• Home
  • About
  • Action
  • Calendar
  • News
    • Newsletter
    • Blog
    • 2024 Annual Report
  • Connect
    • Give
    • Sponsor
    • Join
    • Students
  • Resources
  • Media
    • Virtual Events
    • Monthly Member Learning
    • Conversations
    • Sustainable Stories
    • Earth Day 2021
SUSTAINABLE NEWTON
  • Home
  • About
  • Action
  • Calendar
  • News
    • Newsletter
    • Blog
    • 2024 Annual Report
  • Connect
    • Give
    • Sponsor
    • Join
    • Students
  • Resources
  • Media
    • Virtual Events
    • Monthly Member Learning
    • Conversations
    • Sustainable Stories
    • Earth Day 2021

Covington, Oxford Commit to Solar

8/3/2021

6 Comments

 
By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton President
Picture
In regularly scheduled meetings Monday night, the city councils of Covington and Oxford each voted to approve solar power purchase contracts (SPPCs) with the Municipal Electric Association of Georgia (MEAG).  Covington will purchase up to 15 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity through MEAG's 80 MW solar initiative scheduled to come online in 2023.  Oxford will commit to 4 MW.

This initiative marks the first time MEAG has included a utility-scale solar offering in its power portfolio.  The association -- which serves 49 municipal electric companies in Georgia -- will contract with a third party vendor to construct and operate an 80 MW solar farm in south Georgia.  MEAG will resell the solar-sourced electricity (and associated renewable energy credits) to cities participating in the project.

The actual capacity Covington and Oxford receive will depend on the total purchase commitments received from all eligible municipal electric companies.  If requests exceed the 80 MW capacity of the project, then each interested city will receive a reduced allocation based on  their percentage of the total requested.

In presenting the MEAG proposal to City Council Monday night, Covington Electric Director Joel Smith positioned the solar opportunity as an important step for achieving the city's goal of 90% emissions-free electricity by 2045.  According to Smith, Covington plans sell the new solar capacity exclusively to large industrial customers via a Renewable Energy Customer Agreement (RECA), giving those large customers the opportunity to meet sustainability objectives and comply with corporate mandates.  One existing Covington customer has already expressed interest in purchasing 50% of Covington's solar capacity under the agreement.

Oxford plans to add the additional electricity to their grid, serving all customers.

Sustainable Newton supporters may recall our MEAG cities (Covington, Oxford, and Mansfield) posed special challenges during our 2019-20 Solarize Newton-Morgan campaign -- due to the standby capacity fee MEAG encouraged those cities to adopt as a hedge against revenue loss from rooftop solar.  The Oxford City Council ultimately voted to rescind their standby fee, and Covington voted to reduce (but not eliminate) theirs. 

In 2019, MEAG had no publicly announced plans for a solar, and you could not even find the word "solar" anywhere on their website.  These solar power purchase contracts with MEAG are a very big step forward in just two short years.

Sustainable Newton remains committed to working with local officials in each of our cities to remove barriers to rooftop solar and to even provide incentives (such as net metering, time of use rate plans, etc.).  But, rooftop solar alone will not reduce greenhouse gas emission sufficiently to address the climate crisis.  We've aligned our climate action plans with Drawdown Georgia, and utility-scale solar is a big part of that plan.

For the Electricity solution sector, Drawdown Georgia has set the following statewide targets for 2030:
  • For Rooftop Solar:  295,000 new 5 kW solar roofs.
  • For Large-Scale Solar:  10 additional 100 MW utility-scale solar installations and 36 additional 5 MW community solar installations.
Putting last night's votes into perspective, the MEAG solar offering is 80% of one of those utility-scale installations.  And the combined 19 MW purchase by Covington and Oxford represents 2% of the additional utility-scale capacity assumed by Drawdown Georgia in their solution scenarios.

During our solarize campaign, consultants estimated the 85 kW of rooftop solar installed through the campaign would mean 159,460 pounds less carbon being emitted into the atmosphere each year.  Extrapolating that formula, 19 MW of utility-scale solar will result in roughly 35.6 million pounds (or 16,202 metric tons) less carbon emissions annually from electricity generation for our two cities.  This stuff adds up!

