EMC’s with Net MeteringĮlectric Membership Corporations throughout Georgia offer different net metering programs. Georgia Power is the only utility that currently pays the avoided cost for excess energy on a monthly basis. The utility, which historically has bought back electricity for as little as $0.035 per kilowatt, will now be offering buy back rates for electricity closer to retail price for the next 5,000 customers. This will account for 32 MW of new approved solar installations. The utility, which currently has only 1,000 solar rooftops feeding into the grid, has offered 5,000 new residential net metering contracts on a first come first serve basis. In late 2019, Georgia Power made a very exciting announcement. Please contact us for completely up to date policy for your utility. This information may not be 100% accurate as it is subject to change. Currently, the only Electric Mempership Corporation that will not purchase extra solar in any capacity is Three Notch EMC. Which Georgia Utilities buy back solar energy?īelow we will outline the different utilities in our service area in Georgia and their policies to buy back excess electricity produced by solar panels. With this being said, your decision to go solar in Georgia in 2020 may be largely influenced by your electric utility and the contract you sign with them. This is not uncommon, as only roughly 17 states require net metering to be used by electric utilities. What are the Net Metering Laws in Georgia for Solar Power?Īt the state level in Georgia, there is currently no law requiring net metering policy to be adopted by utilities. The decision to allow net metering comes down to the state and utility level. Net metering is an electricity billing system that allows renewable energy owners to sell back their excess power to the grid. On the residential side of things, the decision to go solar comes down a bit more to dollars and cents, with net metering playing a big part. Large installations like these helped drastically reduce the cost per watt of electricity for business owners that use enormous amounts of power. This is largely in part due to utility scale solar panel installations from the Facebook data centers in the north to peanut, corn, and cotton farms in the South.
Solar is a relatively new industry in Georgia, but it actually ranked as the 9th highest solar powered state back in 2017.