Georgia Power to Build Its “Largest Ever” Solar Farm in Warner Robins
With Plant Vogtle on the eastern side of the state receiving a barrage of bad news and bad press over the past few months, Georgia Power has been looking for something — anything —that could counter all of the negativity and reframe the debate abut clean energy in Georgia. With the announcement Tuesday of an 800 acre solar farm that will contain more than 500,000 solar panels, they may have found it.
The farm is projected to begin construction soon and should provide power for 35 years, beginning in 2019, the projected opening date It will be located close to Robins Air Force Base, and it will have the ability to serve the base directly in times of grid outages.
From WMAZ:
“It is about enhancing the military value of the economic engine of this community and of this state,” says Major General, Robert McMahon.
The 139-megawatt facility will be the largest single solar project ever to be constructed by Georgia Power.
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Holly Croft
Holly is an archivist at one of Georgia's institutions of higher learning. In a past life, she was a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She cares a lot about records management, open records laws, and privacy laws. Political persuasion? It's complicated. What's not complicated is that she's proudly equal parts Bulldog and Tar Heel.
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Warner Robins. “Robbins” would be the Robbins Packing Company in Statesboro, makers of delicious Robbins Hot Dogs, or Robbins Pond, home of the annual Robbins Fishing Rodeo…where I once fell in.
Thanks, John! Should be fixed.
Vogtle is only part of Southern Companies woes. Mississippi Power’s Kemper Plant is struggling too. Southern Company has a long history of good management—I hope they can recover.
The facility will be built on land so close to Robins runways that it’s not much use for anything else. Locals also think they might have BRAC-proofed Robins.
http://www.macon.com/opinion/editorials/article151147417.html
Do we get to pay in advance for construction of this one as well? It isn’t just Southern Company’s stockholders taking it in the shorts on the Plant Vogtle venture as much as it is Georgia Power’s customers. Who knows now how many years courtesy of the PSC that the rate payers will get to pay the venture capital for nebulous promises of future electricity.
Many of Southern Company’s past efficiencies were predicated upon their being allowed by southern states to be the highest generator of airborne carbon in the US for years. While I realize the additions to Vogtle were one of the answers to the coal dependency I still don’t think it is fair for our politicians to force the customers to assume the risk of their business decision to go nuclear.
The pre-payment, and the exemption of Georgia Power’s largest customers from pre-payment, are peeves of mine too. I’ll have pre-paid $1,000+ toward the plant over a longer term than the time I’ll probably be alive after the plant goes on line. Meanwhile large corporate that never die are the largest beneficiaries.
Carbon dioxide’s adverse effects were not understood when large coal-fired plants were constructed half a century ago. Georgia Power for its part has done a respectable job in converting to natural gas—helped of course by plentiful and low-priced natural gas and regulation.