We are grateful to MEAG for taking this important initiative and proud of our elected officials and city staffs in Covington and Oxford for stepping up in a big way!  May this only be the beginning of even bigger things to come!!

6 Comments
Jennifer Tucker
8/4/2021 06:37:00 am

Thank you for sharing, this is a huge step forward! I look forward to more State incentives and approvals for residential rooftop solar solutions. Many products have come out that look like traditional shingles, tested in CA and FL with great results.

Reply
Maurice Carter link
8/4/2021 07:58:53 am

Thanks for reading and commenting, Jennifer. Yes, this is a huge step! And we do need more state incentives for solar and for electric vehicles, but it is great to see the marketplace moving forward regardless. (And the 26% federal income tax credit is still a big help.)

I understand seven residential solar installations were approved at the last Newton County Planning Commission meeting (and five at the meeting before that), so we are seeing progress in our area.

Reply
Susan
8/9/2021 12:50:42 am

This is wonderful! Keep moving forward with this and more solar and/or wind!

Reply
Maurice Carter
8/9/2021 07:44:56 am

Thanks for reading, Susan. And thanks for the support!

Reply
Nadia Sawicki
8/14/2021 03:11:16 pm

This is extremely impressive! I would be interested in more detail about how this was achieved. Could you make almost a blueprint for other city councils particularly those who are also working with MEAG? What were the major steps and biggest roadblocks? Any insight on how such pressure could be applied to Georgia Power, whose solar offerings appear pretty pitiful? I'm very curious to know more so that I can advocate for this more effectively in the Atlanta area. Thanks for sharing this and for all the work you have done.

Reply
Maurice Carter
8/14/2021 03:56:19 pm

The most essential element is definitely perseverance. If at first you don't succeed...

But, also, establishing an ongoing dialog around sustainability with officials in both cities was crucial. By setting broader goals in multiple areas (land use, solid waste, water, transportation, electricity, etc.), renewable energy becomes just another opportunity vs. a contentious challenge. Oxford has a Sustainable Oxford citizens' committee chartered by the city council. In Covington Sustainable Newton is part of a sustainability working group with department heads of the city.

And, lastly, being realistic about and sensitive to the challenges from the city/utility's perspective. Because MEAG city's typically use electric sales revenue to cover general government expenses, rooftop solar can be a hard sell. It's definitely an unwelcome challenge when viewed solely from an economic standpoint. But, build support for sustainability goals makes it something they have to discuss/consider.

The utility-scale offering from MEAG was inevitable, given pressure from large industries for renewable energy to meet customer's corporate sustainability goals. It provides a way to meet that need without taking those customers out of the revenue stream.

We ultimately believe both rooftop solar and utility-scale solar are critical elements of a sufficient climate action plan for Georgia. But, this situation with MEAG offered both cities a reasonable, viable, non-disruptive path forward. And, by reducing the risk of a financial hit from a large industrial customer going solar on their own, it increases the reasons for MEAG cities to be flexible in the future about easing restrictions on rooftop solar. (As does the likely demand increase for EV charging, which will also drive demand for more capacity that can be met with solar.)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Air Pollution
    Climate Action
    Climate Change
    Conservation
    Electricity
    Electric Vehicles
    Food & Agriculture
    Forests
    Land Use
    Local Government
    Policy
    Public Health
    Public Opinion
    Renewable Energy
    Solid Waste
    Sustainable Stars
    Transportation
    Trees

    Archives

    March 2025
    January 2025
    February 2024
    January 2024
    October 2023
    August 2023
    April 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019

    RSS Feed

Picture
© COPYRIGHT 2019-2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Photos from Chemist 4 U, shixart1985 (CC BY 2.0), Juhele_CZ, EarthLED, shixart1985, EcuaVoz, Chemist 4 U
  • Home
  • About
  • Action
  • Calendar
  • News
    • Newsletter
    • Blog
    • 2024 Annual Report
  • Connect
    • Give
    • Sponsor
    • Join
    • Students
  • Resources
  • Media
    • Virtual Events
    • Monthly Member Learning
    • Conversations
    • Sustainable Stories
    • Earth Day 2021