With costs down, government subsidies up and an expanded solar buy-back program recently approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission, solar is becoming a more attractive alternative here, presenters at the Southern Solar Summit said Wednesday.
Sponsored by the nonprofit Georgia Solar Energy Association, the first-ever summit attracted more than 100 solar installers, government agency officials, real estate professionals and others to two panel discussions. The summit preceded the ongoing Georgia Environmental Conference at the Hyatt Regency Savannah.
Tom Lane, founder of the Gainesville, Fla.-based ECS Solar Energy Systems, promotes solar hot water systems, which his company installs. They're relatively compact on the roof, covering less than 100 square feet, and they quickly recoup their installation costs in energy savings. His rule of thumb is to look at your lowest electric bills of the year, typically in the spring and fall when heating and air conditioning is least used. Half of that bill is likely the monthly cost of water heating, he said.
That cost savings is typically greater than the monthly payment on a loan for a solar water heater. Plus, the installation increases home equity.
"It's costing you money not to do it," Lane said.
Other places where the sun shines less intensely and less frequently than in Georgia, such as New Jersey and Germany, have already tapped into the sun much more.
In large part, that's because of government mandates. New Jersey, for example, requires utilities to produce 22.5 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, at least 2 percent of which must come from solar sources. Georgia and most of the South have no such requirements.
Such government policies are what's required to make solar competitive with coal and nuclear-generated electricity, said Ervan Hancock, manager of renewable generation Southern Company, the parent of Georgia Power.
Under direction from the Public Service Commission, Georgia Power will soon triple the capacity of a program that buys back solar power from producers.
The program is required to be revenue neutral, meaning the cost of the solar Georgia Power buys is offset by customers who pay a premium for green power. Currently, only about 4,400 customers buy green.
"We're reassessing the marketing campaign to get those numbers up," he said.
In the Southeast, Hancock said, it costs six times more to produce electricity with solar than with existing coal and nuclear.
That won't always be the case, argued Ross Harding, managing partner of Energy Launch Partners LLC. Installing solar panels, either on a residential or larger scale, is a 20-30 year investment, he said. Over the next decade, traditional power sources are poised to see costs double while the sun will keep shining for free.
"Ten years from now, if you don't do (solar), you're going to be really disadvantaged," he said.