Georgia Power recently released a new solar energy program to replace its Green Energy program which it retired in late 2016. The Green Energy program had people support renewable energy by paying a premium price to have Georgia Power purchase green energy into their mix of energy production. The base of the green energy program went into biofuels and biogas. There was an additional fee you could pay to guarantee new solar being implemented in Georgia. Many Georgians participated in this program. For solar proponents, this was a way to support new solar in Georgia because the Public Service Commission was persuaded that the extra opt-in money to be meaningful to local solar development.
In December of 2016, Georgia Power released its new program called Simple Solar. On , they list what this extra penny per kilowatt hour (kWH) will be spent on and its benefits.
Benefits of Georgia Power's Simple Solar program include:
- Supporting Georgia's solar growth and economy
- Providing greater flexibility in utilizing solar
- Helping your business and improving relationships with your customers, employees and the local community
- Improving our environment by supporting the reduction of emissions from fossil fuels
- Utilizing Green-e Energy certified renewable energy credits (RECs)
Southeast Green contacted Georgia Power and spoke with a solar specialist in the solar department. Southeast Green informed him that we were writing a blog on this topic. He was very helpful in explaining the program further.
Dissecting the benefits listed on the site:
Supporting Georgia’s solar growth and economy. We asked the Georgia Power representative if the money being spent on RECs would only be in Georgia. He stated that the goal of the program is to purchase solar RECs in Georgia but there was no guarantee that they would be in Georgia. Also, RECs do not have to be from new solar installations. I t could be a solar installation that is 10 years old. If there is no guarantee then how does that reflect growth and solar support in Georgia?
Providing greater flexibility in utilizing solar. Allowing Georgia Power to purchase RECs from anywhere gives them greater flexibility on where and how they are spent, but how does that benefit Georgia’s ratepayers, economy or solar growth?
Helping your business and improving relationships with your customers, employees and the local community. If the purchasing of RECs can be anywhere then how does that help any of the stakeholders being listed? If the RECs are from California where the bulk of solar is, then how does your employee benefit from that? Coal and natural gas will still be burned to produce electricity here in Georgia. There was a word that was used a lot when the sustainability community really took off. It was called Greenwashing. This is what this statement means, pure and simple. Solar generated in California or the Southwest has no direct benefit to your employees or local community. In regards to your company? It will probably reflect poorly on your company because anyone who understands the deflated RECs market understands that this does not directly affect Georgians. Let us sink deep in our collective Southern roots, Simple Solar is putting lipstick on a pig. If companies want to invest in their community and their employees, then they should install solar here at their location in Georgia. That action supports local jobs, cleaner air, and the community’s health.
Improving our environment by supporting the reduction of emissions from fossil fuels. But probably not here in Georgia. There is not a large enough RECs market here in Georgia to offset any kind of long-term pollution from burning fossil fuels as the proposed by the Simple Solar program, especially since the RECs cannot be used on Georgia Power’s own deflated RECs. The fact that Georgia Power cannot use the money to offset their own RECs is the one shiny spot, pun intended, of the program. However, there is a long-term effect of which if enough people enroll, it could elevate the market, therefore, making Georgia Power’s RECs have a higher value. Since there is still a REC market out there, one could make the argument that if Georgia Power buys a large amount of RECs creating more demand than their own RECs become more valuable. That is a smart move indeed for their business but still does not put more solar in Georgia and it certainly does not reduce emissions in Georgia from fossil fuels.
Utilizing Green-e Energy certified renewable energy credits (RECs). There is nothing wrong with RECs. Given the right market support, RECs can be an extremely viable asset to help the overall reduction of carbon. However, every expert Southeast Green spoke to about the current REC market used the term deflated. So this is a cheap way to look like Georgia Power is doing something to support solar but is more like checking off a box instead of supporting direct solar.
Deconstructing Simple Solar a bit further. On its surface, Simple Solar seems like a simple way to support solar in Georgia, but as the representative from Georgia Power confirmed, Simple Solar does not guarantee new solar or local Georgia solar. He also confirmed that Georgia Power has no intention to do new solar development.
If ratepayers want more solar in Georgia then they need to look at other ways to support solar in Georgia. They can support organizations who are working on solar: , , , , or . They can lobby their local governments to deploy more solar in their communities, especially their schools which normally have ideal roofs for solar or invite a Solarize program to their community, but don’t support a program that simply isn’t solar.
