Calhoun Utilities announces solar project
Students at Calhoun City Schools will soon have the opportunity to learn about solar power through a partnership between the school system and Calhoun Utilities.
The partnership is made possible by a 50-50 grant obtained from Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division and the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, according to Utilities Director Larry Vickery, who announced the grant at a recent City Council meeting. He said the grant would match up to a $100,000 investment in solar energy to be used in partnership with the schools in our local area.
“We got in early, got some of the technology together and ball-parked some estimates and designs for panels, and then we got commitment from Calhoun schools to support it,” Vickery said of the process for obtaining the grant.
The plan is to install fixed solar panels out in the grassy area in front of the Utility Operations building. Using fixed panels rather than panels that move to track the sun in its different positions is more cost-effective and will produce nearly identical results, Vickery said, estimating that fixed panels are around “80 to 90%” as productive as their tracking counterparts.
Students will visit the operations building monthly to help with readings, metering and managing the panels. They will first be given demonstrations and taught lessons on “how solar energy works and the electric conversion that takes place from solar through both chemical and other processes that produce an output from the panels themselves.”
“For a small town, this is a really big education tool. Of course, what production we get out of it will go toward our electric system. We have a not-for-profit system, so this will be one of our new resources. The community will benefit from it in that respect,” Vickery said.
Power produced by the panels will go back into the city utility system and students will be active participants in “helping with readings, metering and managing” them, he said. The panels will also be used for demonstrations and to gather data for how much solar energy can be produced in this area during the different seasons, something important in determining how much the city invests in solar in the future.
Under the grant requirements, the panels must be installed and ready to go by Sept. 30.
Vickery said the city currently has a nonbinding commitment on a “much larger utility-related program” that will provide solar energy to some of the larger employers in the Calhoun area, like Walmart and Shaw Industries, who have previously expressed interest in pursuing environmentally-friendly energy options.
“We’ll be confirming that as the year goes on and that project gets firmed up,” Vickery said. “We made the initial nonbinding commitment in January through the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia.”
The authority is in the process of taking bids on utility-grade solar projects that are larger, typically producing anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 KW. Should Calhoun continue its commitment, the city would only be one of many participants in such a program.
In addition to solar energy, Calhoun Utilities does have an interest in nuclear power through its contract with the Vogtle nuclear power plant.
“Solar seems to be the thing that is viewed as the environmental thing to do. Well, we have a very large commitment to nuclear power, which is non-emitting and doesn’t have any carbon issues,” Vickery said. “It will be there for 60 years whereas solar panels typically last 10 to 15 years before you have to upgrade or replace the panels.”