Radiance Solar President James Marlow estimates there's about 700 working solar panel installations in Georgia, some of them from his company.
He wants to install the sun-powered panels in Georgia "to show people solar works here."
He and other entrepreneurs often have to get their business elsewhere, however, because Georgia lacks major economic incentives for large solar projects to make sense.
"We're doing projects out of state because we're forced to," he said.
Marlow and others are hoping a request from Georgia Public Service Commissioner Lauren McDonald is going to make some difference.
McDonald has asked Georgia Power to come up with plans to add large-scale sun-powered projects to its energy mix. Georgia Power right now can buy up to 4.4 megawatts of solar energy -- which is the equivalent of powering 4.4 Super Targets or 1,100 homes. The utility thinks solar has the potential to be cost competitive and is best used during times of the day when electricity use is at its highest.
It's unclear what form Georgia Power's large-scale solar projects will take, but entrepreneurs hope that they send a signal that the state is open for sunshine business.
The United States gets less than 1 percent of its energy from the sun. Yet, other states have aggressive plans to add 100 or 200 megawatts of solar to their energy plate each year. The motivation varies. In some states, electricity is more expensive, so getting it from alternative sources is cheaper. Others want to be greener. Whatever the case, the more ambitious the plans, the more money and jobs that go to that area.
Right now, they aren't coming to Georgia.
"At the end of the day, what drives projects and adoption are the economic benefits, and it's as simple as if you can get a 12-15 percent return, you can do the project, and if you can't, you don't do the projects," said Steve Chiariello, president of Inman Solar. "The state has to come to grips with the fact that it's not about dollars and cents, it's about investing in 30-plus years of clean distributed energy."
McDonald says he gets that. He also has been influenced by a planned 30-megawatt solar project in Social Circle; an Arizona State University study that says Georgia is the third-best state that can benefit from developing sun power; and a visit to North Carolina to look at its sunshine development.
"If North Carolina can do it, we can do it here," McDonald said.
Opinions already differ on how that would happen. North Carolina has a requirement for its investor-owned utilities to get 12.5 percent of their fuel from renewable energy by 2021. Municipal utilities and co-operatives have to get 10 percent of their fuel from renewable sources by 2018.
McDonald isn't a fan of such mandates, called renewable portfolio standards, or RPS.
"You put these fictitious portfolios out there. They look good today, but down the road you can't meet them, and you have a little something on your face," he said. He would consider asking consumers to help back solar project similar to the one in Social Circle via a few-cent increase in their monthly utility bills if it came to that.
Chiariello said if the state is serious about adding significant solar power -- between 5 and 10 percent of the power grid over the next 20 years in his opinion -- then a mandate is the only way.
"That's what we'll require to get to the scale we need," he said.
Some of the answers may come Friday at the Georgia Solar Energy Association Solar Summit. The all-day conference includes state officials, utility executives and members of the military. They will discuss what's needed to add more solar power in Georgia and what the barriers are.
"There's still some myths in Georgia that we don't have good sun, that it's more expensive than it is," said Marlow of Radiance Solar. "Educating people about the incentives, what it takes to make solar work. Some of it is the basic, "see it, feel it, touch it."
About the Author
