More than 700 people in the Athens area signed up for an evaluation of their homes or businesses as potential sites for solar energy installations under the Solarize Athens bulk-purchasing program, according to the program’s sponsors.

Source: Solarize Athens ends, 18 solar energy systems installed with more to come | Online Athens

A groundbreaking ceremony Thursday kicked off construction of a 150-acre solar farm on the Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany that will generate up to 44 megawatts of power. Once completed, the $75 million facility is expected to be one of the state’s largest solar installations. Some 138,000 southwest-facing fixed panels planned for the site could power up to 5,000 homes.

Source: Work begins on 150-acre Georgia Power solar farm – Atlanta Business Chronicle

Albany in southwest Georgia is in a state of transition these days — from old power to new power. Thursday, Georgia Power broke ground on a solar power farm near Albany that will deliver 31 megawatts of power — enough to supply roughly 5,000 homes .Meanwhile, the Atlanta utility shut down part of a 52-year-old coal- and oil-fired plant near Albany last year, and plans to shut down the rest of it if state regulators approve its decommissioning.

Source: Old power gives way to new power in south Georgia | www.ajc.com

3/29/16—Farmland has become fertile territory for clean energy, as solar and wind developers in North America, Europe and Asia seek more flat, treeless expanses to build. That’s also been a boon for struggling U.S. family farms that must contend with floundering commodity prices.

Source: Harvesting Sunshine More Lucrative Than Crops at Some U.S. Farms – Bloomberg

3/18/16—The sun may be starting to shine on solar as a viable alternative energy, but cost and scale continue to be issues, according to a panel brought together Thursday night in Winterville to discuss the solar energy industry.

Source: Solar energy on cusp of real success in Georgia, panelists say

1/26/16—The south could become the hotbed of the solar industry over the next six to twelve months if all goes as planned in Georgia.

Source: Solar’s Southern Strategy Could Accelerate With Georgia Deal – Forbes

1/1/2016—As homeowners embrace solar, utilities are making less money, and that’s shaking up their business model. Companies in California and Georgia are handling the growth in dramatically different ways.

Source: Like Night And Day: How Utilities In California And Georgia Approach Solar : NPR

12/7/15—Georgia only pulls a fraction of a percent of its electric energy from solar power. Despite a boom in the industry that installs panels on rooftops of offices and homes — and even in fields in rural Georgia — and a slow trickle of legislation that has made it easier to tap the renewable resource, solar power is not where it could — or should — be in the state. Strong utility interests (some of whom are slowly coming around) and complex qualms over dollars and cents in the past have hindered real progress. But the push for clean energy has finally started to gain traction.

Source: Glimmers of a brighter, more solar-powered Georgia | Atlanta News & Opinion Blog | Fresh Loaf | Creative Loafing Atlanta

11/23/15—The city of Atlanta plans to install solar panels on the roofs of 28 municipal buildings. Once the panels are installed, the buildings, which belong to the fire, police and parks departments, will be able to generate up to 40 percent of their own electricity, Mayor Kasim Reed said.

Source: Atlanta Plans To Add Solar Panels To 28 City Buildings | WABE 90.1 FM

10/23/15—Georgia solar installers won a major victory this year when the General Assembly unanimously passed legislation letting them offer third-party financing to make solar panels more affordable.

But with the new law now more than three months old, installers and other solar energy advocates say Georgia Power Co. is under-compensating property owners for the electricity their panels are producing, discouraging the small-scale solar projects at the heart of the installers’ businesses.

“Georgia Power clearly has a preference for large-scale utility solar,” said Jason Rooks, director of government affairs for the Georgia Solar Energy Industries Association. “We need to put some focus on distributed generation because there are benefits to those electrons.”

Source: Solar installers battling threat to small-scale projects – Atlanta Business Chronicle