A ribbon cutting for 30+ MW of solar power in Social Circle, Georgia,
with no media coverage,

other than a Georgia Power docket update buried at GA PSC.
Claudia Musleve Collier says she made this first quote from email to her,
and wants it shared.

Bryan Casey, with Greenavations Power sent me these photos of the
recent [13 May 2014] ribbon cutting of their 38 MW solar project in middle
Georgia[, Simon Solar in Social Circle].
PSC “Bubba” McDonald was present to flip the switch!

Bryan writes: “You are looking at $8M in annual guaranteed cash
flow-20 year PPA w/ GA Power. Who says there isn’t a pot of gold
under the rainbow? The GA Power Advanced Solar Initiative (ASI) is
Simon Solar (25X)! $1.7B in Georgia Economic Development, 50,000
tons of steel, 3M Solar Panels, 25,000 jobs++. Solar charging the GA
Economy. These conservative clean energy initiatives have taken
Georgia from 38th in the Country to #5 in solar energy development
in the US.”

“Clean, reliable, cost effective, peak demand energy for $8 cents
per kWh for the next 50+ years (“ALL IN”)! No negative
health or environmental externalities! No fuel cost ever! No State
or rate payer incentives required in GA. Permanent downward pressure
on GA electric rates. Clean, cost effective, reliable renewable
energy = Priceless!!”

View Larger Map

“Notice at the Ribbon Cutting — NO MEDIA- GA Power controlled
the invite list they did not want media coverage. GA Power/ SO does
not want Consumers/ Rate Payers to know how inexpensive solar has
become!! GA Power did not announce the first round of ASI deliver
50MW of clean solar energy at an “ALL IN” cost
of $.085 cents per kWh for the next 20 years, nor did they
announce that this round for ASI RFP for 495MW of large scale solar
bids were submitted on May 4th will come in under $.08 cents per KWh
“ALL IN”!! They do not want rate payers to know Solar
has passed Grid Parity it is now cheaper than any conventional form
of electricity, especially if you include environmental compliance
and Nuclear whip charges in GA !!”

Presumably he meant the nuclear CWIP or
Construction Work in Progress
that lets Georgia Power

raise rates (they have it for “natural” gas, too),
without which Georgia Power wouldn’t
be involved in
that

big-bet boondoggle

gamble on nuclear instead of solar, and remember,

they can charge you even if it’s cancelled!

Meanwhile Georgia Solar Utilities Inc. post on its facebook page 30 January 2013

Simon Solar Farm Time Lapse,

The monumental project that the Executives of Georgia Solar
Utilities (GaSU) tweaked and re-tweaked, until finally proving to
Regulators and the Utilities that solar CAN be deployed in Georgia
using NO state or ratepayer subsidies and cause NO upward pressure
on electric rates is finally installed. From a simple dream of a
Nashville music producer hoping for a 20MW project, GaSU Executives
turned it into a massive 30MW reality that established the baseline
economics used for all the new solar since in Georgia and a proud
moment for Commissioner Lauren W. “Bubba” McDonald, Jr.,
Commissioner Everett, Commissioner Echols and Commissioner Eaton!

The YouTube description reads in part:

Published on Jan 22, 2014

Phoenix Solar Inc. was the responsible EPC contractor for planning
and executing this 38.6 MWp Solar Power Plant in Social Circle, GA.
The system is owned by the developer and IPP Silicon Ranch
Corp.—A Nashville based developer and independent power
producer.

Here’s

a flyover video, with a description including:

The idea began in fall 2010 with Steve Ivey developing the concept
and then presenting in February 2011 to the Georgia Public Service
Commission, Governor Deal, Georgia Power, and Walton County
Commissioners. This 30 MW project has moved GA from being almost at
the bottom of clean solar energy development to one of the top
states.

“I have picked up where my Grandfather Simons left off and am
farming again on the land” said Steve Ivey, the project’s creator.
“It is the exact same concept — using the sun to make a crop.
Grandaddy’s crop was cotton and my crop is clean energy.”

Georgia Power does mention this project and this ribbon cutting
in its 15 May 2014

Update to the Renewable Resource Action Plan and Time Table
in
Georgia Public Service Commission
Docket # 24505

Georgia Power’s 2007 Application for Approval of an Integrated Resource Plan
(PDF:

In July of 2011, the Georgia Public Service Commission
(“GPSC” or the “Commission”) approved
Georgia Power Company’s (“Georgia Power” or the
“Company”) plan to purchase energy from up to 50
megawatts (“MW”) of solar capacity; this program is
referred to as the Large Scale Solar program (“LSS”).
The Company signed 20-year power purchase agreements
(“PPAs”) in December 2011 for 49 MW of solar energy with
two developers. Simon Solar Farm, LLC was contracted to build a 30
MW project near Social Circle, Georgia, and Solar Design and
Development, LLC (“SDD”) was contracted to build solar
projects totaling 19 MW on sites in Mitchell and Meriwether
counties.¹ The Simon Solar Farm, now owned
and operated by Silicon Ranch Corporation, became commercially
operational in mid-December 2013, ahead of schedule, and hosted a
ribbon cutting ceremony on May 13, 2014. Origis Energy, as the new
owner of the SDD facilities, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on
February 11, 2014 at the Camilla (Mitchell County) site, where the
16 MW facility went into commercial operation shortly thereafter. A
second SDD site, the 3 MW Camp site located in Meriwether County,
was commercially operational as of December 2013. The Simon Solar
Farm and Origis solar facilities will sell output as qualifying
facilities until the LSS program’s required Commercial Operation
Date (“COD”) of June 1, 2015.

¹
Solar Design and Development, LLC sold the Facility and
transferred the applicable LSS PPAs to Origis Energy, a transaction
that was approved by the GPSC on March 12, 2013.

This same update included a copy of the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
with the U.S. Army for

the three Georgia Power 30 MW solar projects on Army bases in Georgia.
Neither those Army solar projects nor this Simon Solar project were
part of

the 525 MW more solar power GA PSC required of Georgia Power last summer.
All these Army and Social Circle projects are just Georgia Power finally
getting around to satisfying its 2007 IRP.
Which is good, but not enough.
It should be doubling its amount of solar power each year if it wants
to even stop falling further behind California in solar deployments.
A year after I pointed out to Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers
and Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning at the SO stockholder meeting
last year that

Georgia didn’t have as much solar power as the
1,000 megawatts already deployed by smaller New Jersey,
it still doesn’t.
At this year’s Southern Company meeting there were
slight changes such as a display solar car charging station,
nobody sneered at solar as a “niche play”,
and Fanning said SO was involved in two energy storage development projects.
So maybe mighty SO and Georgia Power will really get going on solar power soon.

-jsq