Q: Why wasn’t the Georgia Dome implosion sprayed with water to keep the dust cloud down, which in turn reduces pollution?
—Alan Evans, Marietta
A: The site was being sprayed with water before and during the implosion event to reduce dust as much as possible, a spokeswoman for the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) told Q&A on the News via email. This is standard protocol for all implosions.
Spraying or misting the structure with water only provides a nominal improvement on resulting dust, as the majority of that comes from the newly exposed concrete inside the structure, according to the GWCCA.
Q: There are acres of solar panels along Highway 96 west of Butler. Who owns these panels? Are there other similar large solar arrays in Georgia?
—Tim Eastling, Atlanta
A: The solar panels visible from Highway 96 in west central Georgia are part of the Pawpaw Solar Facility, a 416-acre energy field owned by Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co. Southern Power purchased the 30-megawatt Taylor County facility from Longview Solar LLC in 2015.
In total, the state of Georgia has 176 utility-scale solar farms — which, according to Don Moreland, chair of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, describes any facility of 5 acres or larger that sells 100 percent of its energy back to the grid.
Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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