Baxley City Hall has solar panels, in Appling County, home to nuclear Plant Hatch.
Why?
The solar installation will
generate most during the most expensive electrical power times of the day;
it will pay for itself in ten years,
and it’s lower power bills from then on.
Baxley City Council approved the project unanimously in December,
to be paid for out of reserves with no financing,
and the solar system is already installed and working.
Any local city or county hereabouts could do the same thing.

Renee O’Quinn wrote for the Baxley News-Banner 19 December 2012,

City approves installation of solar panels at City Hall,

The Baxley City Council held discussions about the installation of
solar panels at City Hall at the regular meeting held Dec. 11. Mayor
Rigdon presented pictures of a building with solar panels and stated
that he and the city manager have been meeting with representatives
of Hannah Solar about potential savings to power bills if they went
with solar panels.

Mayor Steve Rigdon stated this is a direction I would like to go in.
The total cost $112,533.00, and will pay for itself in ten years
based on Kilowatt hours used and basically have a very little
utility bill.

Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Esco Hall, Jr. made a motion to proceed with
installing the solar panels at City Hall and to pay for it out of
reserves. This motion was seconded by Councilman Kenneth Waithe and
approved unanimously.

Manager Jeff Baxley explained that Hannah Solar is interested in a
public/private partnership with the City and lease five acres of
land. They would use this land to harvest power to sell megawatt
back to Georgia Power.

The council also approved for Attorney Alex Johnson to negotiate the
proposed lease terms with Hannah Solar.

Renee O’Quinn wrote for the Baxley News-Banner 10 April 2013,

Baxley City Hall going green with Solar Power,

As cities, businesses and farms are looking for more ways to save
money on their power bills and are coming up with ways to generate
more revenue going solar is becoming more popular. Why solar power?
It reduces environmental impact, is reliable, low maintenance and
provides long-term solutions for energy.

At a December Baxley City Council meeting the Council voted
unanimously to go with sustainable energy and have solar panels
installed at City Hall to offset the cost of the power bill. For
weeks now Hannah Solar has been working on installing the solar
panels on the roof of City Hall. The solar power will only be used
to offset the power bill; not to sell it.

It should be online and generating power by April 10. The cost of
the solar panel project is $112,533.00, and will be paid for with
reserves, (not financed), when the contract is complete. Based on
the Kilowatt-hours generated, the project will pay for itself in ten
years. There 180 panels equal to 250 watts of power per panel. It
will not store energy. On sunny days it will generate energy and on
cloudy days it will not. The solar panels will require routine
cleaning with a squeegee.

As the sunlight hits the panels it creates direct current (DC)
electricity. Inverters are necessary and four were installed at City
Hall. The inverters convert the direct current to alternate current
(AC) which is used to power City Hall, or solar to the power
company. Monitoring of the solar production can also be accessed
online.

Future solar power projects for the City of Baxley may include the
Public Works building or the airport.

We have an airport with lots of space that can’t be used for anything else….

-jsq