one in his family farms anymore — they'd been renting the land out to others. A row of solar panels is installed at Silicon Ranch's latest project outside Blakely, Ga. The company would need to hire someone to take care of the land that they'd just purchased. If we're unable to achieve that, we won't locate in that region," he says. Johnathon Kelso for NPR With that dramatic a drop in price, solar is now cost-competitive with traditional forms of energy, even natural gas. "We don't have pollution. Additionally, Silicon Ranch is providing college scholarships for students who want to pursue a career in the solar industry. Complete our National Solar Database Survey! Check out more solar power news from POWER magazine: South Korea Will Fight Solar Tariffs; Others Will Wait, FPL Closes Coal Plant, Brings More Solar Online, China’s Renewables Strategy Shines in Massive Solar Park, —Darrell Proctor is a POWER associate editor (@POWERmagazine, @DarrellProctor1), Cheap natural gas and social pressure to reduce carbon emissions give gas-fired power plants and renewable energy resources…, U.S. power plant operators continue to change procedures at their facilities, including pushing back scheduled maintenance, due to…, Vectren Corp., the electric utility that serves much of southern Indiana, has announced a plan to shutter its…, General Electric International Inc. (GE) and consortium partner Taiwanese engineering services firm CTCI have bagged a multi-billion-dollar engineering,…. Now, natural gas is the dominant source. And land in northern Georgia is expensive. The Odom Solar Farm is part of a portfolio of projects that will provide power to Walton Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) as part of the utility’s agreement to supply 100% renewable energy for Facebook’s data center in Newton County, Georgia. One of those projects is a new Facebook data center that's under construction in Newton County, Ga., about 45 miles east of Atlanta. It employs tracker technology, which enables its more than 1 million thin-film PV solar modules to track the path of the sun to optimize production. Georgia Power, part of Southern Co., in its 2016 Integrated Resource Plan authorized the development of commercial and industrial (C&I) renewable generation “that would allow Georgia Power to procure up to 200 MW of additional renewable generation through Power Purchase Agreements that C&I customers could utilize to support their sustainability initiatives,” according to Georgia Power’s website. Then last year, Steve Singletary, whose family has owned land in Early County since the 1930s, got a different kind of offer, one he couldn't turn down. For now, the construction site remains dusty and dry. Ron Vuocolo/Silicon Ranch An aerial view of the 52-megawatt solar farm built by Silicon Ranch in Hazlehurst, Ga. This is just one sign that in Georgia, solar is booming. All Rights Reserved. You know, there's just nothing. Solar Market Insight Report compiled by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). Get SEIA emails and stay on top of the latest solar news in your state. That has changed with the opening of the Dalton assembly plant, among other suppliers that have cropped up in recent years. "This is the largest region for solar installations in the next five years," says Scott Moskowitz, director of strategy and market intelligence for Hanwha Q Cells America. Already, steel posts rise from the ground in neat rows, and giant cardboard boxes holding stacks of solar panels dot the landscape. Nick de Vries, vice president of technology and asset management for Silicon Ranch, says one of the beauties of solar is how fast it can all come together. To me, it's played up way more than the effect it's actually having.". POWER Magazine readers get exclusive power industry news–every business day. He couldn't care less, he says, laughing: "I want it the cheapest.". They are not currently subject to tariffs, but they could be next year, when a quota on cell imports will likely be reached. Complete our National Solar Database Survey! U.S. solar energy leaders and representatives of top solar companies from an 8-state area will gather in Atlanta, GA, on May 7-8 at the Marriott Marquis for the inaugural Solar Power Southeast conference, co-sponsored by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). County officials first got word of interest from solar developers about five years ago. Today, he practices regenerative land management, restoring cycles of nature to land degraded by industrialized processes. The largest U.S. solar farm is the 579-MW Solar Star project near Rosamond, California, which came online in 2015. 7; Check out our Major Solar Projects List for more notable installations. A 200-MW solar power plant is being planned at a 2,000-acre site near Warner Robins, Georgia, a project that at present would be the largest standalone solar facility in the U.S. Southeast. Georgia Power is building a $5.2 million solar farm on Ga. 17 in the Guyton area – one of three farms statewide meant to allow customers to support the development of solar power.

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