Solar Energy Procurement Agreement Georgia

Solarize Atlanta is a community solar buying campaign that makes solar energy more affordable and accessible for Atlanta residents. Solarize campaigns harness the power of the crowd to save a lot of greenery while homes and businesses go green. Cherry Street will install more than 15,000 photovoltaic solar panels on the roofs of buildings and parking garages across Emory as part of a Solar Power Supply Agreement (SEPA), an agreement that became legal in Georgia in 2015 and allows a private investor to install, own and maintain solar panels, Emory buying electricity at lower prices than the utility charges. Under SEPA, Emory incurs no upfront costs. Construction will begin in May. In addition, the solar market in Georgia could be affected by local efforts to use more clean energy, such as .B the city of Atlanta`s 100% clean energy plan, Clean Energy Atlanta. Finally, battery storage has the potential to significantly expand the rooftop solar energy market by allowing locally produced solar energy to be consumed during periods when the sun is not shining. In Solarize Dunwoody, which ended in April 2018, 62.5% of private customers bought storage for their home in addition to solar power. Current campaigns are on track to match or exceed this number: 66% of Solarize Atlanta`s residential customers have signed up to purchase storage in addition to their solar assets; 75% of Solarize Carrollton-Carroll`s retail customers did the same (July 5, 2018 data, obtained from Solar Crowdsource). These three variables – electricity prices, municipal efforts, and battery storage – will have a huge impact on Georgia`s rooftop solar market in the coming years, as will the leadership that nonprofits, religious communities, low-income housing developers, and all Georgians are taking in the pursuit of a clean energy future that includes solar energy.

Southface expected SEPA`s suppliers to focus on commercial customers and launched the Solar for Underserved Markets initiative to help nonprofits, religious communities, and low-income apartment developers reap the benefits of the new law. In 2016, however, continuous monitoring of solar systems for www.GeorgiaEnergyData.org shown that the entire roofing market in Georgia was underserved. As a result, the initiative developed around solar panels on the roofs of residential buildings. Below is an update on residential, commercial non-profit, and low-income buildings, as well as a perspective on the challenges and opportunities for rooftop solar systems in Georgia. Southface is not aware of any non-municipal non-profit organization that has used SEPA. Thanks to Southface`s charitable efforts, particularly the Grants To Green program, some nonprofits have recently acquired solar systems. Southface`s Solar for Georgia`s Nonprofits white paper and this 2017 article on thought leadership on the potential of PPS for municipalities both discuss this in detail. Southface hopes that in 2019, SPAEs will expand beyond municipal customers to the nonprofit sector and religious communities. “This is a critical step for Emory to achieve its Sustainability Goals and reaffirms its commitment to generate at least 10% of the energy on campus through clean energy alternatives such as solar and to advance our 100% clean energy efforts in partnership with the City of Atlanta by 2035,” said Ciannat Howett, Associate Vice President of Resilience. Sustainability and economic inclusion at Emory.

“Through this project, Emory will have one of the largest on-site solar energy deployments at a college in the Southeast.” The investment supports Emory`s recently revised greenhouse gas emissions targets, which now reflect the latest scientific evidence from the United Nations` Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which calls for a 45% reduction by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. In addition, thanks to innovative financing methods, there are no capital commitments resulting from the leverage effect of Emory`s future energy expenditures. Since the launch of Solarize Tybee in 2015, the first Solarize campaign in Georgia, about 50% of all solar panels in the state have been installed as part of a Solarize campaign. This highlights the high demand for solar systems on residential rooftops in Georgia. In the future, the private customer will need more information about the benefits of solar energy and optimized permits. A continued decline in the price of solar systems, such as that provided by Solarize campaigns, will also help move the market. In 2015, the unanimous adoption of the Law on Financing the Free Market of Solar Energy delighted Georgia`s solar energy advocates. This law allows a third-party solar company to finance and own a solar system on a property and sell the solar energy generated by the solar system to the owner of that property through a solar energy supply agreement (SEPA), theoretically at a lower price than the electricity purchased by the utility. Georgia`s solar capacity ranked second in the southeast in 2017. Ninety-five percent of this capacity is utility solar farms, while only 5 percent is on rooftops. Although Georgia has the potential to be a national leader in rooftop solar power, this market is struggling for a number of reasons. This article discusses the challenges and opportunities facing the underserved rooftop solar energy market in Georgia in 2018 and 2019.

To reinforce Emory`s commitment to economic inclusion, the installation of solar panels is being conducted as part of a workforce development program recently launched by Cherry Street Energy. Shine On is a family of programs that help workers gain the experience and education they need to pursue a career in solar installation. Emory`s solar systems will provide significant opportunities to gain the skills needed to work with cutting-edge solar technologies. “Various Emory rooftops and parking decks will soon house a number of photovoltaic panels that will transform our campus into a major clean energy site that supports Emory`s carbon commitment,” said Robin Morey, Vice President of Campus Services and Director of Planning at Emory University. “This transformation project supports Emory`s commitment to fighting climate change and building a resilient and sustainable future.” The Peavine parking decks are one of 16 buildings on campus currently reserved for the installation of solar panels. Courtesy of Cherry Street Energy. The 30% federal income tax credit provides commercial property owners with a significant incentive to install solar panels. However, this incentive is not available to not-for-profit organizations because they do not pay federal income tax.

Many nonprofits do not have the financial capacity to absorb the initial cost of purchasing and installing a system. .