Georgia has no mandate to require power companies to add renewable energy and has not made climate change a political priority. Solar energy is growing there anyway.
The state went from having virtually no solar industry a decade ago to being ranked ninth nationally in installed solar capacity this year, according to the Association of Solar Energy Industries. Solar has flourished in Georgia as technology companies like Facebook Inc. they seek to locate facilities near cheap renewable energy sources and rural communities turn to solar farms to create tax revenue and jobs.
Much of the initial accumulation of solar and wind power in the U.S. over the past three decades was driven by mandates in states such as Iowa, California, Colorado, and New York that required utility companies to obtain a certain amount. from renewable sources. But now wind and solar power are gaining market share even in states without these requirements, as the Georgia experience shows.
Republican regulators have pushed the state’s largest utility, Southern Co.’s subsidiary Georgia Power, to invest in solar energy, saying economic factors make it an attractive source of energy beyond its free features. of carbon.
“Don’t come into my office talking about climate change or the environment,” said Tim Echols, who has served over the past decade on the elected and Republican utility commission that regulates investor-owned utilities. the state. “You talk about new jobs, you talk about low-cost power, you talk about reducing transmission lines,” he said. “Learn to speak Republican here.”